3 ms·
>"So, for example, some of the work I do is with homeless LGBT youth, most of whom are Black or Latina/o. These young people are struggling with some big life
by batista 14y ago
>"So, for example, some of the work I do is with homeless LGBT youth, most of whom are Black or Latina/o. These young people are struggling with some big life challenges, and they are - like other people their age - completely wired. My research finds that Black/Latina/o LGBT youth who are homeless - in other words, the very people who should be on the "other side" of so-called the "digital divide," are in fact, quite adept at technology and most have smart phones.
Besides her argumentation being too hazy and hand-wavy for my taste, I don't think extrapolating from a tiny (but fashionable in academia) minority of the poor (LGBT homeless youth?), can give us any real insights about the digital divide. (It can give us a pretty good idea about the way the academic world works in human sciences, though).
Try going in MS, AL, SD, MI etc to study the vast masses of poor people instead of focusing on some insignificant in the grand scheme of things subgroup (urban + young + LGBT + Black/Hispanic, how more narrow can you get?), that not only can be a real outlier, but it also doesn't define what being poor is.
- hammock 14y agoI work in this area and I have seen the best data available on connectedness (rigorous surveys where n=30,000). The old poor are disconnected. But the young poor are overwhelmingly connected. No one in "our" world would ever suspect it, but they are using facebook, sharing videos and photos, texting, using apps, etc etc at a MUCH greater rate than the typical lameass white guy that you think of when you think tech geek. And in today's US where one out of every two babies born is a minority, a disproportionate number of whom are poor, looking at trends within these demographics is more important than ever.