Digital Story

Before this class I never really thought about the topic of social justice. So far in this course i have learned much about social justice and the digital divide. It is a pretty interesting topic. I always knew that there were people without Internet access, access to computers, limited access, or no access at all. It really struck me that this was actually a pretty big problem in our society today. I guess you could say I was a little naive about the subject. I have always seen people with computers, laptops, smart phones, etc. I don't live in a secluded suburb or small town in the country either; I am from inner city Cleveland, which is where one might expect the largest digital divide according to the reading we have read so far. The inner city tends to have more minorities than suburbs, lower class citizens than suburbs, and so on. Also the study done by Facebook showed that minorities were less likely to have a Facebook account than whites. I am certainly not ragging on the inner city, minorities, or lower class citizens. I am merely stating that the inner city would be the most likely place for a digital divide and lack of broadband access. Not many people think of the digital divide in their day to day lives. This is a worldwide issue that needs to be addressed now. Technology keeps advancing every single day. There are constantly new phones, new laptops,desktops, new gaming systems, video cameras, etc. Technology is a great thing if it used correctly. Not only that, but we need to work as a society to bring technology to all parts of the world, all societies, all people. This may not be completely possible; for example, poverty is always going to be around us no matter what we do we cannot completely end poverty; I believe that we cannot completely bridge the gap of the technological haves and have-nots. It is possible to narrow the gap between these groups though. There are many ways this can be done, many steps that can be taken, but in the end, the result would ideally be a narrowing of the gap. To narrow the gap not only means getting access to computers and broadband, but also knowing how to use the computer and Internet. This can be the trickiest part; how do you teach a whole society of technologically illiterate people to use the Internet? Would you have classes for them to attend? Would you force them to go to school to learn the basics? A lot of people can learn things on their own. The extent of their knowledge definitely would not be to as high a level as it would be if someone taught them. but playing around and figuring out things is a very important skill, if you will, to learning how to use computers. I remember when my family got its first computer at home. We had dial-up Internet connection, which was very slow, and you could not use the telephone while on the Internet. My dad taught me a lot of things about the computer, and he had never taken classes on how to use it. He read the instructions and taught himself everything he knows about the computer. I taught myself a lot of what I know about computers also. I did take a class in high school on how to use many Microsoft programs, but I taught myself most of what I know. I don't think it very hard to learn the basics of computers. For my digital story I plan to address the digital divide, the aspects of race, and some social media sites. I have already learned a lot about these so far in this class. i plan to learn a lot more through my research. I plan on describing the digital divide from a number of perspectives through many facts.

Source 1
http://www.digitaldivide.org/
This source is completely dedicated to addressing the digital divide. It explains what the digital divide is, what can be done to stop the digital divide, and their innovative ways to stop the digital divide. i plan on using this site to help produce my digital story.

Source 2
http://www.bridgethedigitaldivide.com/
This source will also be a great help to my digital story. It is another website dedicated to bridging the gap between the technological haves and have-nots. They even have a link where you can donate computers to those who are less fortunate.