The Digital Divide Objectified in the Artefact: Use of the Mobile Telephone by Rural Youth in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Most discussions on the digital divide have predominantly focused on social disparities in the accessibility of information and communication technologies (ICT) including the mobile telephone, and the proposed solutions are related to providing low cost access to the underprivileged. This paper, based on an empirical study in Sri Lanka, demonstrates that even though rural, underprivileged consumers have adopted the mobile phone, a significant portion of facilities available in the phones is ‘inaccessible’ to such consumers due the objectification of broader social inequalities in the design of phones.