No Man is an Island: The Influence of Knowledge, Household Settings, and Social Context on Private Computer Use

In modern societies, the digital divide indicates the emergence of a new form of social inequality. The theoretical model presented in this paper captures effects on the micro-, meso-, and macro-level. The empirical findings are replicated for the years of 1997 and 2001 of the GSOEP (the German Socio-Economic Panel). Large net effects are observed on the macro-level, for gender, Turkish ethnicity, and generation. On the micro- and the meso-level the net effects are substantial, too. Knowledge and household setting significantly add to explain who accesses computers and who does not. It remains an open question as to how a potential lack of primary social ties, i.e. living with children, may be compensated to help close the digital divide.