How the COVID-19 Pandemic Impacted the Digital Divide Gazi Shahi ABSTRACTThe COVID-19 pandemic has widened the digital divide and made it more difficult for students and adults to transition to online work/class. Studies show that the digital divide has already affected millions in their access to technology, particularly those in poverty. Students in low income families are unable to have the necessary access to technology in order to get the same level of education as their peers. However, the pandemic has worsened the scenario as some are unable to pay for internet services and are left unemployed. Pre-existing measures such as public Wi-Fi and laptop loaning services have serious limitations. Public Wi-Fi would get slow if too many people are on the network at once and laptop loaning services do not have an infinite number of laptops to give out. INTRODUCTION The purpose of this lab is to understand how the COVID-19 pandemic has widened the digital divide. The digital divide is the uneven distribution in access to computers and the internet. Those in poverty suffer from it as it becomes difficult for them to afford the technology necessary to access the internet. Students from low income families end up missing out on the resources needed to learn due to the lack of access and with the ongoing pandemic, it has become even more difficult for those students to learn as some rely on the technology provided by their schools. The transition to online classes makes it a necessity for all students to have access to the internet and computers. This lab aims to prove if this transition has hurt students’ abilities to learn and receive a proper education due to a lack of access to the necessary technologies. MATERIALS/METHODOLOGY In order to address this issue, data needs to be retrieved from before and during this pandemic to reach a conclusion. Possible methods of retrieving such data would include surveys to individuals, surveys to ISPs (internet service providers), and contacting schools and surveying for an increase in electronics borrowed. Of the methods listed, surveys to individuals within similar age groups have been performed to reach a conclusion. These surveys consist of low-income Americans’ level of technology adoption and how Americans are using technology during the COVID-19 pandemic. RESULTS The Pew Research Center has conducted several surveys in order to determine who is affected by the digital divide and how important technology is during the COVID-19 pandemic. The following survey[1] confirms that the digital divide affects those with low income. With the ongoing pandemic, it should be no surprise that those with lower incomes would suffer from a lack of internet and computers. However, this information does not confirm if the pandemic has worsened the scenario. In order to determine this, we need an understanding of how reliant people are on technology in order to do their work. The Pew Research Center has also done a survey[2] on this, by random sampling 11,537 adults in the US. Focusing our attention to specific age groups and education levels, we can see that there is a consistent reliance on technology in order to use email or stay in contact with others. However, those in the college+ category seem to rely a lot more on video calling services in order to get their work done than in other education levels. Students who live in a household with an income less than $30K would suffer the most from this as they would not be able to use those services to get their work done. Students in lower levels of education than college also suffer from the digital divide, although they don’t rely on technology as heavily as college students. DISCUSSION Those in poverty are hurt the most as a result of the digital divide, and the COVID-19 pandemic has made it even harder for them. Households in poverty with school-age children are more than likely to be without a proper tool for internet access. Those families are unlikely to be able to pay for the services and according to an article by CNET[3], broadband providers won’t offer service to areas where not enough people can pay for it. In that same article, it is stated that about 70% of schools have closed down due to the pandemic. Before the pandemic, about 12 million students already go about without internet, according to the Senate Joint Economic Committee[4]. With schools shutting down, students are losing an important source of internet and will now have to rely on internet at home or public internet. While public Wi-Fi seems like a valid solution, too many people on the same network would cause disruptions, so some students may prefer to use the internet at home. In addition, stay-at-home orders make it more difficult for students to go outside and find places that provide public Wi-Fi, so having access at home appears to be the most viable option. However, with a lot of people being put out of jobs, some families cannot currently afford to pay for internet access. The Department of Labor states that on March 26, 2020, 3.3 million people have filed for unemployment insurance benefits.