Austin360 blogs > Digital Savant > Archives > 2010 > July > 02 > Entry
Digital divide, minority teens and cell phones
Update: the story has been published online.
Original entry: In Sunday’s Austin American-Statesman, I’ve got a story scheduled to run that I’ve been working on for a quite a while. It’s about the migration of teens (especially in minority and low-income homes) from computers and laptops to accessing the Internet primarily on their cell phones.
We all know that cell phones, and now smart phones, are quickly changing the way we communicate, connect with the Web and, now, access hundreds of thousands of applications.
But in homes where a decent high-speed Internet connection may be missing or service may be intermittent, this becomes a much more important issue. What happens when a cell phone is your primary way to access to the Internet? Are teens missing out on the full Internet experience and what are other disadvantages these young people face?
I’ll post a link here as soon as the story is posted, as well as some additional information that didn’t make it into the story. The months I worked on the story yielded at least 100 pages of notes, articles and online information; of course, not all of it fit into even a length article.
I was the editor of¡ahora sí!, the Spanish-language newspaper published by our parent company, several years ago, so the subject is very personal for me and I hope I’m providing a fair glimpse into the subject.
The jumping off point for the story was some recent and ongoing research from the Pew Internet and American Life Project and the Pew Hispanic Center.
The Hispanic Institute is also looking closely into mobile Internet and Latinos and the work of University of Texas associate professor S. Craig Watkins (the author of “The Young and the Digital”) was also invaluable. He took the time to talk with us and explain his research and what the implications are for the next few years as we continue this transition to a mobile-dominant Internet.
I’m excited and nervous for you to read it, but much more than that, I’m hopeful that it’ll start some conversations in Austin about how wide the wireless digital divide is and what we can do to make sure all Central Texas children have access to the right kinds of technology and nurturing guidance from their parents, educators and community, who are themselves learning to live with incredibly rapid change.
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By Matt R.
July 3, 2010 11:35 AM | Link to this
Can't wait to read it, Omar!