Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Another sort of Digital Divide

Technology has in many ways brought people much closer - as I've mentioned and focused on in many of my earlier posts. However, it has also created distances such as those I mentioned in my posts regarding the digital divide. Lisa Bistreich, one of my colleagues who blogs, has recently addressed a different sort of digital divide - a divide created between seniors and younger generations. You can read her post here:

http://lbistreich.wordpress.com/2007/10/30/seniors-the-forgotten-digital-divide/

Lisa makes a good point that I think is very applicable in the here and now. However, unlike the international and class digital divide I have been focusing on, I think the senior digital divide is likely to solve itself through time. It only makes sense that younger people keen on technology today will one day grow old and replace today's older generation that has fallen victim to an era of drastic change in lifestyles.

It is terribly unfortunate, and sad, that the elderly may be lacking resources to medical information and other pertinent resources available readily on the Internet. However, I think that the problem with technology in Africa and other less developed countries are far greater - because even their young generations are going to grow old and be technologically illiterate. Therefore, the problem increases instead of gradually dying out (which I think will inevitably happen with the senior divide currently being experienced in the westernized countries).

On that note, in my opinion, if anyone is getting left behind in westernized cultures, it is the children being raised in poverty...who often do not even have the choice to turn down the opportunity to learn about technology that so many of our seniors are in fact making daily.

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