Open AccessThe Digital Divide Objectified in the Design: Use of the Mobile Telephone by Underprivileged Youth in Sri Lanka
Author(s) -
Wijetunga Dinuka
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of computer‐mediated communication
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.15
H-Index - 119
ISSN - 1083-6101
DOI - 10.1111/jcc4.12071
Subject(s) - information and communications technology , mobile phone , digital divide , social inequality , sri lanka , objectification , mobile telephony , inequality , internet privacy , telecommunications , sociology , computer security , computer science , socioeconomics , political science , world wide web , mobile radio , mathematics , mathematical analysis , law , tanzania
Abstract Most discussions on the digital divide have predominantly focused on social disparities in the physical accessibility of information and communication technologies ( ICT ), and the proposed solutions are related to providing low cost access to the underprivileged. The mobile phone has been considered as a good solution due to its relatively low cost. This paper, based on an empirical study in Sri Lanka, demonstrates that even though the underprivileged population has adopted the mobile phone, most of the computer based communication facilities available in the phones are ‘inaccessible’ to such users due the objectification of broader social inequalities in the design of phones. In other words, the digital divide is objectified in the design .