In the 1990s, the term “digital divide” emerged to describe
technology’s haves and have-nots. It inspired many efforts to get
the latest computing tools into the hands of all Americans,
particularly low-income families.
Those efforts have indeed shrunk the divide. But they have
created an unintended side effect, one that is surprising and
troubling to researchers and policy makers and that the
government now wants to fix.
As access to devices has spread, children in poorer families are
spending considerably more time than children from more well-off
families using their television and gadgets to watch shows and
videos, play games and connect on social networking sites,
studies show.