Computers: Race, Advantage & Disadvantage
There is a connection between computers and race.
In 2021, the Pew Research Center reported that “eight-in-ten White adults report owning a desktop or laptop computer, compared with 69% of Black adults and 67% of Hispanic adults. Eight-in-ten White adults also report having a broadband connection at home, while smaller shares of Black and Hispanic adults say the same – 71% and 65%, respectively.”
Computers & Inequality
Differences in computer ownership among various groups have significant economic implications. The lack of computer ownership leads to thinner wallets.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare longstanding and systemic issues of inequality in the United States,” explains Digital Injustice, a report by Tufts University. “Certain marginalized races and ethnicities (Black or African American and Hispanic or Latinx households) are over-represented in less-flexible, low-tech, and ‘high-touch’ occupations and under-represented in the information economy and ‘high-tech’ occupations; an outcome of decades of disparity in access to critical digital services like stable and affordable internet and computers.” (parenthesis theirs)
Source: Mobile Technology and Home Broadband 2021, Pew Research Center
Computers and Income
“Low-income households,” says HUD, “have lower rates of in-home Internet connectivity compared with higher-income groups. Connectivity rates are particularly low among HUD-assisted renter households, who are also more likely to depend exclusively on smartphones and other handheld devices to access the Internet in the home.”
We now get to the circular problem: Low-income households must budget their resources with great care. Immediate needs – food, shelter, etc. – come first. As HUD has reported, among those “who lacked Internet access at home cited Internet costs as one reason they lacked in-home Internet access, and 37 percent cited device costs.”
We can do something about this. We have the computers and the technology to extend computer lifespans. The next step is to clean-out closets, attics, and storage sheds. Let’s put old and now-unused equipment to work.