Overview

This cutting-edge Handbook offers fresh perspectives on the key topics related to the unequal use of digital technologies. Considering the ways in which technologies are employed, variations in conditions under which people use digital media and differences in their digital skills, it unpacks the implications of digital inequality on life outcomes. International contributors assess a variety of key contexts that impact access to digital technologies, including contextual variations related to geography and infrastructure, as well as individual differences related to age, income, health and disability status. Chapters explore how variations emerge across the life course, illustrating the effects of digital disparities on personal wellbeing. Intervening in critical debates relating to the digital divide, this Handbook offers key insights into privacy and trust issues that affect technological usage. Employing both quantitative and qualitative investigations into the relationship between social inequality and the Internet, this Handbook is crucial reading for scholars and researchers in both communication and sociology, particularly those focusing on digital inequalities and human-computer interaction. It will also benefit policymakers in need of innovative approaches to understanding, challenging and addressing the digital divide.

Full Product Details

Author:   Eszter Hargittai
Publisher:   Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd
Imprint:   Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd
ISBN:  

9781788116565

ISBN 10:   1788116569
Pages:   400
Publication Date:   19 November 2021
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order  
Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us.

Table of Contents

Contents: 1 Introduction to the Handbook of Digital Inequality 1 Eszter Hargittai PART I INFRASTRUCTURES AND GEOGRAPHIES 2 What's missing? How technology maintenance is overlooked in representative surveys of digital inequalities 9 Amy L. Gonzales, Harry Yan, Glenna L. Read and Allison Brown 3 Geographic inequality and the Internet 28 Chris Forman, Avi Goldfarb and Shane Greenstein 4 Infrastructure and instance: how rural communities approach short- and long-term solutions to access 43 Alexis Schrubbe and Sharon Strover 5 Digital inequality and mobiles: opportunities and challenges of relying on smartphones for digital inclusion in disadvantaged contexts 59 Teresa Correa, Isabel Pavez and Javier Contreras 6 Network and neighborhood effects in digital skills 72 Ellen Helsper PART II DIGITAL INEQUALITY THROUGHOUT THE LIFECOURSE 7 Mobile media in teen life: information, networks and access 95 junoh kimm and Jeffrey Boase 8 Looking back at millennials' mobile transitions: differentiated patterns of mobile phone use among a diverse group of young adults 111 Su Jung Kim and Eszter Hargittai 9 Smartphone pervasiveness in youth daily life as a new form of digital inequality 128 Marco Gui and Tiziano Gerosa 10 Avoiding Facebook: low-income youths' (negative) discourses about Facebook 145 Marina Micheli 11 Inequality in access to information about college: how low-income first-year college students use social media for seeking and sharing information about college 162 Michael G. Brown and Nicole B. Ellison 12 Digital skills inequality in the context of an aging society: the case of Poland 179 Tomasz Drabowicz 13 Digital inequality among older adults: how East Yorkers in Toronto navigate digital media 191 Anabel Quan-Haase, Barry Wellman and Renwen Zhang 14 Online social connectedness and well-being among older adults in the USA 206 Travis Kadylak and Shelia R. Cotten PART III HEALTH AND DISABILITY 15 Digital inequalities in health communication 217 Heinz Bonfadelli 16 Inequalities in digital health behaviors in American disadvantaged communities 233 Xiaoqian Li and Wenhong Chen 17 Disability, internet, and digital inequality: the research agenda 252 Gerard Goggin 18 The closing skills gap: revisiting the digital disability divide 271 Kerry Dobransky and Eszter Hargittai PART IV PRIVACY AND TRUST 19 Why privacy matters to digital inequality 281 Yong Jin Park 20 Digital inequalities in online privacy protection: effects of age, education and gender 293 Moritz Bu chi, Noemi Festic, Natascha Just and Michael Latzer 21 How feelings of trust, concern, and control of personal online data influence web use 308 Elissa M. Redmiles and Cody L. J. Buntain 22 Inequalities in online political participation: the role of privacy concerns 323 Christoph Lutz and Christian Pieter Hoffmann 23 Algorithmic literacy and platform trust 338 Bianca C. Reisdorf and Grant Blank 24 Drills and spills: developing skills to protect one's privacy online 355 Ashley Marie Walker and Eszter Hargittai Index

