Digital Divide: Navigating the Digital Edge
This article considers how the digital media lives of Latino and African American youth are evolving. Latino and African American youth are just as likely as their white and Asian America counterparts to go online, manage a social networking site, and use a mobile phone. The shifting digital media practices of black and Latino youth raise crucial questions and suggest that producing a more equitable digital future requires more than access to technology. Even as black and Latino participation in the digital media world continues to evolve, we know little about the content or the context of their digital lives. One of the most urgent challenges regarding technology, diversity, and equity is the need to expand digital literacy. That is, the development of young people's capacity to not only access digital media but also use digital media in ways that are connected to the everyday lives and situations of youth and their communities. Finally, the article considers the extent to which Latino and African American engagement with digital media produces behaviors and learning outcomes that might impact the academic achievement gap.
