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DIGITAL DIVIDE AND THEN WHAT? ICT AS THE ACCELERATOR OF SOCIAL DIVISION AND THE STIMULUS FOR CIVILIZATION DEVELOPMENT

Summary/Abstract: Rapid development of information and communication technologies (ICT) results in significant changes in various aspects of social life. The paper presents selected problems concerning the impact of ICT on the form of social structure and social order, both in the internal and global context. The most visible of the direct consequences of the ICT growth is the digital divide – the gap between individuals, groups and regions in their access to ICT. During last decades that phenomenon is being visibly reduced. Nevertheless it still shapes a new model of social order in which various social groups – and in the global perspective, several regions of the world – stay behind leaders of the information revolution. Concepts of ‘information apartheid’ or ‘virtual colonization’ are often used to describe that phenomenon adequately. Both models stress the role of ICT as the stimulus for the increase of economic, social and civilization polarization between the developed and the developing countries and regions. It is a paradox that ICT can at the same time stimulate the advancement of the marginalized groups as well. A spectacular example of such a process is the Village Phone Program, the project of mobile phones distribution in the rural and poor parts of Bangladesh. The project turned out to be not only profitable for its participants. It also succeeded in improving overall living standard and economic competitiveness of participating communities. Thus, smart use of ICT can lead to the reduction of social divisions and social exclusion.

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