The Digital Divide: A Case for The Disenfranchised

I was doing some research today about why I'm having so much difficulty in finding work. I tried over the past almost nine years to find something that I could do. I found writing to be one avenue to pursue with some limited success. I also found a bunch of resources that left me feeling a bit overwhelmed. I wasn't sure what to pursue where I would have any chance of getting a decent steady job. I, like some of my contemporaries have become what some would coin as disenfranchised. We had the experience, but it wasn't in technology. We wanted to learn, but some of us were barred due to lack of resources.

I discovered it wasn't just me that was experiencing this disenfranchisement. Many older people are experiencing it as well. For some of us it is the digital divide that has rendered us obsolete and useless. The fact is that although many in our generation embrace some of the newer technology, we can't embrace it all. We see what's currently happening with everything going online, and it deeply disturbs us. This past few months should have opened people's eyes to the fact that too much is now being put online barring those who don't have internet access to normal lives.

I realized that it isn't just the older folks that are feeling the effects of this rapid shift into the digital age. There are actually a whole segment of society that has been barred from conducting normal transactions. The push is for automated servers (no worries about infection there), automatic payment (no risk of handling cash) and online shopping (no brick and mortar stores). We've all seen the barring of monetary transactions through onsite branches. Some banks even went so far as to deny people the ability to access their accounts physically. Even now some of these same banks, and those who have opened up are continuing to press people to sign up for electronic payments. It sounds "fishy" to me. It also doesn't seem right to me. Just because someone doesn't have a smartphone or mobile device, doesn't mean that they can't get money out of their account.