Draft of draft 1

(A)         Introduction:

“The digital divide is the social, economic and cultural consequences of the unequal distribution of access to computers and the Internet” (Sorj & Guedes, n.d.).

The BBC article, “Bridging Brazil’s digital divide” (2008) reports a shocking statistic that approximately 3 out of 5 Brazilians have never used the Internet or a computer even though Brazil is the 5^th market in the world for computers. In the article, Mr Assumpco the head of country’s committee to close the divide contends that the digital divide is a social divide resulted from the exceptional “class divide” in Brazil. There is a prominent contrast where rich children were exposed to technology since young and poor children might only be taught how to use a computer in their teenage years. This led to a serious consequence observed by Mr Assumpco when poor teenagers are being taught to conform to technology. He argues that this perspective will result in those having command over technology to be leaders as compared to the poor being commanded by technology. Therefore, perpetuating the inequality in Brazil.

It is pertinent to study the digital divide in Brazil as the digital divide and social inequality are mutually constitutive. Therefore, there is an opportunity for information technology to be a “tool towards a more just and beneficial distribution of the country’s wealth” (Albernaz, 2002)

This essay will examine how the lack of information communications technologies (ICTs) further excludes the youths from the favelas. Next, current measures will be evaluated and it is propose that they require refinements to resolve the “second level digital divide” concerning not only access but also “digital literacy” characterize by the amount of usage, familiarity of internet usage and effectiveness of usage (Pedrozo, 2013).

(B)         Problem:

Favelas are substandard housing normally located at the margins of cities in Brazil and a sign of urban poverty where people are unable to afford formal housing. Today, there are more than 600 favalas in Brazil, an evidence of the huge socio-economic divide in the country. A study by the Favela, Opinion, and Marketplace research group found out that only 1 out of 4 youths aged between 15-25 years have not completed basic education and only 1 in 100 completed university. Such circumstances result in the difficulty in employment that encourages youths to be involved in the rampant drug trafficking business in the favelas (Sorj, 2003).

With the rise of the information society, youths are further socially and digitally excluded due to illiteracy.  This is evident from the video “Center for digital inclusion” (2009) where slum dwellers do not have idea of their future, as survival was more important. Furthermore, since young they have been under the influence of drugs hence they do not have a vision out of the slums. The lack of technology deny youths from seeing opportunities in life as they are not expose to the information on the Internet and as a result they are isolated from the rest of the world.