Cultural divides and digital inequalities: attitudes shaping Internet and social media divides^*

ABSTRACT

Researchers on digital divides have identified demographic and attitudinal factors associated with inequalities in access, skills, and patterns of Internet use, primarily around age, income, and education. While the attitudes and values of Internet users and non-users have been studied over the years, they have rarely been used to identify broader ‘cultures of the Internet’ and their role in shaping digital divides. This paper builds on research in Britain, which focused on patterns of attitudes underpinning Internet cultures, to explore the degree that similar or distinctive cultures have developed in the USA, and whether and how they are useful in explaining digital divides. This study utilizes original data drawn from a telephone survey of residents across the State of Michigan that adapted survey items and methods from the Oxford Internet Survey of Britain. Based on these survey responses, the paper identifies and describes the cultures of the Internet among Michigan residents, as an exploratory case of the US as a whole, and shows how these cultures shape digital divides in Internet access and social media use. The robustness and explanatory power of these explorations of Internet cultures argue for further research on the United States and for comparative research with other nations.

KEYWORDS:

• Digital divides
• attitudes
• patterns of use
• cultures of the Internet
• surveys

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Grant Blank for his contributions to our work on cultures of the Internet and assistance on the data on Britain.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

William H. Dutton is the Quello Professor of Media and Information Policy and Director of the Quello Center at Michigan State University. He was Professor of Internet Studies at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Balliol College, where he was the Founding Director of the Oxford Internet Institute and he was the Principal Investigator of the Oxford Internet Survey from 2002 to 2013. His research on Internet Studies increasingly focuses on the Fifth Estate and related issues of cyber policy, regulation, and governance [email: [email protected]].

Bianca C. Reisdorf is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Media and Information and the Assistant Director of the Quello Center at Michigan State University. Her research interests include digital inequalities and policies, Internet use among vulnerable groups, and cross-national comparative studies that apply both qualitative and quantitative methods. She was Lecturer and Director of Distance Learning in the Department of Media and Communication at the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom before her position at Michigan State University [email: [email protected]].

ORCID

Bianca C. Reisdorf http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0690-1956

Notes

* An earlier working paper version of this submission is available on SSRN and presented at the 2017 Annual Meeting of the International Communication Association in San Diego, California: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2756121.

1 The following attitudinal items were included: Going online is an efficient way to find information. The Internet makes life easier. The Internet helps me save time. Going online helps me pass the time when I am bored. When I am online I do not feel lonely. Going online allows me to keep in touch with people. It is easier for me to meet people online than in person. The Internet is frustrating to use. There is too much inappropriate and bad material online. It is difficult to protect personal information once it is online.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Michigan Applied Public Policy Research Grant.