Digital Divide bloggity blog blog

The term "digital divide" is used to describe the relation between those people who have easy access to all sorts of new technology and those who do not. Generally, people of wealthier socio-economic status/people in more "developed" countries have a much higher chance of internet/technology use. There are many different situations where the digital divide comes into play, and problems with each. For examples:
1) Education - many people think that incorporating more computers and technology into schools will greatly benefit students who, in the future, will find these computer skills necessary for securing jobs. However, introducing such technology will require new training for teachers who have long survived without the intrusion. I find this very unnecessary. When computers are in a classroom, they often take over students' attention, and the teacher becomes more of a burden than a help. Why listen to the person lecturing to you when you can learn the same information online, whilst messaging to your friends, and simultaneously watching YouTube clips?
2) Government - government can often just fall back on technology to solve problems or make solutions easier. Take, for example, what we talked about in class, how after hurricane Katrina, FEMA told victims to claim benefits via their website, as if those people had internet access. Internet technology can create dependent governments, who find it such an easy solution that authorities don't fully think their actions through (as illustrated above).
3) Health - People who do not have access to the internet may have a harder time booking doctor's appointments or making sense of symptoms. It sounds far fetched, but there are some really reliable sites on which one can identify symptoms of illness and gauge their importance. Also, hospitals with less money for newer computer systems may have problems with computers mixing up patients, resulting in severe medical trauma.
4) Entertainment - Although this prejudice is not present among the people with whom I associate, as I understand it, people actually judge others by awareness of the media. With more and more media appearing on the internet, people who do not have that access are severely missing out. Actually, strike and reverse my first sentence. I have been berated many times over with the line, "You haven't seen [insert trendy YouTube clip] yet!?" Also, this is somewhere between entertainment and government, but some campaigns for presidential candidates took place exclusively online (such as that for democratic candidate Mike Gravel).
5)Work - To put it simply, higher paying jobs often cater to people who have more experience with computers, only worsening the cyclic digital divide.