Digital inclusion: an analysis of social disadvantage and the information society

Technological change permeates most areas of society and many different aspects of our lives. The increasing utilisation of information and communication technologies (ICTs), such as the Internet, across all sectors of society has led many to conceive of Britain and other advanced industrial economies as Information Societies. While it is difficult to imagine that anyone in a modern leading economy like Britain is not affected by new ICTs, not everyone is equally well served. Many individuals and households, for example, do not use the Internet. Does this matter? What difference does it make? This study explores the social implications of exclusion from the information society by examining the best empirical data available for the UK in 2008. The findings indicate that technological forms of exclusion are a reality for significant segments of the population, and that, for some people, they reinforce and deepen existing disadvantages. Technology is so tightly woven into the fabric of society today that ICT deprivation can rightly be considered alongside, and strongly linked to, more traditional twentieth century social deprivations, such as low income, unemployment, poor education, ill health and social isolation. To consider ICT deprivation as somehow less important underestimates the pace, depth and scale of technological change, and overlooks the way that different disadvantages can combine to deepen exclusion.&nbsp