The Deepening Divide: Inequality in the Information Society by Jan A G M van Dijk

Author:Jan A G M van Dijk [van Dijk, Jan A G M]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
ISBN: 9781506320502
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Published: 2005-02-14T16:00:00+00:00

THE “MATTHEW EFFECT” AND THE RISE OF USAGE GAPS

With all the types of access to the digital media and their social consequences discussed in this book, it appears that those who already have a large amount of resources at their disposal benefit first and most from the capacities and opportunities of these media. This phenomenon has been called the “Matthew effect” by the sociologist Robert Merton (1968), according to the Gospel of Matthew: “For to everyone who has, more shall be given” (Matt. 25:29, New American). A popular version of this might be “The rich get richer.” If we want to turn these popular and biblical expressions into a more precise statement, the Matthew effect could be framed as follows: Those who already have a head start in possessing particular resources benefit more from a new resource than those who are behind and already have some disadvantage. In the case of new media access, the existing possessions are the material, mental, temporal, social, and cultural resources discussed in this book, and the new resource is the potential value of having and using computers and networks.

A Matthew effect was clearly demonstrated in chapter 4, in which it was seen that most gaps of physical access appear to have widened, until very recently, in developed countries. In all cases, the category with the most resources at its disposal—the social class with high income, high education, high-level occupations, and full employment; the ethnic majority in a country; and the generation with the highest learning potential (the younger generation)—was the first to take advantage of the new technology. In this way, this category increased its advantage compared to the categories with lesser resources. The same was observed with regard to rich and poor nations and regions worldwide. At the start of the 21st century, the effect in terms of physical access starts to weaken in some developed countries, as the best resource categories are getting saturated. However, with every new innovation (e.g., current broadband diffusion), the process seems to start anew.

Regarding skills access, I also claimed that people of high social class, especially those with high levels of education, males, and young people were the first and the best in developing digital skills. This appeared to be the case for information and strategic digital skills in particular, which are primarily and almost exclusively mastered by people who already have a very high level of ability in using the old media.

Finally, there is usage access. Here the Matthew effect has the strongest and most lasting impact. Usage is the ultimate goal of the whole process of appropriation of the new media, of course. Here all inequalities in earlier types of access come together. Subsequently, they are mixed with all existing economic, social, cultural, and political inequalities in society. Inequalities of motivational, material, and skills access might partly disappear, as we have seen in previous chapters. Gradually, more segments of the population are convinced that they should participate in the information society and get access to computers and networks.

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