The Digital Disparities Facing Lower-Income Teenagers

Teenagers in lower-income households have fewer desktop, laptop and tablet computers to use at home than their higher-income peers, according to a new study by Common Cause Media. And those disparities may influence more than how teenagers socialize, entertain themselves and apply for college or jobs.

At a time when school districts across the United States are introducing digital learning tools for the classroom and many teachers give online homework assignments, new research suggests that the digital divide among teenagers may be taking a disproportionate toll on their homework as well. Only one-fourth of teenagers in households with less than $35,000 in annual income said they had their own laptops compared with 62 percent in households with annual incomes of $100,000 or more. One-fifth of teenagers in lower-income households reported that they never used computers for their homework — or used them less than once a month. And one-tenth of lower-income teenagers said they had only dial-up web access, an often slow and erratic Internet connection, at home. None of the higher-income youths said they had only dial-up access.

Vicky Rideout, an independent researcher and consultant who wrote the Common Sense Media report, said the disparities in teenagers’ technology access amounted to “digital inequality.”