In Bhaskar Chakravorti’s How to Close the Digital Divide in the U.S., Chakravorti defines what constitutes the digital divide and offers multiple ways in which the divide could be reduced. 

Local and national institutions, affordability and access, and the digital proficiency of users all play significant roles in contributing to the digital divide. In this article specifically, four distinct components of the digital divide are introduced to rank all 50 states: infrastructure, inclusivity, institutions, and digital proficiency. Infrastructure refers to internet speeds, terrestrial broadband coverage, and smartphone usage. Inclusivity refers to the affordability of broadband, equity of access across income groups, and usage of the internet. Institutions focus on the political prioritization of broadband strategy and best practices of government use. Lastly, digital proficiency refers to how well people can navigate the digital world, demographic profiles, education levels, and political tolerance. After assessing all 50 states with these four components in mind, it was found that states like New Mexico, Alabama, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Mississippi were amongst the states that had the largest digital divide. During the pandemic, many states struggled to keep up with telehealth visits and people with less digital proficiency struggled greatly. Similarly with schools, more than 55 million students were moved to online learning and ⅕ of teens reported being unable to complete work because of unreliable internet service. Additionally, there were 12 million children without the internet during this time. When looking closely at these numbers, it was found that 50% of Americans without at-home internet were Black and Hispanic. 70% of Black respondents and 60% of Hispanic respondents stated they were underprepared with digital skills, in turn affecting employability. The statistic that was most shocking to me was that only 20% of Black workers and only 16% of Hispanic workers were in jobs that could be done remotely. There are many economic costs associated with the digital divide and it is largely contributing to racial inequality as well. 

To conclude this article, Chakravorti presented seven recommendations for action. Overall, the U.S. struggles greatly with the digital divide, and Chakravorti states that there needs to be a much larger emphasis on the issues contributing to it and many more government efforts to increase accessibility nationwide. I am curious how long it will take to minimize this digital divide and what actions we can take as individuals to help.