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The “digital divide” refers to the gap between people with access to digital communications technology and those who have very limited or no access to it at all. The term describes not only the imbalance in physical access to such technology, but also the inequality in the acquisition of resources and skills required to use it. The digital divide is commonly measured on the basis of gender, age, ethnicity, location, or income or education levels. Particularly in recent years the digital divide is closely associated with the “knowledge divide”, as the lack of digital communications technology often leads to the lack of information and knowledge.

In the United States, the digital divide is a common subject in politics and various economic, social and cultural policies. According to the “Pew Internet and American Life” report released in July 2008, approximately 55 percent of adult Americans have broadband Internet connections at home, up from 47 percent in the previous year. This increase of 8 percent, when compared to that of 5 percent between 2006 and 2007, appears to indicate that the digital divide in the United States is narrowing.

However, the same report also points out that there is a 3-percent decrease in the percentage of low-income Americans who had broadband Internet connections at home from 2007 to 2008. This finding suggests that when discussing issues related to the digital divide, it is important to conduct detailed analysis of specific income groups. While there is often progress in narrowing the digital divide between the middle-income and high-income groups, the gap between the high-income and low-income groups continues to widen. Therefore, at least in the United States, there is still a long way to go before the digital divide will be completely eliminated.

Another important issue to consider when discussing issues related to the digital divide is the various definitions of the term “digital”. Initially it referred to the ownership of or regular access to a computer. In recent years, as Internet access came to be seen as a central aspect of computing, the focus of the term “digital” shifted to encompass not only the use of computers but also access to the internet. Therefore, the term “digital divide” today is most commonly used to refer to both unequal access to computer hardware and inequalities between groups of people in their abilities to fully use information and communications technology.

Indeed, the previous version of the aforementioned “Pew Internet and American Life” report, released in 2007, suggests that 31 percent of Americans are considered to be “elite tech users”, while nearly half (49 percent) have few tech assets, either accessing the Internet only occasionally or not at all. On top of these, 8 percent of Americans are described as “creative participants in cyberspace” who are highly engaged with video online and digital content. These individuals are young (with more than half of them under the age of 30), ethnically diverse, and mostly male (70 percent).

In sharp contrast, the medium age of the bottom 15 percent of Americans with very limited Internet access is 64. Although this group also has the lowest level of household income, 82 percent of them watch television everyday and 76 percent of them have cable or satellite service. Collectively, this group has the highest level of watching television or listening to radio when compared to other groups studied in the report. It is not that this group is not digitally capable. It is just that they are not using the Internet.