NYTimes In the 1990s, the term “digital divide” emerged to describe technology’s haves and have-nots. It inspired many efforts to get the latest computing tools into the hands of all Americans, particularly low-income families. [...]
As access to devices has spread, children in poorer families are spending considerably more time than children from more well-off families using their television and gadgets to watch shows and videos, play games and connect on social networking sites, studies show. [...]
“Despite the educational potential of computers, the reality is that their use for education or meaningful content creation is minuscule compared to their use for pure entertainment,” said Vicky Rideout, author of the decade-long Kaiser study. “Instead of closing the achievement gap, they’re widening the time-wasting gap.”[...]
I saw this phenomenon even within the narrow socioeconomic slice of the upper-to-upper middle class Jewish student population at Brandeis University, where I went to for undergrad. Some of my classmates used the computers their parents bought to skip class and waste colossal amounts of time playing video games (specifically, and I'm dating myself, Doom for PC users and Marathon or Mac users). The waste of their potential as well as their parent's tuition dollars was horrifying to watch.
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