[audio/video of this High Order Bit] [wiki notes]

Speaker: Eszter Hargittai, Assistant Professor, Northwestern University
Description: Fresh thinking and research about what types of sites and online services college students are using and how their engagement differs by socio-economic background and user attributes.

What may have been the most brief and subtle presentation of the first day of Beyond Broadcast may also have been the most relevant subject to many, perhaps all, of the presentations attended thus far.

Having entertained the question of the digital divide in the conference already, it was not only interesting to have an entire 20 minutes devoted to the subject of actual, documented internet usage and habits, but also to hear about the first truly “wired generation”. Having much faith in the upcoming generation of users and the increasing influx of web 2.0 services, it’s nice to have the occasional reality check as to how the services and sites are actually being implemented. More than a few speakers today, including keynote presenter James Boyle, have hinted that the real breakthrough of the net, its facilitation of public media and the opportunities presented by increasingly accessible digital and participatory media have yet to be tapped. The excitement as to what’s coming next is palpable amongst the Beyond Broadcast crowd and speakers.

So here, in a nutshell, is the reality check. True, accessibilty is an issue, and one that we are all concerned with. As more information becomes available online it becomes increasingly important that this information is accessible to individuals of all socio-economic background, race, gender and ability. But accessibilty is not the only factor that affects the ways that online tools are used. While the presentation of the data collected by her current studies began by relating some of the things of which we are already aware - that higher educated individuals are more liekly to posess good online skills, due, of course to the accessibility of technology, leading to more frequent use and larger awareness of services - the most telling data from her studies came from the research and observation of the “wired generation’s” knowledge and frequency of the most watched web 2.0 services. I was shocked to see the relatively low percentage of college-aged students who use or know about sites like del.icio.us, digg or flickr. But an even bigger reality check, especially for a group of media participants, journalists and bloggers, although it shouldn’t have been, was to see what the students who are reading blogs and other participatory sites are reading about. While political and activist uses are the favorites of public media gurus like Dan Gillmore, and thus far, some of the best uses of participatory media on the web, the truth is, most of these up and coming internet using college students, interact very little with these types of uses. In fact, at the absolute bottom of the list of uses for participatory sites was politics. On the opposite end of the spectrum, of course, is Facebook. This was the most used interactive online service, followed closely by My Space, amongst college-aged students.

Eszter Hargittai’s research findings remind us that the digital divide is not binary. Even between groups of people who are using the internet there are still vast differences. This is the divide that Hargittai, with a background in sociology, focuses her research on and hopes to teach us to more about. Limited accessibilty to new technology and online resources is detrimental to the skills that develop through internet usage. But she reminds us not to forget that skills themsleves also affect that usage and that as much as we need increased autonomy, we need training and support to further propagate new online technology and information. You can follow and read more about Eszter’s research as it progresses on webuse.org.