Digital Divide, Social Divide, Paradigmatic Divide

Abstract

The digital divide is nothing else than the reflection of the social divide in the digital world. The use of ICT for human development does offer opportunities to reduce the social divide for individual beings or communities; yet there exists a series of obstacles to overcome. The very existence of an infrastructure for connectivity is only the first obstacle, although it often receives an exclusive focus, due to the lack of an holistic approach which gives an essential part to digital and information literacy. Telecommunications, hardware and software are predictable prerequisites; however, the true pillars of human-focused information societies are education, ethics, and participation, interacting together as a systemic process. As long as decision makers are not ready to consider these evidences, and keep on favoring a mere technological vision, we will suffer from the most dangerous divide in terms of impact: the paradigmatic divide. Any resemblance to characters, projects, or policies in real life is quite intentional.

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