Digital Divide

Posted August 19, 2026 by Jake Goldman

Last week I discussed the inaugural conference of the MA Digital Navigators Alliance. This week I’d like to link the excellent work the DNA is doing to a concept I was first introduced to in Professor Hussey’s fascinating Social Informatics course. The Digital Divide refers to the discrepancy between who benefits from the advances in digital technology. Think of a household with three children who are are obliged to share a single computer (or phone) with a slow connection to complete required schoolwork online, maybe your doctor’s office is impossible to get a hold of on the phone and can only be contacted through a digital portal, or maybe you’ve relied on state benefits which can only be accessed by navigating an online interface so onerous you swear it must have been designed to discourage benefit-seekers. People’s ability to benefit from digital technology is dependent on the necessary infrastructure and economic conditions to secure access, but also the set of skills required to navigate information technology effectively.  Like when you learn a new word and begin to hear it used everywhere, since taking the course I can’t stop seeing manifestations of the digital divide all around me. Particularly at my work at the library where much of my time is spent assisting patrons with challenges presented by the digital world: burdensome probation administration systems, arduous unemployment application portals etc. Meanwhile these interfaces which create so much difficulty (and especially but by no means exclusively, I should add, for elders)  are used as rhetorical justification for winding down traditional methods of contact such as call centers where a user can interact with a person who will guide them through what they need to do. In LIS, we have a big role to play in bridging this divide both in terms of helping people to build the digital literacy needed to navigate the Information Age, but also in advocating for more equitable deployment and design of information technology. Next week I’d like to continue this thread into the changing world of media formats—what are the consequences of our transition to a media landscape dominated by streaming platforms, and what do we lose when physical media is left by the wayside? (blooper reels and commentary tracks anyone?)