Have you ever noticed that when you try to access a website from your phone, that it does not compare to a desktop experience? The website may not let you make changes to settings that you otherwise would be able to do on a desktop. The minorities, the young, and people with low income are likely to be able to access the internet from only a phone. The desktop internet experience is different from the mobile internet experience. This creates a digital divide. Smartphone mobile services have tried to seek to make accessibility to internet services better. However they still are not currently equal to the desktop experience. Mobile services are addressing concerns over the divide that is related to socioeconomic factors, income, gender, age, language differences, and regional differences to internet access. If you google "smartphone users" and go to images, the first thing you will notice is that a lot of the pictures consist of people who are white. This shows the socioeconomic gap. In addition, regional discrepancies are still current because there are many areas in the U.S. that lack in internet access. According to Andromeda Yelton, the U.S. Government has been putting in efforts to bridge this gap. However, this doesn't help the majority of lower-income Americans. The day will come when internet accessibility is made available across all regions of the country, but it is not here yet. In addition, the day will come, hopefully, that more websites on the mobile platform become more accessible by giving equal access to their services on the mobile device as the desktop experience.
Andromeda Yelton. (2013). Bridging the Digital Divide with Mobile Services. ALA Editions.
Mossey, S., Bromberg, D., & Manoharan, A. P. (2019). Harnessing The Power Of Mobile Technology To Bridge The Digital Divide: A Look At U.S. Cities’ Mobile Government Capability. Journal Of Information Technology & Politics, 16(1), 52–65. Https://Doi.Org/10.1080/19331681.2018.1552224
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