Information and communication technology (ICT) is spreading around the world with ever-increasing speed and intensity, fundamentally transforming societies and affecting every aspect of human life. ICT offers infinite possibilities for improving human wellbeing but can also create new forms of inequalities. Whether it will be an enabler or a barrier to human welfare depends on how it is deployed and used. What is unnerving, existing sociocultural inequalities also create inequality in digital literacy—the ability to take advantage of ICT—potentially creating a negative feedback loop and further worsening the existing inequalities.
Information and communication technology (ICT) is spreading around the world with ever-increasing speed and intensity, fundamentally transforming societies and affecting every aspect of human life. ICT offers infinite possibilities for improving human wellbeing but can also create new forms of inequalities. Whether it will be an enabler or a barrier to human welfare depends on how it is deployed and used. What is unnerving, existing sociocultural inequalities also create inequality in digital literacy—the ability to take advantage of ICT—potentially creating a negative feedback loop and further worsening the existing inequalities.
