Does Economic Growth Benefit Internet Use? Comparing Students’ Digital Access and Internet Literacy across 41 Countries

• In Event: 207 - Section on Sociology of Education Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 22. Media and Literacy

Abstract

Previous literature has documented the association between parental SES and the way students utilize digital technologies: high SES students compared to their low SES counterparts have more digital skills and are more likely to use digital technologies for capital enhancing purposes. While these accounts are mainly based on single-country observations, an unexplored issue is whether this association between parental SES and student’s digital use is contingent on national characteristics. In this paper, we compare 41 countries by using OECD Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2009. We take individual students’ digital access at home and Internet literacy as two outcome variables, examining their associations with economic growth and income inequality. Our findings indicate that the socioeconomic gap in students’ digital access and Internet literacy reduces by economic development and increases by income inequality. Equally important, we find that high SES students living in low income countries than in high income countries have relatively higher Internet literacy. Our paper contributes to both the digital divide literature and the education literature; we suggest that the dynamic of the digital divide and the process of technological diffusion in students’ learning process are contingent on a country’s stage of economic growth and income inequality.

Authors

• Josef Kuo Hsun Ma, University of Connecticut

• Todd Vachon, University of Connecticut