Introduction

This chapter shows how we still live in a digitally divided world, with levels of digital exclusion remaining unacceptable despite the seeming ubiquity of technology and access to smart devices. It surveys the main drivers of digital exclusion and the substantial benefits of investing in digital inclusion: the process of helping people engage with digital for the first time and develop basic digital skills.

Noting that as a body of practice digital inclusion is changing, driven by the evolution of technology and the ways in which it is becoming increasingly integrated with human life, it goes on to describe the effective features of digital inclusion from a UK and public policy perspective. From there, it notes the strong ‘movement’ effect arising as a consequence of effective digital inclusion, and argues that this movement is required now and into the future, not only to close the digital divide but also to continue building our human relationship with technology as it continues to evolve.

The digitally divided world

We live in a digital world. Or do we? Digital exclusion – lacking basic digital skills or being entirely offline – is still remarkably prevalent. In 2017, research by Lloyds Banking Group (Lloyds Bank, 2017) showed that 4.8 million adults in the UK said they had never been online, and 11.5 million adults lack all of the basic digital skills considered essential to participate in the digital world, from internet searching to carrying out basic online transactions. Globally, although more people now say they use the internet than those who do not, 3.9 billion people (more than half the world's population) do not have internet access.

Being digitally excluded correlates strongly with social exclusion in all its many forms. If you are unemployed, living in poverty, living with a disability, or have low skills you are much more likely to be offline, and lacking internet access or digital skills has a significant impact on your ability to take advantage of routes to opportunity and wellbeing. According to the same Lloyds research (Lloyds Bank, 2017), 97% of those in the UK earning above £75,000 per annum have all five of the basic digital skills considered essential today, compared with 63% of those earning less than £9499 per annum.