The Internet and socially disadvantaged people

The work deals with the issue of relations between social disadvantage (defined in four dimensions - economic, cultural, social and personal resources) and digital disadvantage of people in the Czech Republic (data from the Aktér 12 - 2011 research; 1106 respondents aged 18 to 89). The main hypothesis of the study verifies these assumptions: 1) socially disadvantaged persons will be more affected by digital disadvantage than people socially included; 2) regular use of Internet aids in overcoming mainly personal and cultural disadvantages; 3) social and digital inclusion correlate positively with some specific types of social and digital disadvantage. The research outputs confirm a strong positive relationship between social disadvantage (in its economic dimension) and digital disadvantage. In terms of cultural disadvantage/inclusion both the group of digitally disadvantaged and the group of digitally included are at the same level. Positive correlation between specific types of social/digital disadvantage and social/digital inclusion was not confirmed - socially included individuals do not show any significant signs of digital disadvantage; and socially disadvantaged people do not indicate any specific features of digital inclusion. Key words: Internet, digital disadvantage, digital divide, social..