The Digital Divide is a term that refers to a gap between demographics and region that

have access to modern digitized information and communication technology and those who do not

have or have restricted access. On one side technology is taking over everything but the other side

people are far behind in having access to technology. With the digital divide, the world is dividing

too, into the group who have access to technology and those who do not. Growing technology is

in developed countries and poor countries who have no access are increasing that divide.

Because of this divide one group with the access of technology is becoming wealthier and

taking over business the other group is staying poor because the people with technology expand

their business utilizing the digital technologies, making it easier for people to do business with

them. This year the expectations are the top 10 US tech firm revenue is expected to go over a

trillion dollars! (Shinal, 2018)

In my own experience, when I was in Pakistan I had no access to modern technology, not

even cell phones. That was within the last ten years. When I settled in the United States I was

really very far behind. I did not even know how to use a computer, and here everything was on

the computer, it was all digital.

After 9 years I went back to Pakistan it had changed back there as well. Almost half if not

more, of the population in my area have smartphones and know how to use them. Even more

astonishing to me was the fact that the younger generation, almost 100% of them had smartphones,

as it replaced multiple items (camera, notepad, communication device). I can now make a video

call using websites like facebook or apps like whatsapp and viber and it is literally like I am there

with them. I can see their faces what they are doing, what their reactions and body languages are,

I can go on a ‘walk’ with them while video chatting from my room at home! Not even 20 years

ago, only one person in the village had a phone. It was a rapid change, yet they are still far behind
the USA. Just last quarter one mobile service provider alone, Norwegian based Telenor, added

almost a million subscribers for sim cards services. (Maqsood, 2018). While I was there my

nephew while looking down at his smartphone screen and walking ran into a tree branch and so it

seems at the Apple headquarters staff seem to be doing the same whilst looking down at the

“iPhones they helped popularize” (Bergen, 2018), the headquarters natural environment however

is of glass panes.

However even though they had smart phones and were using them to their advantage they

did not know the basics of computers or how they work. In other words, they are only familiar

with the end user experience, and not all that went into making the technology. Also, I noticed

that people there carry smartphones that are dual sim, whereas we here in United States have only

one sim card per device. Upon further research I found there are phones that are capable of up to

four sim cards, made by a Chinese company named Transsion, the technology is tailored for the

local needs on the ground, it also has extremely long battery life for charging issues due to lack of

access of electricity and camera sensors suited to darker skin tones, in India the fingerprint scanner

they installed works well with greasy fingers, to accommodate the Indian palette. (Sitong, 2018)

Even though access of technology is growing fast everywhere, the places that initiated

research and development are far ahead of those who did not. Therefore, to overcome the digital

divide access, something must be done to bring those places up to speed through educating people

on how technologies work, even though challenges will stem from the income restriction of

underdeveloped areas. The government will have to realize this as an opportunity for a whole

other sector to develop creating wealth, and jobs as seen in Pakistan “The sector has invested over

USD 15B in the economy since deregulation in 2003 and has created over 14,000 direct and

hundreds of thousands of indirect jobs” (Sindhu, 2018). This is great for a developing country.
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