Abstract
Given the increasing focus on mobile connections to reduce digital inequality and the growing number of mobile-only users, this chapter uses Chile as a case study to explore the opportunities and challenges of relying on smartphones to foster digital inclusion in deprived contexts such as isolated rural communities. Relying on a probabilistic face-to-face survey in 22 villages, our results reveal that a minority of people uses the internet (37%), almost half (49%) were mobile-only users, 37% used both computers and mobiles and 13% went online only through computers. Even in this already deprived context, mobile-only use reaches a population of new internet users with lower education and income. Also, the combination of both computers and mobiles is what leads to more diverse types of internet uses. Thus, from a policy-making perspective, it is relevant to support both mobile and computer access rather than focusing on only one.
| Translated title of the contribution | Desigualdad digital y móviles: : oportunidades y desafíos de confiar en los teléfonos inteligentes para la inclusión digital en contextos desfavorecidos |
|---|---|
| Original language | English |
| Title of host publication | Handbook of Digital Inequality |
| Editors | Eszter Hargittai |
| Publisher | Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd. |
| Chapter | 5 |
| Pages | 62-74 |
| Number of pages | 13 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9781788116572 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9781788116565 |
| State | Published - 2021 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© Eszter Hargittai 2021.