Adolescents’ internet use: Testing the “disappearing digital divide” versus the “emerging digital differentiation” approach

It is tentatively suggested that the emerging digital differentiation approach describes current digital divide phenomena more adequately than the disappearing digital divide approach.

Abstract

Research on digital divide phenomena has produced opposing theoretical frameworks. This study pits the disappearing digital divide approach against the emerging digital differentiation approach and empirically tests the validity of their predictions regarding adolescents’ internet use and their tendency towards ubiquitous internetting. Multivariate analyses of a survey of 749 Dutch adolescents aged 13–18 showed that adolescents’ unequal access to socio-economic and cognitive resources shaped their use of the internet as an information and an entertainment medium. Adolescents with greater socio-economic and cognitive resources used the internet more frequently for information and less often for entertainment than their peers with fewer socio-economic and cognitive resources. We found a similar pattern regarding adolescents’ tendency towards ubiquitous internetting. The findings tentatively suggest that the emerging digital differentiation approach describes current digital divide phenomena more adequately than the disappearing digital divide approach.