Persisting Digital Inequality: Evidence From a Panel Survey

In 2001, DiMaggio and Hargittai argued that the literature about inequality and internet use needed to move beyond the binary “digital divide,” coining the term “digital inequality” to refer to the spectrum of differences in internet experiences beyond an access divide. A large body of literature has since established that people from more privileged backgrounds use the internet for informational purposes more than those from a lower socioeconomic status. Little of this research, however, has examined whether these patterns hold over time given that most internet-use research relies on data collected at one point in time. This article contributes to digital inequality scholarship by examining how internet use has changed for people of differing socioeconomic backgrounds. The analyses are based on a unique panel survey that followed people over a decade with data collection about their internet uses every third year between 2010 and 2019. Thanks to the longitudinal nature of the dataset, the article is able to examine whether people from less privileged backgrounds catch up with their more privileged counterparts over time or whether inequalities in use persist. Findings suggest persisting inequalities with significant implications for how digital media may contribute to social inequalities.