The "Digital Divide" is a term that I had never heard of before this year and I think it's a fascinating one, too. There have been times when I think that it'd be awesome to escape completely from digital technology. Isn't that ironic coming from someone whose major Digital Technology & Culture. I've imagined moving somewhere, like a small beach community, or to a cabin in the mountains and living (at least for a while) without a computer, cell phone, and even television. I've read about families who have intentionally tried to live without electronic communication for a certain period of time, and found that it was really difficult. But there are millions of people in the world who have no concept of what it's like to live in a technological world. Is the digital divide getting wider, or is it narrowing? When I see really young children (like 1 year olds) taking their parents phones and playing games, I think it may be narrowing, but I've never been to places like Haiti. I thought it was pretty cool that MIT computer and Nicholas Negroponte developed the program One Laptop Per Child whose goal is to make computers available to underprivileged children in poor area. The thought is that these children would then become computer literate and teach their families. The idea behind this initiative is that "if participation in a global network beomes recognized the "haves" as a requisite for democratic participation in everyday life, it becomes the responsibility of those with access to transfer or dissiminate the technology to those who do not have the means to buy into it for themselves" (Sturken 236) I think that's an awesome program...maybe not truly altruistic, but still pretty cool.