A European Union study has found - brace yourself here - that there is a "digital divide" in Europe, evident in lower rates of Internet usage among the less-educated, the lower-income, the elderly. Additionally, average rates of Internet use in Europe (defined in the above-linked article in an all-too-typically-sketchy manner as "having gone online" during a survey period) are lower than what other surveys report about the United States. The EU wants to boost Internet usage to boost its economy.

Eh hem. Slow down. First, I wonder if Internet usage isn't a result of economic initiative and enterprise, as opposed to an economic stimulus, a priori. Unless, that is, you're talking about some remote region that's economically disadvantaged by a complete lack of basic Internet connectivity, and that's clearly not the EU's primary concern here.

Second - and I'll blame American Nanny-Staters for my jaundice here - I'm just a bit frickin' tired of hearing about "the digital divide." Admit it: aren't you, too?

Yes, as the EU study points out, obvious factors such as age, income and education will influence computer literacy and Internet usage. That's the way it goes. I'm sure we've all got an older relative or friend who professes total disinterest in computers and the Internet. Their choice, their loss. A shame really, if they've got enough money to hire a set-up guy for a home PC and Internet connection.

And if they - old or not - don't have money for monthly Internet fees, plus a PC and software, who's responsibility is that? Not having access to a home Internet connection because you are too poor to afford it, or too poorly educated to understand its value, is not, at its core, the government's problem. Educational attainment is the responsibility of the individual and the family, as is income generation.

If we are to speak of a "digital divide," we might as well also speak of a "DVD Player Divide," and "An Orthodontia Gap," although I'd rather have my Internet than a DVD player or braces, if truth be told.

That said, yes, it's entirely appropriate for government to put computers in community centers, essential that they put them in public libraries, and good if government at least promotes some degree of community outreach, and computer literacy classses to "under-served" (I hate that term) populations. But that's quite enough. Anything much further from the government to breach the "digital divide" would smack of overreach. And the obsession of many school districts with computers, software and the Internet, is actually quite detrimental in many instances to student mastery of core academic skills, especially reading and writing. As Todd Oppenheimer has noted in "The Flickering Mind."

TECHNORATI TAGS: EUROPEAN UNION, INTERNET USAGE, DIGITAL DIVIDE

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Posted by Matt Rosenberg at November 10, 2005 05:33 PM