Coles 1

Olivia Coles

Mrs. Cramer

Comp Pd 3

11 March 2022

The Growing Digital Divide

21 million Americans and 10 million school age children do not have access to internet

(Ney). The digital divide is the difference in access to technology. The pandemic has made the

problem more evident. This is not just in the rural areas; it affects the poor families in cities too.

Millions of Americans lack access to the internet, and even if they do have access, they may

have to share their computers with siblings or their parents. The digital divide is a growing

problem because of the COVID-19 pandemic, lack of internet access, and matching the

economic divide.

To begin, the pandemic has caused nearly everyone to work and do school from home.

This has shown and increased the digital divide. While some students can connect from home,

others cannot. With being at home due to the pandemic, countless older siblings were required to

babysit their younger siblings and do housework instead of their classes. They may have to share

technology with siblings, or they have little to no internet. Students who do not have access may

fall behind their peers because they are not able to complete their work like the students who

have access can. A study states that dropout rates would increase and a disproportionate loss in

learning for disadvantaged students would happen with school closures (Reza). Some schools

were not able to do online schooling when the pandemic started because numerous students did

not have access to the tools they needed. Schools like these were not able to continue their
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schooling for that year or they had to start later. This caused students to miss parts of their

classes that they may need later.

Furthermore over 55 million students were online due to the pandemic, and they do not

have the same quality or access to their learning. 35% of houses with an annual income below

$30,000 and children ages six through seventeen do not have the access that they need to

complete their classes (Correia). Higher education students were also affected because of the

pandemic. Some had to stay at their college instead of coming home because they did not have

internet to finish their college classes. One student attending college in New York had to stay

there because their family home did not have the high-speed internet that they needed (Mcnamee

et al.). The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the digital divide because everyone needed internet

and students were not able to do their schoolwork because of not having access to it.

In addition to the COVID-19 pandemic, lack of internet access is also a cause of the

growing digital divide. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) states that a quarter of

rural citizens, which is 14.5 million Americans, do not have access to broadband internet

(Mcnamee et al.). Students who do not have the access that their peers have may feel like they

are not as important, and that they are “second-class citizens” (Correia). These students may not

have the internet or a place to join their classes. The FCC says that 15% of American children

will not get the same education as their classmates because of their lack of access to the internet

(Ney), while BroadBandNow says that 42 million Americans do not have internet access.

“Robeson County, North Carolina, the median income is $33,679, putting it in the poorest 5

percent of counties...43 percent of the county's 27,000 students have no internet.” (Ney). A

superintendent for this school says that it is because of a lack of cell towers, and unaffordable

access. In Los Angeles, two girls were seen outside of a Taco Bell, using their Wi-Fi to study.
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These two girls were only two of the 268,000 students in Los Angeles County who lacked

internet (Ney). 25% of high school students in Los Angeles County had not logged on to the

computer two weeks after the shutdown. These students said that they wanted to learn, but they

were not able to because of a lack of access to internet or a computer (Reza). Without access to

the internet, students and adults in America are not able to do school, work, and much more.

Lastly, another cause of the growing digital divide is that the economic map and the

digital divide map almost match exactly. An example of this is Telfair County, Georgia and

Douglas County, Colorado. These are the worst and best-connected counties in the U.S. Telfair

County only has a median income of $30,288 and 32% connectivity. Telfair is 100 miles from

the nearest city. Douglass County, right outside of Denver Colorado, has a median income of

$115,314 and 97% connectivity. Loudon County, Virginia, which is the richest county in the

U.S., ordered 15,000 Chromebooks for its students, while Telfair had had no support (Ney).

Schools in the U.S. today are more segregated than they have been in fifty years. This is because

policies require students to go to school close to where they live, which means minorities and

students with lower socio-economic background are put in schools that do not have the same

resources including teachers and technology (Reza). Students who come from low socio-

economic backgrounds are less likely to have access to the internet and are put in schools that do

not have the resources to help. “A child born into a county with a median income of $35,000 has

a coin-flip chance of having any internet connection” (Ney). Low-income families are less likely

to have internet or resources. This is because of the cost of the internet and technology. Even if

they do have access to it, there may be limited internet connection, and they might have to share,

unlike students who have a higher socio-economic background.

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In summary, the digital divide is a growing problem due to the COVID-19 pandemic,

lack of internet access, and matching the economic divide. The pandemic exposed the problem

that was already here because everyone had to go online, but not everyone was able to.

Numerous students do not have access to the internet or computers that they need. The pandemic

also caused numerous students to fall behind because they did not have the resources that were

needed. Families that have lower income are more likely to not have access, because of the cost

of technology, and they are put in schools without resources to help them gain access. Ney says

that if were to increase connectivity by one percent, it can increase employment by 0.3 percent,

giving 405,000 people jobs. Increasing connectivity could help fix the digital divide problem in

America.
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Works Cited

Correia, Ana-Paula. "Healing the Digital Divide During the COVID-19 Pandemic." Quarterly

Review of Distance Education, vol. 21, no. 1, spring 2020, pp. 13+. Gale Academic

OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A674841378/AONE?u=pl1949&sid=bookmark-

AONE&xid=99612942. Accessed 6 Jan. 2022.

McNamee, Ty, et al. "Don't Forget About Rural Higher Education Students: Addressing Digital

Inequities During COVID-19." Diverse Issues in Higher Education, vol. 37, no. 7, 28

May 2020, pp. 12+. Gale Academic OneFile,

link.gale.com/apps/doc/A626673143/AONE?u=pl1949&sid=bookmark-

AONE&xid=d89a82ba. Accessed 6 Jan. 2022.

Ney, Jeremy. "America's Digital Divide." Kennedy School Review, vol. 21, annual 2020, pp.

47+. Gale Academic OneFile,

link.gale.com/apps/doc/A681362464/AONE?u=pl1949&sid=bookmark-

AONE&xid=d531d209. Accessed 6 Jan. 2022.

Reza, Fawzia. "COVID-19 and Disparities in Education: Collective Responsibility Can Address

Inequities." Knowledge Cultures, vol. 8, no. 3, Nov. 2020, pp. 68+. Gale Academic

OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A646110171/AONE?u=pl1949&sid=bookmark-

AONE&xid=73ad555c. Accessed 6 Jan. 2022.