Although the idea of the digital world can be very broad, it could be summarised as encompassing everything related to computers, the Internet and communication networks.
A digital world that increasingly covers more and more aspects of our day-to-day lives in tasks as varied as leisure, education, the consumption of audiovisual content and bureaucratic procedures with the administration.
The digital world has evolved enormously in recent decades with the emergence and development of the Internet, social networks and applications, but there is no homogeneous progress as there are differences between different sectors in different societies around the world.
In view of this problem, two concepts come into play that are interesting to know about: inclusion and the digital divide.
Digital inclusion and the digital divide
Inclusion and the digital divide are two terms of great relevance in the digital world. Why is this so? Because in order to make the digital world available to a greater number of people around the world (regardless of their place of residence, gender or age, among other things), progress must be made on certain issues.
Digital inclusion
Digital inclusion not only involves facilitating access to digital tools for those people or social groups that may be outside the digital world, but also implies the development of the necessary skills to use them correctly or appropriately. Or at least to have a minimum of notions about how it works.
Digital education, the expansion and development of connectivity, inclusive technology and digital literacy are some examples of this digital inclusion.
Digital divide
The digital divide refers to the unequal possibility or capacity to access the use of ICTs, of which we can find different types:
- Digital divide of coverage or access, referring simply and plainly to access to digital resources.
- Usage digital divide, in which the barrier to digital technology does not lie in the impossibility of access but in the provision of tools to be able to make correct or appropriate use of digital resources. The different existing usage gaps are
Making progress in closing the digital divide – be it in coverage or usage – is of great relevance to achieving digital inclusion and strengthening the construction of the digital world.
Advantages of the digital world
While it is true that there are also considerations to be taken into account, such as security and privacy, the digital world and its development have brought with them a series of benefits for society as a whole.
Let’s look at some of them, in a list that could include many other advantages.
Education
Digital education has proven to be a very useful tool for transforming and enhancing learning.
This digital form of education has three fundamental factors, which are content, capacity and connectivity.
The latter two are precisely related to the digital divides mentioned above. Capacity is the ability of students or teachers to have the competences and skills to use and make proper use of digital tools. In other words, the usage gap.
Connectivity, on the other hand, refers to the coverage gap. Without good connectivity, it is impossible to make progress in digital learning.
Global connectivity
The levels of connectivity in the world today mean that the ability to connect and communicate between people, people with objects or objects with themselves is at unprecedented levels.
Since the birth of the telegraph and the telephone in the 19th century, the evolution of communications has been enormous.
The accurate predictions of 1985 about how the world would communicate in the year 2000 have long since been overlooked:
A world in which the development of technologies such as 5G coupled with low latency means that communications further away are indistinguishable from those closer to home, a scenario that was unthinkable until recently.
Entertainment and leisure
Many forms of entertainment and leisure are now very different from how they were just a few years ago, not to mention the difference from a few decades ago.
From videogames to series or films, music, radio or conventional television -whose day was recently celebrated on 21 November-, the change in the consumption of these types of audiovisual products has been enormous.
