The Digital Divide and the Cost of Being Disconnected

By Malikka D. Karteron

On one autumn evening - September 28^th, 2017, I looked through photographs of my brother and me. Thirty years earlier, when he was three, he had undergone open heart surgery. Now, at 33, he was facing his second open-heart surgery. I shared pictures of "us" on FB from the last 30 years. I held him in prayer and lifted up positive memories and energy to the Universe.

Our relatives and friends gathered at the hospital. My aunt was there when we arrived; my Godfather, Uncles, and close family friends sat in the waiting room. I remembered my father lighting a candle for my brother at St. Patrick’s Cathedral before his surgery in 2017. The wait for news felt endless. Then the doctor told us the operation had gone well and we could see him. This time he filled the hospital bed that had once seemed so large around a three year old. I am prayerful this would be his last open heart surgery.

On the night of the operation, my Godsister came to visit and insisted that I eat. We went to dinner, ordered shrimp scampi, and, when the waiter asked what we were celebrating, we answered in unison: “Life.” He was completing his residency at the hospital where my brother had just had surgery. He surprised us with a large slice of chocolate cake. I still remember that small act of kindness in the middle of an emotionally intense day.

The second time I left the hospital was to attend a film screening about the Digital Divide. I had been invited to speak / be interviewed afterward. September 2017 was my first formal interview on the subject – “The Digital Divide”, I wanted to stay at the hospital. Yet, I inevitably decided to travel into the City and attend the movie screening at Lincoln Center. The conversation mattered to me then, and it matters even more now.

What access really means

In 2017, I understood the digital divide largely through geography and income: where broadband was available and who could afford it. Those barriers remain. But the COVID-19 pandemic showed me how much more is at stake when schools, workplaces, health care, and daily services depend on a connection.

Almost overnight, families needed the internet to do homework, attend classes and meetings, interview for jobs, speak with doctors, and order necessities. A household might have had a connection but only one phone for several children to share. Another might have had a computer but a plan too slow for simultaneous video calls. Access was no longer a simple yes or no. It depended on reliable service, suitable devices, enough data, and the skills to use them.

I had often thought of geographic barriers as a problem in rural communities with limited infrastructure. During the pandemic, I also saw how crowded urban neighborhoods could struggle when many households needed dependable, high speed service at once. Income shaped each of these experiences. Paying for a connection and maintaining working equipment could be difficult even where service technically existed.

A broader response

Device giveaways and temporary internet support helped many people. They also made clear that one computer or a short term plan cannot solve a lasting problem. Families need enough devices for their circumstances, affordable and dependable service, and help when technology fails. Health systems, schools, employers, and public agencies need ways for people to receive essential services even when they cannot get online (i.e. during outages, natural disasters, etc.) and long terms and short-term plans for everyone to have the digital access they need.

Training matters as much as equipment. Digital skills can help a parent navigate a patient portal, a student complete an assignment, or a job seeker apply for work. Technical education can also open paths to employment and entrepreneurship in communities that have too often been excluded from those opportunities.

The digital divide is about who can show up: for schools, workers, health care, health care systems and civic life. Closing it requires us to listen to what households and communities actually need and to build access that lasts beyond a crisis. Infrastructure and policies must be examined; and new infrastructure and systems must be implemented on an ongoing basis.