Research On Digital Inequality And Its Social Impact

At present,China’s digitalization is accelerating and the levels of digital development are deeper.This study adopts the narrow definition of “digital”,which refers specifically to the internet and its terminal devices.The internet and information were initially considered to have positive externalities to create convenience and increase welfare for people,and also conceived as a form of addressing inequality.However,because of technology not being separated from social life,the problem of uneven distribution and application of digital resources will also intensify social contradictions,resulting in such problems as information divide between the rich and the poor,digital divide and digital inequality.Furthermore,digital inequality has the capacity to reproduce uneven distribution of resources,so that unintervened digital inequality may lead to more social problems.Digital inequality is therefore a new manifestation of social inequality and,like other forms of social inequality,a challenge for social development.Digital inequality already exists in China,as is shown by the confrontation between China’s digital elite and the digital poor.There is a risk that non-netizens will be marginalized by the digital society,and the economic benefits of digital use by netizens have a preference for individuals with high economic status.However,at present,China is in the historical phase of solidly promoting common prosperity,and Chinese modernization is the modernization of common prosperity for all,and it is necessary to prevent polarization.This study focuses on digital inequality,which is based on four theories,including the advanced human capital theory,habit-capital theory,market failure theory and related concepts of digital economy,and social justice theory.Digital inequality aims at analyzing digital access,digital use and digital use effects.Firstly,empirical researches have been done to analyze whether these three digital differences exist,whether these three digital differences have different features,and whether the levels of development among these three digital differences are different.Based on the concept of digital human capital,secondly,this study explains the differences in economic benefits of different groups among different internet use behaviors,which are referring to wage,socioeconomic status index and occupational prestige.Thirdly,the Chinese elderly group has its special features in digital inequality;therefore,this study especially analyzes the influencing factors of digital inequality of the Chinese elderly group and the effects of “digital back-feeding” of offspring to parents to solve the problem of digital inequality.Fourthly,this study analyzes the causes of digital inequality,the relationship between digital inequality and social inequality,and the social stratification of digital society.Specifically,both literature research and quantitative analyses methods have been adopted in the study.Based on the Statistical Report on China’s Internet Development,this study arranged the internet access status of micro-groups with the development of China’s internet from 1997 to 2022,describing the scale and structure of netizens and the internet access environment.China Family Panel Studies’(CFPS)2010 and 2018 panels are employed to expound the differences in digital access between 2010 and 2018 in terms of binary logit regression and ordered logit regression.Second,the differences in digital use between 2010 and 2018 have been analyzed in detail by means of ordinary least squares analysis,tobit regression,ordered logit regression.Third,the time effect and cohort effect of group content differences were analyzed by ordinary least squares methods and a generalized partial proportional odds model regression.Fourth,principal component factor analysis is used to carry out exploratory factor analysis of the specific content of digital human capital.Fifth,the relationship between digital human capital and human capital was checked by maximum likelihood estimates and ADF estimation via structural equation modeling.Sixth,the relationship between human capital and wage,socioeconomic status index,and occupational prestige was checked by maximal likelihood estimates via structural equation modeling.Binary logit and ordered logit regression were used to analyze the influencing factors of digital inequality in Chinese older people and the effect of digital feeding of offspring on their parental digital participation.The results show that first,digital access differences exist between groups,reflecting in age,gender,place of residence,educational level,income and way of internet access,and the effect of influencing factors changes with time.Second,differences in digital use exist between groups,reflecting in age,gender,place of residence,educational attainment,income,social status and way of internet access,and the effect of influencing factors changes over time.Third,differences in digital use effects exist between groups based on differences in digital access and use.There were differences in the time of benefits and degree of benefits in digital participation among groups.High socioeconomic status groups will respond first in the process of internet development and diffusion;and the target group then transfers to middle and low socioeconomic status groups over time.Groups with high socioeconomic status prefer to use the internet for activities with a capital multiplicative function,such as online learning and work activities.Fourth,by expanding the connotation of traditional forms of human capital investment,digital human capital becomes a new way to invest in human capital,so as to use human capital theory to explain the benefits of using human capital multiplication activities in digital participation.Digital human capital is measured by specific internet usage behaviors,including time spent online reflecting the depth of use and online learning,work,and business activities reflecting the breadth of use.Fifth,the level of human capital in the base period,which includes digital human capital,significantly positively affects an individual’s current labor market performance,including wage,socioeconomic status index,and occupational prestige.Furthermore,digital human capital accumulation has a significant positive indirect effect on wage and socioeconomic status index,but the indirect effect on occupational prestige is not significant.Sixth,digital inequality among Chinese older people is mainly affected by demographic and socioeconomic factors,cognitive and health factors,and family size and structural factors.Digital back-feeding has a certain ability to mediate the digital inequality among Chinese older people.Seventh,digital inequality reflects social inequality,and it can be used either to widen existing social inequality,or to reduce existing social inequality through different levels of digital participation.Digital inequalities exist between groups,and the realization of digital inclusion can eliminate digital inequalities.Therefore,individuals should exert their subjective initiative and continuously improve their digital literacy,so as to participate in digital life in a diversified way.At the same time,in order to promote better digital participation of individuals,the government shall maintain a fair and just external environment,protect data privacy through regulation of unfair competition on the internet,protect data privacy through anti-monopoly,comprehensive management of algorithms,crack down on new types of crimes in telecom and cyber,create a secure network environment,and eliminate factors that hinder digital participation.Solving digital inequality should also be based on eliminating social inequality,by the way of improving people’s wellbeing,such as improving the system of income distribution,implementing the employment-first strategy,and improving the social security system,so as to eventually promote common prosperity for all.