The influence of digital inclusion and exclusion on individual’s perceptions of well-being and living their desired life in rural areas

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to provide insight into the outcomes that digital inclusion facilitates on well-being and quality of life for individuals living in rural areas. This study moves beyond ‘access’ to Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) towards the meaningful use of ICTs that enables digital inclusion. The objectives of this study are to identify the ways in which technology influences perceptions of well-being and if this contributes towards living of the desired lives for people in rural communities. This study followed an explanatory approach. This strategy was used as it seeks to gain insights into issues of technology in rural areas, digital and social inclusion which are not being researched widely especially in a rural context in order to understand them better and draw conclusions. This study used the Capability Approach as its theoretical lens to create a unique conceptual framework which explains the relationships between the concepts, the nature of the relationships and why these exist. Key findings include the influence that age, income and education have on digital inclusion. Older participants did not necessarily use technology and the internet less nor did people with poor education as suggested by prior literature. Though some participants had poor education, they were not illiterate as they could read and write which makes them teachable and probably explains while they were engaging with technology quite remarkably. However, low-income earners used less technology and often has non-internet enabled phones which is consistent with most literature. Three distinct type of users were identified based on ability and were categorised as poor, fair or good. However, regardless of ability, an interesting trend emerged regarding the type of usage. Two usage types were identified; desired and forced. Desired usage was where users engage on internet to perform tasks that they want to when they want to whereas Forced usage describes usage where a user had to engage on the internet due to there being no other alternative for the user. Examples identified include how certain transactions like banking could no longer be done in the traditional way because there are less branches. A key trend identified in the study was that of engagement through others. Various reasons were identified why people engage through others namely capability, necessity and choice. Some people engage through others because they do not have the ability (capability) to engage directly themselves while others will engage through others due to circumstances beyond their control such as connectivity issues (necessity). Others choose to engage through others because there are other people who can perform required tasks for them (choice). It was also identified that the location of the users plays a big role in how they engage resulting in varying levels of usage depending on location. Users might have access to better connectivity such as Wi-Fi when in one location as opposed to 3G connection when in another place. Digital desires of participants interviewed included better devices device with more functionality (internet-enabled devices for those who did not have them), additional devices such as tablets and laptops as well as better internet connectivity such as Wi-Fi for those actively using the internet. In conclusion, it was found that most people viewed technology as having positive influence on well-being and used it for a range of needs such as business use, social use, communication, information seeking and job seeking, thus creating convenience even in rural communities. Key contributions of the study include a conceptual framework which is derived from a combination of the synthesized models of Helsper’s (2013) access, skills and attitudes together with the 5 C’s as defined by Bradbook and Fisher (2004). New ideas are then added to the framework based on the findings creating new unique concepts such as type of digital inclusion (direct/self vs indirect/through others) and reason why people engage through others. These concepts can be ratified to see if they can be evidenced in future studies as well as used as inputs to other studies given limited literature available on these topics