As some librarians worry about the digital divide between rich and poor they sometimes miss a key component of that. The digital divide leads to a divide in skill sets as well. Not only will someone on the short side lose out on technological access, but they will lack the skills needed to find, assess, and ultimately utilize information.
The Digital Divide And Skills
Cyberpunk Librarian
Systems librarian, podcaster, coder, musician, author, blogger, digital creative, and cyberpunk.
From The Latest Issue Of Duh.
Not to discount this study, but… the greater the time spent on ANYTHING the more sophisticated the skills one would have. Duh.
Is the socio-economic divide the only divide that matters? I know as librarians we’re uniquely positioned to help with the digital divide, and probably a few other divides, but really don’t all those divides just come back to socio-economic issues? My guess is the socio-economic divide would account for any other divide you’d like to study.
Of course, Fixing socio-economic injustice is easy, all you need to do is (raise|lower) taxes and (cut|raise) government spending while also (increasing|decreasing) spending on education and don’t forget to (increase|decrease) the school voucher program. Obviously the No Child Left Behind Act has been a (disastor|success) in this area. As every good (neocon|liberal|conservative|progressive|independant) knows the (Bush|Clinton) admistration has shown that the answers are clear, but The (Republican|Democratic) Congress messed things up by (cutting|raising) spending on bills that would’ve helped. I’ll Also throw in: Ear Marks, NAFTA, Iraq, Terrorism, The ALA, Taxes, Regulation, Corporations, The Gay Agenda and The Religious Right. Choose one or two and blame or credit them as well.
I’m for any study that says people are stupid
and why not call the “poor and uneducated” stupid? it’s not like they read the Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology anyway…
and “the greater the time spent on ANYTHING the more sophisticated the skills one would have” – I don’t agree with that. you could argue that skills even become worse. time spent ? increased skill. unless you make the effort to get better (which might be inferred, but isn’t absolute).
Unskilled and Unaware (peer reviwed journal)
Perhaps something from the ” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology” ? Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One’s Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments.
This article is remarkable, in short it says those without a clue often think they have the clues they are so obviously missing. Some people are so stupid they don’t know they’re stupid.
Of course I think I’m brilliant so now I wonder:)