The New Digital Divide

As I read this posting, I thought of the social divisions of people broader than the simple digital divide.

The "digerati" is an artificial division based on knowledge, and , for the most part, these people are willing to spread their knowledge to others. It is a division that is potentially inclusive. The internet is supposed to be a place where people are able to be together for once, yet there are divisions of knowledge into the haves and have nots...

I see people homeless all the time in this city... in sleeping bags under trees, lying on benches. The information revolution helps the educated and the people with the data, but these people have no real access to the tools or information of the digerati, nor would this information help them.

I went to Whole Foods yesterday to buy some good beer... a person ahead of me bought three half-filled bags of groceries for $450. Outside... as I was leaving, I did not give my one dollar to the guy who was trying to help himself without spare changing. He was selling "Real Change" Magazine, a publication intended to support the homeless by means other than asking for money. I have never bought this magazine; I have been fascinated by its contents and want to help, but I am hesitant. I do not offer my fiscal support, but neither do the liberals, nor anyone else.... and I am sure that the person that spent $450 on their bullshit vegetables and fine meats did not as well.

We fail to make a sustainable model for those that are not the "haves." There is a divide in support for those that have nothing. It is a divide that has no model towards reintegration in society.

We should all support the vulnerable in society, but how does pro-social behavior fit into a Capitalist society? There is no reward for pro-social behavior in the US.

My support is sub-par, and all of our support doesn't help. I wish it would. Digerati or not; the internet is not the real world and this divide doesn't really matter except in the face of profit margins.

Categories: digerati, homeless, support, internet