Zethu Lubisi Response Paper 4

Societal Impacts and Use of IS – Social Structure and Inequality.

Introduction
Ali (2011) wrote an interesting piece on the digital divide with a focus on developing
countries as well as the power of social media. The article was written nine years ago but
some of the problems are still occurring even today. The paper indicated very valid and
important points that need to be considered and will be discussed further in this paper.

Global digital divide

Yu (2002, p. 7) defined the global digital divide as the unequal distribution of information
and communication technology access to nations, the gap between the information haves and
have-nots. Academic articles further explained that the digital divide is not only limited to
physical access to ICT but also how ICT is used. Which is something we experience in our
daily lives. The fact that you can find a person who is considered a youth, with the
assumption that they have minimum education still requires assistance from security guards
on how to use an ATM says a lot about our state of affairs.

South Africa as a developing country still faces many of these challenges, physical access is
still a huge challenge, the cost of data is still high, and the bandwidth is very slow in some
areas. One will have an assumption that Gauteng province, Johannesburg will be at an
advantage compared to other provinces which are considered to be deeply rural. Surprisingly,
Gauteng has its contextual digital divide. Someone staying at Alexandra (one of the poorest
community) next to the economical hub of South Africa Sandton still lack basic needs such
as water, housing proper sanitation, electricity, etc. Technology might be the last thing on the
majority of the citizen when they are still occupied by getting a meal for the day.
The second part of the digital divide focus on the meaningful use of ICT for those who have
gone through the stage of physical access. Ali (2011) mentioned that policymakers need to
include what constitutes meaningful use of ICT. The number of people who have access to
social media such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, and YouTube is seen to be increasing but
the question remains. Are they using it meaningfully? Are they aware of the correct use?
Ethical and lawful use? Looking at the rise of cyberbullying and the sharing of fake news.
Having access to ICT is not enough but also the issue of digitally responsible citizens is
paramount.

The barriers towards the adoption of IT

A study that was conducted by Lazarus et al., (2000) that focused on the barriers to Internet
adoption found four significant factors namely; language barrier, literacy, lack of local
information and the lack of cultural diversity content. This also supports the second part of
the digital divide which is one thing to have access to physical ICT but it is another thing to
have access to content related to your context, written in your language as well as addressing
issues relevant to your cultural differences.

Within the South African context, a huge issue of the language barrier is still experienced.
South Africa has eleven official languages, but not all information is available in different
languages. Some languages have been prioritised over others, content online is often written
in English which is not a language known and spoken by a lot. On several occasions, Yu
(2002) mentioned the issue of the language barrier. Whereby in some instances the use of
translation was deployed to ensure that those who may not speak the language the content is
written in. They can at least get the translated version. But also some information is lost
through translation. Certain phrases in South African native languages cannot be directly
translated or they lose their meaning.

With the recent pandemic, COVID-19 institutions of higher learning as well as some of the
higher and primary education have decided to move learning online to ensure that the
academic year is not lost during this period of the lockdown Senior Executive Team (2020).
It is not a guarantee that all students will benefit from the use of technology for teaching and
learning. The majority of students have gone back home due to the early recess and means to
curb the spread of the virus (Senior Executive Team, 2020b). The biggest challenge is
internet access, devices, electricity or just a strong signal and other socio-economic issues.
Some universities have partnered with internet service providers to declare educational
portals as zero-rated. Not all internet service providers came to the party, with that mentioned
the issue of data costs in South Africa is still a huge problem (Shoba, 2020). Both Vodacom
and MTN have been pressured by the Competition Commission to reduce their data prices
(Gavaza, 2020; Writer, 2020.). The price of 1 gig is R99 and that will not be enough for sites
that are not yet Zero rated for educational purposes. The issue of the poor remains not fully
addressed to access measures intending to change their lives for the better such as education
access.

Those are not only issues that can fall under the digital divide, it is an indication that the issue
of the digital divide is contextual.

Opportunities for digital access

Digital access has seen the wake of digital entrepreneurs, whereby the majority of the youth
have been engaging in creating digital content which can be accessed on YouTube,
Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok to mention a few. Whereby content creators can earn from
those platforms and make a living out of it. Some with their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
huge following has led to brands partnering with them to advertise their products in the form
of influencing. That is an indication that by bridging the gap of the digital divide, socio-
economic issues such as unemployment can be alleviated.

The social impact of IS on the Future of Work

Castells (1991) wrote a paper that focuses on the impact of technological transformation on
people’s lives and well-being. The paper was written at the beginning of the previous decade
when the use of IT and electronics to automate production was introduced. That era disrupted
the job market whereby, manual jobs were taken by machines and a lot of people lost their
jobs. The worse that occurred was the rise of crime as people tried to find ways to survive.
We are in 2020 and the fourth industrial revolution has caused another disruption in the job
market where robotics, machine learning internet of things have replaced human beings.

Several jobs have been lost and continue to be lost as companies are looking at production at
a cheaper rate. Another social issue that came as a result of technology, with job losses the
level of crime is seen to be increasing. For one to be employable, one needs to be multi-
skilled but still, that does not guarantee job security (Write, 2020).

Social Exclusion to E-society

Zheng and Walsham (2008) bring to the discussion more depth aspects in the study of
societal impacts and the use of IS within the social structure and inequality by introducing
social exclusion to e-society. Warschauer (2004, p. 47) argues that “access for ICT cannot
rest on providing devices or conduits alone” Instead it should be the promotion of social
inclusion that must take into consideration several factors, such as physical, digital, and
human and social resources. Furthermore Sameti et al., (2012, p. 51) mentioned that “social
exclusion is a situation whereby an individual is denied the opportunity to participate in the
normal activities whether he or she desires to participate or not, as a relations process. Social
exclusion theory views poverty as declining participation and access to resources”.

Sen (2000) mentioned that social exclusion can be seen as capability deprivation reason
behind this notion is that one can be excluded from social relationships that may be directly
part of capability poverty, therefore, leading to other deprivations such as living
opportunities. Using Sen’s capability approach on both of the case studies mentioned by
Zheng and Walsham (2008b), the South African rural hospital situated in the Eastern Cape
whereby they are included in the (DHIS) yet they are excluded in realising the benefits of the
health information system that was introduced to them. Issues of oral culture, health workers
not fully adapted to the type of encoded information required in an e-society. They could only
see it as something imposed to them by higher authority due to the lack of institutional
support. That resulted in the deprivation of quality healthcare in the area.

In the case of China, rapid discussion of the internet and health information systems is
evident, but the government's restriction of free following of health information resulted in a
deprivation of the capability of taking part in the public affair as well as monitoring the
performance of the government. The same happened with the new COVID-19 which has now
put the whole world at a standstill. China knew about the disease but took the time to inform
the World Health Organisation. Both cases indicated different ways of social exclusion, it is
one thing to have access to ICT but it is also another thing to have access to the relevant
information that can lead to better decision-making as well as choosing the life to lead.
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