Digital Capital

This book describes and understands the many factors that influence a person’s behavior towards digital technologies, and how that affects the person’s potential to benefit from digital society. The ability to adapt to these new technological environments - and the extent to which an individual embraces them - has become critical to an individual’s well-being and quality of life, the underlying assumption being that only by effectively engaging with digital technologies can the user accrue benefits from the experience. By introducing the concept “digital capital,” which refers to the conditions that determine how people access, use, and engage with digital technology, Park examines how the digital ecosystem of the user lead to new forms of digital inequality. Using numerous empirical studies on internet users and non-users, as well as recommending small localized solutions to the big global problem, a critical and alternative perspective of the digital divide is provided. This book describes and understands the many factors that influence a person’s behavior towards digital technologies, and how that affects the person’s potential to benefit from digital society. The ability to adapt to these new technological environments - and the extent to which an individual embraces them - has become critical to an individual’s well-being and quality of life, the underlying assumption being that only by effectively engaging with digital technologies can the user accrue benefits from the experience. By introducing the concept zdigital capital,y which refers to the conditions that determine how people access, use, and engage with digital technology, Park examines how the digital ecosystem of the user lead to new forms of digital inequality. Using numerous empirical studies on internet users and non-users, as well as recommending small localized solutions to the big global problem, a critical and alternative perspective of the digital divide is provided Front Matter ....Pages i-xiii Introduction (Sora Park)....Pages 1-10 Front Matter ....Pages 11-11 The Varied Spectrum of Digital Engagement (Sora Park)....Pages 13-34 The State of Digital Inequalities: Interplay Between Social and Digital Exclusion (Sora Park)....Pages 35-62 Understanding Digital Capital Within a User’s Digital Technology Ecosystem (Sora Park)....Pages 63-82 Preconditions of Digital Engagement (Sora Park)....Pages 83-106 Front Matter ....Pages 107-107 The Digital Shift (Sora Park)....Pages 109-127 Digital Fluency (Sora Park)....Pages 129-160 Information is Power (Sora Park)....Pages 161-183 Front Matter ....Pages 185-185 New Models of Digital Training (Sora Park)....Pages 187-212 Revisiting Digital Divide Policies in the Age of Hyperconnectivity (Sora Park)....Pages 213-232 Back Matter ....Pages 233-247 Sora Park. Includes Bibliographical References (pages 235-237) And Index.