Is the 'app gap' the new digital divide?
You’ve probably seen the video with the kid who doesn’t understand how to read a magazine, swiping it like you would a tablet. You may have laughed, you may have cringed, but you probably realized that this may be a part of children’s’ reality today.
According to research by Common Sense Media, not only are children under 8 are spending more time than ever in front of screens, but there’s an “emerging ‘app gap’ in which affluent children are likely to use mobile educational games while those in low-income families are the most likely to have televisions in their bedrooms.”
What’s this reality look like? Focusing on apps, thefirm found that “almost half the families with incomes above $75,000 had downloaded apps specifically for their young children, compared with one in eight of the families earning less than $30,000. More than a third of those low-income parents said they did not know what an ‘app’ — short for application — was.”