The contemporary US digital divide: from initial access to technology maintenance

Abstract

As US Internet penetration rates have climbed, digital divide researchers have largely shifted attention to differences in Internet skills. Interviews with 72 low-income US residents from both a large metropolitan city and a medium-sized Midwestern town, however, reveal that many people still struggle to maintain physical access, supporting technology maintenance theory. Technology maintenance theory argues that although most of the US poor now use digital technology, access is unstable and characterized by frequent periods of disconnection. As a result, low-income users must work to maintain access, often experiencing cycles of dependable instability. In these interviews, nearly all used the Internet, but technology maintenance practices were widespread, including negotiation of temporarily disconnected service, broken hardware, and logistic limitations on public access. As a result, participants had limited access to health information and employment, and biased attitudes toward technology. That is, in some cases, negative attitudes toward Internet adoption reflected a rational response to disconnection rather than cultural norms or fears of the Internet, as suggested by previous research. Findings support and extend the theory of technology maintenance by emphasizing a shift in the US digital divide from issues of ownership to issues of sustainability; they also provide insight into the interrelated nature of access and attitudes toward technology. This new theoretical approach complements other theoretical approaches to the digital divide that foreground a contextualized understanding of digital disparities as embedded within a history of broad social disparities.

Keywords:

• digital divide
• technology maintenance
• dependable instability
• Internet access
• social inequality
• intermittent access

Acknowledgements

I am indebted to Nicola Craver, Molly Fitzgerald, Rawan Yasmin, Lindsay Ems, and Ratandeep Suri for their help in collecting data.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Amy Gonzales (Cornell, 2010) is interested in the psychological and health benefits of using digital media, and the consequences of disrupted access for low-income populations. She is interested in states of health, well-being, social connection and identity among other outcomes associated with media use. [email: [email protected]]

Notes

1. In-home access was slightly more common in the city; reliance on library access was more common in the town.

2. Some preferred large-screen Internet access, especially when filling out job applications or purchasing something, and others preferred the convenience of smartphone Internet access.

Additional information

Funding

Part of this project was funded through a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.