Avatares de la brecha digital. Desigualdades en el acceso y uso de nuevas tecnologías en la juventud de Cochabamba

Abstract

The article discusses the conceptualization of the digital divide as unequal access to Information and Communication Technologies. Analyzing the data collected within the survey “Youth in Cochabamba, Bolivia. Their leisure time and their access to information and communication technologies”, it synthesizes the issues that express most clearly access, knowledge, and use divides. Although ICT became an indispensable tool for everyday life for most youngsters, they express, reproduce and produce social inequalities. The digital divide adopts diverse avatars that plant their roots in socio-economic grounds (unequal connectivity), gender (“screen fright” and differentiated uses), and age issues (new technologies are still youth technologies), amongst others.