Divide and Conquer

In this week’s blog I am going to write about Globalization and Digital divide and just what it means in across our world today. Firstly I am going to define what the two terms mean;

Globalization- Is the process of international integration arising from the interchange of world views, products, ideas, and other aspects of culture-
Reference from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globalization

Digital Divide- A digital divide is an economic inequality between groups, broadly construed, in terms of access to, use of, or knowledge of information and communication technologies (ICT). The divide inside countries (such as the digital divide in the United States) can refer to inequalities between individuals, households, businesses, and geographic areas at different socioeconomic and other demographic levels, while the Global digital divide designates countries as the units of analysis and examines the divide between developing and developed countries on an international scale.
Reference from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_divide

From my understanding globalization and digital divide is when certain countries or even continents are more equipped and much more progressive then others for example: the United States is clearly much more digitally developed than Ethiopia is. I say this because more households in America are more likely to have a computer in the house with internet, than households in Ethiopia. The reason why I chose a reference from Wikipedia to define what digital divide means is because; it has different meanings across the global. Like explained in the reference for a country like the US digital divide could refer to peoples’ households’ i.e. different internet speeds, PC brand, costs etc.  

As you can notice poverty seems to be the main aspect of globalization which causes the digital divide to occur across the world today. Depending on where you are or live you will be affected by this either in a good way; by being able to use the internet or, in a bad way; either no access to internet or technology which is probably outdated. This is bad news as the developing countries across the world will always be one step behind those who are leading the way. Even if they pushed to close the gap between those developed countries it will either cost money which they may not have or, require training for a period of time as well as support from those who already know what to do.

In the world today the use of computers and working on the World Wide Web is a very relevant thing to have, and as some countries are still without one or the other it makes it very difficult for their country to develop. This in turn continues to create a globalization which as we know now continues to create a big gap between rich and poor countries. Its’ very clear to see that across the world today technology isn’t evenly spread out on the map, so access to information, technology and even forms of communications are obviously not going to be easy to get their hands on in a less developed country.

I think that globalization and digital divide are two factors that are always going to be present, as its presence in the world today is very clear to see and frankly not so easy to get rid of. I also think that the divide is something that will always occur not just across the world but internally in countries also, due to there being different classes, cultures and usage of the technology equipped. But on solving the problem across the world, poverty is clearly the main factor behind this digital divide and creates a globalization of it which makes it much harder to cure. So we should donate and help more in order for the development of, undeveloped countries to receive the educating they need to and receive the technology they need in order to progress.