We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Digital Inequality and Place: The Effects of Technological Diffusion on Internet Proficiency and Usage across Rural, Suburban, and Urban Counties.
- Authors
Stern, Michael J.; Adams, Alison E.; Elsasser, Shaun
- Abstract
Recently researchers have made efforts to reconceptualize digital inequality into discrete levels. These levels reflect access to and diffusion of technologies, proficiency in Internet usage, and propensity to take advantage of the opportunities afforded by information and communication technologies for assistance in daily life. We assess the utility of this approach for studying digital inequality across rural, suburban, and urban counties. Based on data from a 2005 nationally representative random sample telephone survey of 2,185 adults, the results provide mixed support for using this approach to studying digital inequality. In particular, we find that rural residents use Internet technologies less for assistance in helping with economics and other daily activities when compared with individuals from suburban and urban areas; however, our results suggest that this relationship is the product of the slow diffusion of advanced technologies to rural areas. The implications of these findings for understanding this under-theorized form of inequality are discussed, and we make contributions to this literature through empirically addressing issues of digital capital.
- Subjects
INTERNET users; DIFFUSION of innovations; DIGITAL literacy; INNOVATION adoption; TECHNOLOGICAL determinism theory (Communication); DIGITAL technology; RIGHT to Internet access; REGIONAL disparities; RURAL population; HUMAN services; SOCIAL history
- Publication
Sociological Inquiry, 2009, Vol 79, Issue 4, p391
- ISSN
0038-0245
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/j.1475-682X.2009.00302.x