Digital inequalities among internet users before and during the COVID-19 pandemic
ǂa ǂcomparison from two cross-sectional surveys in Slovenia
Abstract
The further digitization of society during the COVID-19 pandemic had implications for differential internet access and related social and economic outcomes. The pandemic impacted all three levels of the digital divides, as it affected how people accessed the internet, their internet skills and usage patterns. The literature, however, provides only a limited understanding about how these changes are interrelated at different levels of the digital divides. Building on the model of compound and sequential digital exclusion, this study examines the sequential pathways between the three digital divide levels before and during the pandemic, using two datasets obtained through cross-sectional surveys conducted in 2018 and 2022 from representative samples of Slovenian internet users (N 2018 = 814, N 2022 = 802). Path and multi-group analysis results confirmed strong sequential pathways between the three digital divide levels before and during the pandemic, suggesting that despite a significant increase in internet access and breadth of uses, digital inequalities among users continue to persist following the pandemic. Moreover, the interaction effects of age and education on the relationships between the three digital divide levels were found to be almost unchanged, indicating that the pandemic did not affect the role of social inequalities in shaping digital inequalities.
Keywords
digital inequalities;internet access;internet skills;
Data
| Language: | English |
|---|---|
| Year of publishing: | 2024 |
| Typology: | 1.01 - Original Scientific Article |
| Organization: | UL FDV - Faculty of Social Sciences |
| UDC: | 004.738.5:316(497.4) |
| COBISS: |
208088835
|
| ISSN: | 1873-5509 |
| Views: | 54 |
| Downloads: | 26 |
| Average score: | 0 (0 votes) |
| Metadata: |
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Other data
| Secondary language: | Slovenian |
|---|---|
| Secondary keywords: | Covid-19;Uporabniki interneta;Analiza poti (statistika); |
| Type (COBISS): | Article |
| Pages: | 1 spletni vir (1 datoteka (11 str.)) |
| Issue: | ǂVol. ǂ209 |
| Chronology: | dec. 2024 |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.techfore.2024.123745 |
| ID: | 25105227 |
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