The Digital Divide in Singapore Essay Example

Singaporean society where digital skills are necessary for high productivity, there is growing awareness to identify the digital divide in relation to the nature of one’s job.

Our group has chosen to examine the dynamic interaction of the causes of this divide-- age, disability, wealth and literacy, in a lesser-known disparity between blue-collar and white-collar workers in Singapore’s labour force. We are identifying semi-skilled or unskilled blue-collar workers, whose jobs entail manual labour (BusinessDictionary, 1996). The white-collar workers refer to the professionals and skilled workers whose jobs are often specialised and of a managerial nature.

Given that 60% of jobs in the American employment market require knowledge of ICTs (United States of America Congressional Report, 1998), we will examine their accessibility to ICTs and the relationship between one’s job and his usage of ICTs. Thus, bridging this divide by cultivating a competitive labour force and high employability in Singapore would be an important measure to sustain her economic growth, especially so in the face of an influx of competitive foreign talents and an ageing population.

From here, our group has formulated two research questions to explore in this report. 1. What are the underlying causes of the digital divide between the blue-collar and white-collar workers in Singapore? 2. How do we bridge this form of digital divide? Survey Methodology Our group had collected data from 13 blue-collar workers and 13 white-collar workers in Singapore’s labour force, using an offline and online version of a questionnaire. For offline data-collection process, our jobs were to clarify any questions that respondents had and to manually collect all answered surveys.

For online data-collection process, after

emailing the survey (designed using Google Spreadsheet) to the respondents, their submitted responses were analyzed and reported in the form of statistical charts and tables. One survey limitation is the small sample size of 26 respondents. As they do not represent all the blue collar and white collar workers in Singapore, our group cannot accurately determine the extent of the digital divide. Another limitation is that our group could not give instructions directly to the respondents for online surveys.

Thus, it resulted in the misunderstanding of some questions which led to inaccurate results. Internet Usage/ Internet Security and Copyrights Upon analyzing the survey responses, many aspects of the digital divide can be grouped, namely into the twin points of Access and Cognition. On technological requirements and basic infrastructure for Internet usage, we found that 8% of the respondents had ADSL and 88% had Cable Broadband connection (as compared with dialup) at home (Appendix C).

The white-collar segment was also savvier in their internet activities, with 100% using communication tools online (email, VoIP) as compared to 84. % blue-collar segment. They scored significantly higher than the latter on entertainment purposes (music, video), dealing with external organizations (online banking) and using emails frequently etc. On internet security, it appears that white-collar workers (30. 8%) are less susceptible to malware attack than blue-collar workers (61. 5%) (Appendix D). Nevertheless, there are more blue-collar workers using anti-malware software than white collar workers. For example, all blue-collar workers use antispyware compared to 6 white-collar workers (Appendix E).

Regarding other ICTs such as the mobile phone, 84. 6% white-collar workers subscribed to Third-Generation (3G) services compared to only

38. 5% blue-collar workers (Appendix F). Furthermore, all white-collar workers made more than 5 calls per day whereas 46% blue-collar workers made less than that amount (Appendix G). On the mode of overseas communication, 30. 8% and 23% blue-collar workers preferred international phone calls and instant messaging respectively, compared to 23% and 7. 7% white-collar workers respectively. However, only 7. 7% of the former used Skype or VoIP, compared to 30. % of the latter (Appendix H).

Generally, mobile phone has become an indispensable technology for all, regardless of the nature of their jobs. However, it is often the more affluent white-collar workers who possess better technologies. Furthermore, due to the digital divide in terms of IT literacy, white-collar workers are more aware of modern overseas communication modes than blue-collar workers. Conclusion Based on the results for internet connection at home, it would suggest that the digital divide between the blue and white-collar workers was not due to a lack of technological infrastructure.

However, in terms of actual usage, the blue-collar workers lag behind in the variety of online activities. Regarding the contradictory results of internet security issues, it is attributed to technical literacy in which the white-collar workers have a better knowledge of effective and legal technology usage. Thus, one of the causes of the digital divide lies in education and literacy (refer to Appendix A). There is certainly a gap in the level of awareness of the benefits and value of ICTs in addition to the specific technical knowledge required to use them.

The divide was further exacerbated with greater opportunities at a tertiary education level to develop one’s technical

skills. Another underlying cause is the nature of occupation which characterises the difference between the blue and white-collar workers. The high remuneration that accompanies white- collar jobs will allow them to have a greater disposable income to afford and guarantee the quality of the necessary infrastructures. In contrast to the more modest blue-collar occupation, such privileges are limited.

Thus, the level of affluence due to their respective occupation polarises the quality and accessibility to ICTs. Attitude and opinions towards utilising ICTs will also be affected. The more managerial white-collar job is usually integrated with the use of ICTs, leading to greater incentive to continuously update themselves with new ICTs so as to maintain competitive in the labour force. This is in stark contrast to the manual blue collar job where ICTs is seemingly of little relevance, rendering these workers to see little of its economic value.

Based on this analysis, our group recommends that the best way to bridge the digital divide between the two groups is to raise awareness of ICTs’ economic value. This is crucial in changing the attitude and opinions of the blue-collar employees who have greater reluctance to pick up the necessary skills to utilise ICTs. Employers could subsidize re-training programs and provide cheaper forms of ICTs to enhance the accessibility of such privileges to the blue-collars employees and assert the sheer relevance of ICTs which they have been neglecting all along.