Meeting the 'Resistance': Non-users of the internet, drop-outs, resisters and others

Bettina-Johanna Krings, Ulrich Riehm

Vortrag auf der Internationalen Konferenz "Technology: Between Enthusiasm and Resistance", University of Jyväskylä, Finnland, 10. - 11.05.2005


Abstract

Information and communication technologies (IT) represent a type of technology, whose adoption seems a single success story. Especially from the beginning of the 90s, when the PC was technically combined with the development of the World Wide Web, the rate of growth within highly industrialised countries was tremendous. The creation of new production patterns, new organisation structures and new communication forms were established on new technological information systems, whose promising aspects nobody was questioning.

Similar to other technological shifts, the adoption of IT clearly was socially and spatially bounded. As the NTIA reports in the USA showed, the stereotypical user of Internet was still in the middle of the 90s a young, white, university-educated man. These results led to the debate on the 'digital divide', which was used politically especially by the Bill Clinton / Al Gore-Administration in order to promote the 'socially inclusive' policy agenda. The dualistic structure of the public debate was rapidly established: It seemed that there was no doubt about the benefits of IT for everybody in terms of political, social and economic access to societal processes as well as for the economic wealth of societies. On the political level the solution seemed obvious: to guarantee technological access for all citizens.

Concerning the discourse on the digital divide in the last decade especially in Europe, one may say, that the discourse has become much more complex, differentiated and is based on a number of empirical studies, which reflects the social dimension of the absorption of IT. Also the dichotomous structure of the concept is partly being discussed critically, but one may say that there is still a lack of reflection, which bridges the gap theoretically: What are the reasons for not using the internet? What are the social and cultural consequences for the drop-outs? How does one address theoretically the resisters of IT?

The empirical figures about the nonusers show that there are many reasons for not using the internet. Sally Wyatt e.g. found several categories for not using the internet, where she pointed out that nonuser are not equally resisters. With the statistical data on internet use in Germany we wish to show that there is also a stable number of nonusers, who for various reasons do not feel the necessity to use the internet. Therefore on the political level we consider the political slogan "Internet for all Citizens" as a technological promoting strategy, which at least ignores and neglects the alternatives to internet use. On the scientific level we support a theoretical approach, which remains open for the social dimension of the technological process. Thus resistance is considered as individual freedom in choosing the proper technology and not as the pure resistance against technology.



Created: 06.04.2005 - Comments to: Bettina-Johanna Krings