Digital Inequality and Access to Technology
A reflection on our desire for innovation and purpose. Keeping up with the readings on the topics of Media Literacy, Inequalities and Inclusion turned into a real challenge because I wanted and actually tried to read all of the texts provided. I believe that media literacy and inclusion is a current issue that is playing a part in today’s media challenges and its dark ability for deception and manipulation. Digital media is still relatively new to our society, and the pace of technology development has been so quick that human beings as a society have not been able to match. Minorities that don’t have access to technology or have no knowledge about how the digital media world works tend to be easily manipulated, to believe the dissemination of fake news, and be a step behind in their professional lives. In an era of unprecedented development where corporations like Google, Apple, or Microsoft are launching products that the 1% can play with, we are leaving behind a vital function of technology and its main purpose: to improve the lives of society as a whole. I believe that living up to this promise demands more focus on implementing technology to increase the efficiency of local governments and find ways to improve inclusion for those with no digital literacy skills to avoid leaving them behind. And that starts by using and teaching tech to the service of minorities or social groups with few digital literacy skills. As is usual with my reflection posts, this text is focused more on my individual perspectives that arise when doing the readings rather than an objective review of them, so I want to provide an example by sharing the stories of Lauren Jong who left Google to work on local government, and the experience of my mum, Rosangel Navarro, who teaches technology to older adults and people with disabilities.
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