The term “digital divide” refers to the gap when it comes to access to information technology (IT). At first, the division mostly depended on income and education level, but there were other sociodemographic factors that contributed like age, race and gender. Now, IT is far more accessible across America. 

The article Race, Gender, and Information Technology Use: The New Digital Divide focuses on the aftermath of the digital divide, and the lasting effects of the relationship between sociodemographic characteristics and IT usage. The article poses four questions regarding racial and gender divides. Does race and gender influence the intensity or nature of children’s technology use? Does it influence parental attitudes towards it? Does it impact children’s academic performance differently? These are the questions that the article hoped to get answers to. 

The article addressed a few findings in adults. African Americans have been found to engage in less intense technology use than other groups, and they are more likely to use the internet for religious and spiritual information than for communication. Females are generally more likely to use the internet for communication, while males are more likely to seek entertainment, information, and commerce.

With children, the differences are not as well documented. For low income families, African American children have less use than white children. It is also consistent in children that females seek communication and males seek information or entertainment even as children. A lot of this research tells us that our IT use habits persist throughout life. 

The article sought this information by surveying children from 20 middle schools in southern Michigan. It consisted of a 3-year longitudinal study of the impact of technology use on cognitive, psychological, social and moral development. The data proved that the nature and intensity of IT use was different among African American students versus Caucasian students. One general takeaway was that there needed to be greater introductions between African American males and IT. 

On a more general note, I find it kind of interesting that we tend to loop gender and race together as factors in studies. We know that there are some inherent differences between males and females, and these differences are apparent in the ways our brains work and through our behavioral tendencies. Of course, we are also stemming from a time when females were viewed as inferior, and some of the disadvantages that come with that perception of inferiority escalated differences. When it comes to race, our deep history of racism in America is the only differentiating factor– it isn’t biological. The differences recorded in males versus females does not surprise me, but I do find the racial divide really interesting. It is really apparent that there are so many intertwined factors that come into play. I wonder if the differences would be more apparent if studied through the lens of income rather than race.