SOCIO-SPATIAL DIMENSIONS OF DIGITAL DIVIDE

Abstract

The development of the network has irreversibly changed people's lives and non-users from the network is considered to be digitally excluded. The term digital divide is defined as: inequalities in an access to the Internet, the intensity of its use, knowledge of how to search for information, the quality of connection and social support to help in using the Internet, as well as inequalities in the ability to assess the quality of information and the diversity of the use of the network. The authors of this article will present the results of a sociological survey, the issues of which concerned the availability of Internet in homes. The analysis focuses on two dimensions of the lack of access to the network: social and spatial. The study was conducted in 2009 on a random sample of 727 adult residents of Rzeszów and municipalities bordering the city. The sample was successfully selected thanks to the help of employees of the Podkarpackie Voivodship Office in Rzeszów. In order to obtain the most reliable results during the sampling, the respondents were subjected to the place of residence, so that the research would cover the residents of all Rzeszów settlements and towns bordering the city administratively to neighboring municipalities.