The UK government, as I am sure all governments are, is concerned about the digital divide. The divide of people who are technically competent and the technically inferior.
The Digital Britain report was published last Tuesday, a road map set out by the government for the digital future of Britain. We won’t discuss the ins-and-outs of whether digital is a good/bad thing. We sit firmly in the good camp.
The government has promised to give all UK homes a minimum of 2Mbps broadband. The leading digital inclusion charity, Citizens Online, say this is not good enough. We’re inclined to agree! 2Mbps is too slow!
Debate aside, even if the government do achieve their goal, will people use it? Let’s have a look at how these digital “luddites” could be divided:
The uninformed
For those outside of the digital industry a lot of what we, inside, talk about is a whole different language. Make something relevant to them and people will take an interest. People need to have a motivation to do something rather than be told they must do it.
That might be “I need a job and need to know how to email” or “I want an easy way to connect with friends across the global and find out what they are up to”. There are plenty of digital solutions that work great, until people are informed about these then we cannot place an expectation for them to know.
It’s fair to say, digital is all over the press, Facebook and Twitter two of the biggest. So it’s quite difficult not hear mentions of it. But is there a need to know how to use twitter? Perhaps not. But the need of basic computer skills and writing an email, for example, are skills needed in today’s age, ss much as reading and writing.
Solution: Make it accessible, make it friendly, make it easy. There are too many arrogant people in the digital industry that hold the common person over a barrel with their “knowledge”. Luckily there are just as many who want to help.
The fearful
People who fear technology are likely to do so because they don’t understand it and become frustrated when people are telling them that “they have to be on Facebook”. They may not see the benefit or show an unwillingness to understand the benefit stating that their “life has been perfectly fine until now”. Digital technology does not have to take over your whole life, it can be about improving and enriching your experiences.
Solution: Inform, much like you would the uninformed. If people can understand the benefits outside of what the cynical media channels tell them then this is a great step. From then on it’s about showing them how.
The ambivalent
What, there’s a thing called the Internet? There’s probably, hopefully, not a lot of these people around. But it is likely that this group are late adopters of technology. Not a threat to development but probably will be the last to arrive.
Solution: Buy them a laptop for their next birthday
The resistant
This group are going to be the ones who will cause the most trouble. Think the Luddites of the early 19th century! Riots on the streets (OK, perhaps a little dramatic). These people will probably under up living underground “Demolition Man” style.
Solution: Help show the benefits that digital technology can bring to lives and realise it doesn’t have to be all consuming. There is an off switch, well for now there is 
.
This post was written by Jeremy Jacobs, owner of The Digital Consultant
- The Citizens Online article on the Digital Britain report.
Tags: digital, digital britain, digital future, digital inclusion, digital solutions, uk government
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Speaking as a 40something and somewhere in between the fields of Luddite (working for a new media company) and expert (in my family, I am the guru!), what has always been lacking for those of us too old to have learned IT as a school subject, can be found in the sentence:
“Make something relevant to them and people will take an interest.”
Most IT courses (I have a 40something friend on one now, who met a PC only weeks ago) still concentrate on function, not purpose. My friend can now compose an email, but has no contacts and sees his friends in the real world. He can now create folders, but has no content for them. He can create a word document, but has nothing he needs to write. The training has successfully moved him from resistant to fearful/frustrated. No further.
For those of us who learned to live our lives non-virtually, you need to show us WHY we should Twitter, HOW Facebook complements a visit to the local hostelry… We’re not really anti digital; we just have lives that work perfectly well without it!
And I do speak as one who has moved into the fold and cannot imagine a life unconnected any more. But I remember the reasons I made the leap. Do you?