The issue of digital divide in rural areas of the European Union

Abstract

The increasingly popular use of ICT in different areas of life results in changes of the situations of individuals and entities. However, along with the new possibilities of socio­economic development, come new risks related to the rise of a new type of inequalities. One of such threats is the digital divide or - in other words - the lack of equal access to the opportunities offered by the Internet and other ICT. The phenomenon of the digital divide applies to both indi­viduals and areas or even countries. The aim of this paper is to introduce the digital divide and the factors influencing the lack of digital convergence with particular emphasis on rural areas of the European Union. In EU's rural areas there is an additional hindrance to achieving digital conver­gence similar to the urban areas - that is the aging of the population and the progressive depopu­lation of the countryside.

Keywords

• digital divide
• rural areas
• digital convergence
• the European Union