Race and the Digital: Racial Formation and 21st Century TechnologiesMain Menu"From Tweets to Streets?" A Research Project with Digital Supplement"The Digital Divide" Research ProjectsRace and the Digital BlogIntersectionality and TaggingCourse SyllabusSyllabus for Race and the Digital at UCLAStatement of Values: Digital Ethnic StudiesContributors' PortfoliosAbout "Race and the Digital"Genevieve Carpiocbaef6f4fe1847cc774ee8ef5c2d6efb0a58fda3Kid Cometb62a4423d252f961609f416b7188ffbc7d84a7d3Yesenia Melgoza-Fernandeza6a8d8933b14c7be3a522d5102f92c9dfe52e9b2Michie Ortiz25daabac1577ec1d12a68b2c0b0a15c4dba1374bEduardo D. Garcia6e60d0784abf2b990f3510cceb60101259a8bdd3Alan Evangelistaf3e41e7c002a037bb13d71a1e837eb5bf5bef12fAna Victoria H.37ae5307effd9bccccea4f0fe7958d15cee30e07Arturo Sotelo38025c1bb15e36f2beff44b22df47fac513c339faade8e08161ecdfbe4206b74479dee1c1d007a58c4Ashley Martinez-Munoza5a71a08c4c1c5dc7904ffcbc148c4f2edb1e723Ebony Paramodca8ce0b7a38097adb1b511e4c75690f833171f0
12016-04-07T11:23:39-07:00The World of Pinterest Is The World Of The Few by Alan Evangelista34Digital Divide Paperplain2016-04-28T16:38:22-07:00Over the past two decades, our society has seen an increase in the number of computers, cellphones, tablets, and other information and communication technologies that seem to be having positive impacts on people’s social, cultural, political, and academic lives. Beyond just facilitating communication, advancements of ICTs now allows people to actively engage with and participate in the creation and distribution of media content. This is done through new media platforms such as blogs, online video games, wikis, and social media sites. In spite of the apparent spread and accessibility of ICTs however, there seems to be growing disparities in the ownership, access, and participation of ICTs and new media platforms among individuals from different demographic backgrounds. This is known as the digital divide. According to Gilbert (2010), within the context of the United States, “poor people, racialized minorities—particularly African Americans and Latinos—women, inner city and rural residents, and the elderly are all groups that are disadvantaged in relation to ICTs” (1002). Focusing on the social media site, Pinterest, and looking at data from the Pew Research Center on the Percentage of Internet Users Who Use Pinterest and from the Pew Hispanic Center on Technology Use by Race and Ethnicity (2010), I look to answer the way race shapes the nature of access and participation of ICTs and what the implications of ICT access and participation disparities among minoritized communities are. I find that Latino/as and African Americans are less “connected” to the Internet than their white counterparts and are less likely to participate in the expression and distribution of creativity and culture found on Pinterest.