[5] This means that 3.3 million adults are putting themselves and their families at risk of not being able to afford the internet due to a lack of work. Charter Spectrum is offering free internet service for 60 days, but Spectrum does not cover 100% of the US and thus would not be able to provide everyone with service. Wireless companies such as AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint are also offering unlimited data on their networks, but again, the coverage varies and people would still have to pay for the service. The Pew Research Center’s surveys indicate that there is a heavy reliance in technology to stay in touch with others and to also get work done. However, there is also the fact that those in poverty have limited access and as such, can’t make the transition to an online work/school life. Students in low-income families pursuing higher levels of education would suffer the most from this need of technology as they are the ones mostly using online services such as Zoom to keep up with their classes. Laptop loaning services from schools can be useful too, but schools do not have an infinite supply of laptops to give out. If these services were to be effective, they need to be expanded on a much greater scale. For example, the School District of Philadelphia is giving out 50,000 Chromebooks to give to the students in need.[6] While this is an effective solution, concerns with the supply of laptops may arise. College students can rely on their college to provide the necessary technology to continue their education as many colleges such as The City College of New York and The University of Texas already have laptop loaning services. However, students in lower levels of education would need to rely on other services to get the technology they need. Limited supply is the biggest drawback in these laptop loaning services, and the best way to remedy this is to simply have more loaning services. This is a costly solution, but if these services resort to loaning cheaper devices such as refurbished laptops/tablets or Chromebooks, like what the School District of Philadelphia is doing, then it can save costs while also satisfying the people’s needs. CONCLUSION It has become apparent that the digital divide is becoming more prominent as the pandemic continues. This pandemic has made it even more difficult for those who are already struggling from the digital divide, and it may even bring in new victims. The current measures to combat the digital divide need to be expanded on in order to give everyone access to the internet and computers. The digital divide affects everyone but with this pandemic, students and working adults suffer the most. The increase in unemployment means that affording internet has become more difficult. For future research, we can see how the digital divide impacts elderly people and how that coronavirus contributed to it. It may be worse for them as the elderly people tend to be less familiar with technology and how the world stays connected now. References [1] https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/05/07/digital-divide-persists-even-as-lower-income-americans-make-gains-in-tech-adoption/ [2] https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/03/31/americans-turn-to-technology-during-covid-19-outbreak-say-an-outage-would-be-a-problem/ [3] https://www.cnet.com/news/covid-19-shines-light-on-digital-divide-across-the-us/ [4] https://www.jec.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/democrats/2018/12/axios-the-homework-gap-12-million-schoolchildren-lack-internet [5] https://www.dol.gov/ui/data.pdf [6] https://temple-news.com/the-digital-divide-covid-19-and-our-failing-education-system/ Self-Reflection I have had an interest in researching the digital divide since 10th grade, and with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, I wanted to see if the pandemic impacted the digital divide. I wanted to explore the digital divide in some way before the lockdown, and the pandemic made for a perfect opportunity to do so. Of course, I do not want to make it seem like the pandemic is a good thing, but it definitely had me thrilled to get an actual chance to research and explore something I’ve been interested in for a while. My research was mostly done through finding surveys online. I initially planned to survey the iMedia desk for my report, but they never responded so I had to resort to online data. Due to the pandemic being a current issue, it was pretty easy to find various articles regarding the pandemic and its affect on the digital divide. While those articles did address the issue at hand, they did not provide any data for me to use. I used data from the Pew Research Center regarding people’s use of technology during the pandemic and how income affects people’s access to technology. I found the researching process to be pretty engaging, although it did feel a bit tedious to find the necessary data. Research is a necessary part of this assignment. I cannot go off jumping to conclusions without having some data to back me up. The first survey I put regarding how income relates to access to technology helped me reach the conclusion that poverty was a leading cause of the digital divide. The survey about how people use technology during the pandemic helps me prove how necessary technology is during these times and why efforts need to be made to help those who lack access. If I was able to get data from the iMedia desk, I would have used that to show how necessary it is for college students to have access. I initially wanted to focus my lab report on college students but because I never got a response, I decided to just do it on students of all levels of education. I also think it would have been better if I used data from several sources and not just rely on the Pew Research Center for most of the report. I also think my process for researching could have been better. I mostly used Google to find my sources and not any databases. The reason I did that was because the pandemic was too recent and I didn’t think I would find any sources from databases such as JSTOR (which didn’t have anything helpful for my topic).