Reviews

‘Eszter Hargittai's edited volume, Handbook of Digital Inequality, is an important addition to the communication and technology literature. Digital inequalities are very real and significantly impactful, and this volume shines a bright light on the areas to which we should be giving more attention. Hargittai has compiled a thoughtful collection of chapters that collectively create a robust resource that readers will likely find themselves revisiting frequently for references, data points, and interesting ideas for research directions.’ -- James Jarc, Communication Research Trends ‘At the dawn of the Internet age, digital inequality was a central concern. But then a combination of triumphalism (in the developed nations) and spiraling complexity (rapid proliferation of ways to go online and things to do there) led attention to shift away from this topic. As work and schooling moved online during the COVID-19 pandemic, the world rediscovered that inequality in access to digital platforms and resources remains high and is ever more central to social inequality overall. Eszter Hargittai has identified the scholars who have sustained a research focus on digital inequality and have found ways to cast empirical light on such complex issues as the impact of different ways of accessing the Internet and variation in online skills, and has produced a Handbook that will be invaluable to anyone who cares about social inequality – just when we need it the most.’ -- Paul DiMaggio, Princeton University, US ‘This is a must-have book for any social scientist concerned with the digital age for, as its multiple authors clearly demonstrate, not only is almost every dimension of our lives now digital, but everything digital is, in one way or another, unequal. The task is to transcend early ideas of the digital divide to develop a complex and contextual understanding of digital inequality that can, potentially, help us to ameliorate or overcome its excesses and adverse consequences.’ -- Sonia Livingstone, LSE, UK and author, Parenting for a Digital Future ‘The pandemic highlighted the critical and persistent need for widespread and equitable use of the internet in societies throughout the world. This timely Handbook provides a roadmap forward, with a comprehensive view of leading research, written by an international and stellar set of authors who have shaped the field and continue to innovate with new insights.’ -- Karen Mossberger, Arizona State University, US

'At the dawn of the Internet age, digital inequality was a central concern. But then a combination of triumphalism (in the developed nations) and spiraling complexity (rapid proliferation of ways to go on line and things to do there) led attention to shift away from this topic. As work and schooling moved online during the COVID-19 pandemic, the world rediscovered that inequality in access to digital platforms and resources remains high and is ever more central to social inequality overall. Eszter Hargittai has identified the scholars who have sustained a research focus on digital inequality and have found ways to cast empirical light on such complex issues as the impact of different ways of accessing the internet and variation in online skills, and has produced a handbook that will be invaluable to anyone who cares about social inequality - just when we need it the most.' - Paul DiMaggio, Princeton University, US

'At the dawn of the Internet age, digital inequality was a central concern. But then a combination of triumphalism (in the developed nations) and spiraling complexity (rapid proliferation of ways to go online and things to do there) led attention to shift away from this topic. As work and schooling moved online during the COVID-19 pandemic, the world rediscovered that inequality in access to digital platforms and resources remains high and is ever more central to social inequality overall. Eszter Hargittai has identified the scholars who have sustained a research focus on digital inequality and have found ways to cast empirical light on such complex issues as the impact of different ways of accessing the Internet and variation in online skills, and has produced a Handbook that will be invaluable to anyone who cares about social inequality - just when we need it the most.' - Paul DiMaggio, Princeton University, US 'At the dawn of the Internet age, digital inequality was a central concern. But then a combination of triumphalism (in the developed nations) and spiraling complexity (rapid proliferation of ways to go online and things to do there) led attention to shift away from this topic. As work and schooling moved online during the COVID-19 pandemic, the world rediscovered that inequality in access to digital platforms and resources remains high and is ever more central to social inequality overall. Eszter Hargittai has identified the scholars who have sustained a research focus on digital inequality and have found ways to cast empirical light on such complex issues as the impact of different ways of accessing the Internet and variation in online skills, and has produced a Handbook that will be invaluable to anyone who cares about social inequality - just when we need it the most.' - Paul DiMaggio, Princeton University, US 'The pandemic highlighted the critical and persistent need for widespread and equitable use of the internet in societies throughout the world. This timely Handbook provides a roadmap forward, with a comprehensive view of leading research, written by an international and stellar set of authors who have shaped the field and continue to innovate with new insights.' - Karen Mossberger, Arizona State University, US

Author Information

Edited by Eszter Hargittai, Professor and Chair of Internet Use and Society, Department of Communication and Media Research, University of Zurich, Switzerland

Tab Content 6

Author Website:  

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

No review item found!

Add your own review!

Countries Available

All regions