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How does this differential usage divide communities or bring people together? Whose "usage" constitutes reality on the Internet and whose "usage" is largely overlooked and relegated to the background? Even if users participate differently in a growing Internet culture, do all have equal access to semiotic self-representation and cultural contribution? What are the secondary costs of hiding these differentials on a playing field that openly purports to be level? | How does this differential usage divide communities or bring people together? Whose "usage" constitutes reality on the Internet and whose "usage" is largely overlooked and relegated to the background? Even if users participate differently in a growing Internet culture, do all have equal access to semiotic self-representation and cultural contribution? What are the secondary costs of hiding these differentials on a playing field that openly purports to be level? | ||
Eszter Hargittai | Guest: Eszter Hargittai | ||
Is the Internet a tool to reduce inequality, and if so, how? | Is the Internet a tool to reduce inequality, and if so, how? | ||
Latest revision as of 14:20, 16 February 2009
How does this differential usage divide communities or bring people together? Whose "usage" constitutes reality on the Internet and whose "usage" is largely overlooked and relegated to the background? Even if users participate differently in a growing Internet culture, do all have equal access to semiotic self-representation and cultural contribution? What are the secondary costs of hiding these differentials on a playing field that openly purports to be level?
Guest: Eszter Hargittai
Is the Internet a tool to reduce inequality, and if so, how?
Readings
A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace
John Perry Barlow, the author, is a cyberlibertarian, the Grateful Dead's lyricist, and an EFF founder. The language is radical/rallying, polarizing, and feels like it's trying to wash the reader away with emotion rather than intellectual argument.
"...tyrannies you seek to impose on us?" What, in 1996, would those be? It is of note that CSS (in the DRM context) was invented in '96. (Later: Oh. Telecommunications Reform Act.)
"We are creating a world that all may enter without privilege or prejudice accorded by race, economic power, military force, or station of birth." Right, because computer access isn't distributed primarily to members of the leisure-time-heavy upper and middle classes in the developed world with enough infrastructure to both power computers and connect them to the internet.
"We are creating a world where anyone, anywhere may express his or her beliefs, no matter how singular, without fear of being coerced into silence or conformity." More true than in other places - nobody will go through the screen and physically beat you up - but trolls and flames and nastiness still abound online, and abuse can be emotional as well.
It's significant that Barlow refers to "a civilization of the Mind" - and emphasizes the single count. Who does he speak for, and did/do they believe it? There are many societies and circles on the internet that could care less about each other.
The Digital Reproduction of Inequality
by Eszter Hargittai.
Instead of a binary digital divide, think of a spectrum of digital inequality. It's not just a matter of whether you have access to the internet or not; it's what kind of access you have and use (do you constantly have the ability to connect? is it limited to certain hours and locations? is your usage restricted or do you have autonomy? do you have the skills you need to use the technology? what do you use it for?)
We take some skills (searching for information, determining what's relevant, expanding social networks) for granted.
Is the internet moving from a luxury to a necessity?
If you build it, will they log on?
Article on broadband stimulus package.