Just a few thoughts after reading The digital divide is shifting, but is it for the better? (by Christina Costa)
In the debate about the digital divide, it’s no longer enough to differentiate between those who have access and those who don’t. It is increasingly clear that it’s not enough to have physical access to technology (hardware, software or networks). If you want to enable equal participation in the digital world (and today, what isn’t included in the digital world?), you must develop epistemological access alongside physical access.
Lowering the cost of access might get a connected device into everyone’s hands, but if the way you use technology is not strategically aimed at improving your life (for example, through the intentional use of information for personal or professional development), the digital divide will continue to grow.
To possess the machines, [they] only need economic capital; [but] to appropriate them and use them in accordance with their specific purpose [they] must have access to embodied cultural capital, either in person or by proxy.
Bourdieu (1986)
Bourdieu, P. (1986). Forms of Capital. In Handbook of Theory of Research for the Sociology of Education (pp. 241–58). Greenwood Press.