The reason is that the Internet, like the printing press or any other technology, is just a tool and its effects depend on the use it is put to by the different social groups. What is certain is that its benefits are plentiful. As technology theorist Douglas Rushkoff points out in “Program or Be Programmed”, the creators and designers of these technologies may shape reality around us and determine the way we live and relate with each other. But the benefits of digital technologies demand more connected and better informed users. According to the International Telecommunication Union, joining the digital world is a complex and comprehensive process, which requires huge investments of financial and institutional resources reaching the most vulnerable regions and social sectors.
Latin America has significant disadvantages here and, barring a real revolution, the cleavages that have historically structured the region will in all likelihood be perpetuated in the digital age: subordinate inclusion in the world, poor territorial integration of countries, and ethnicity and gender-based social marginalization. That is, what remains after the initial enthusiasm of techno utopians is the fact that the challenges today are exactly the same as yesterday.
Gap 1: Centre-Periphery
