Digital divide widens between rich and poor

Digital technology: difficult to avoid. © Keystone / Laurent Gillieron

A survey by the University of Applied Sciences of Northwestern Switzerland shows that education and income are becoming more important factors for “digital fitness” than age.

For example, 55% of respondents with a high level of education were digitally competent, whereas the figure for those with low education was 26%, Swiss public television SRF reported on SundayExternal link.

And for people with a monthly income over CHF9,000 ($10,022) the figure was 56%; for those earning less than CHF4,000, it was 19%.

“Technological polarisation is growing. As a society, we run the risk of many groups being left behind,” study author Marc Peter told SRF.

+ From the (distant) archives: the digital divide in 2003

Reasons for the growing divide – compared to the last time the study was done – include “the new technologies that appear almost every month: new phones, new websites, new applications”, Peter said. “But it’s also due to companies which want to operate more and more on digital channels only. And so customers have to use more and more apps for, say, their banking and insurance.”

Peter said a failure to address this could lead to a downturn in Swiss competitiveness.

Older catching up

On the other hand, senior citizens – many of whom came into contact with digital tools while still working – are lagging behind less than before.

In 2009, only about a third of Swiss over-65s were online; ten years later that had already climbed to three-quarters, SRF reported.