Digital Divide and Well-Being in the Philippines

1. Definitions and Backgrounds
2. What do we want to know? Why did we do this research?
3. How did we do?
4. A quick introduction of the Philippines & current status of digitalization in the Philippines
5. Results
6. Conclusion

"A division between people who have access and use of digital media and those who do not" (Dijk, 2020, p1)

The definition and description:

“The balance point between an individual’s resource pool and the challenges faced” (Dodge et al, 2012)

“Well-being is a positive outcome that is meaningful for people and for any sectors of society, because it tells us that people perceive that their lives are going well.” (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC))

The measurements: Objective and Subjective

The main question:

How can mitigating the digital divide eliminate socio-economic inequality and increase individuals' well-being in the Philippines?

Sub-questions:

• What are the drivers of the digital divide in the Philippines?
• To what extend does digitalization empower locals and increase well-being in rural areas in the Philippines?
• What are the possible solutions to mitigate the digital divide in the Philippines?

The Bridges transition model by William Bridges (1986)

The model created for an organizational management with three phases of transition – the “Ending Phase”, “The Neutral Zone Phase” and “The Vision/ New Beginning”. This model was used by Kadir and Bromberg (2020) to investigated “how the introduction of new digital technologies had affected the workers’ well-being and overall performance before, during, and after implementations” using exploratory retrospective method.

The Cantril Ladder or Cantril’s Self-Anchoring Ladder of Life Satisfaction (Cantril, 1965)

The Cantril Ladder was adapted to identify respondents’ life satisfaction/well-being due to digital access. It gives number from 0 to 10 on a picture of ladder (0: the worst possible life, 10: the best possible life) and asks respondents to mark their position on the ladder. Additionally, it asks the position of 5 years ago and 5 years later. In this concept, our questions of digital access and well-being were formulated.

With keeping in mind of the physical obstacles

• “Access to information technology is vital because it's also a factor in progress, factor in sustainability and the factor in human development” (Interviewee ‘D’)

• “The basic human right to connectivity, and at least making sure that it's affordable and things like that” (Interviewee ‘F’)
• “It's technology, it was created by people it has to be designed in such a way that it will be for the benefit of the people as well.” (Interviewee 'G')

• N=22, 16 under 35, 0 above 55, 14 Female, 6 Male, 2 Gender queer, 1 part-time, 1 unemployed, 15 salaried among 20 full-time, 17 urban residents, 5 rural residents
• 14: different fields of work
• 16: some degree of higher education obtained
• Digital devices
• The Internet access
• The purpose of the digital access

The alignment results of the in-depth analysis and survey analysis

• Low-quality services and expensive costs
• Political, geographical and demographical drivers of the issues

Well-being analysis

Island living and digitalization

• Social connectivity
• education and work

Digital projects in their barangay

• Small data due to short research time and pandemic
• Sampling: personal connections

• A regionally tailored policy approach
• Strengthening collaboration and cooperation among different stakeholders
• Simultaneous efforts with social inequalities
• transparent and efficient government practices
• Holistic policies (including negative externalities)

• Photo 1: https://gttp.imgix.net/225057/x/0/pangasinan-angeles-hundred-islands-shutterstock-1548482252.jpg?auto=format%2Ccompress&fit=crop&crop=faces%2Cedges%2Ccenter&ixlib=react-8.6.4&h=459&q=35&dpr=2
• Photo 2: https://gttp.imgix.net/225064/x/0/7-most-beautiful-islands-in-the-philippines-10.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&ch=Width%2CDPR&dpr=1&ixlib=php-3.3.0&w=883
• Photo 3: https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-A24_u-gweIA/VQXZSn757sI/AAAAAAAAX14/fngDq_LLejg/s1600/banaue_rice_terraces_luzon.jpg
• Photo 5, Tracey :https://streamr.network/case-studies/tracey/
• Photo 6, SMARTseeds: https://akvo.org/wpcontent/uploads/2019/02/smartseeds.jpg
• Photo 7, PxD: https://2uy7xawu7lg2zqdax41x9oc1-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/nigeria_header-1536x731.jpg
• Photo 8, Farm Radio Trust: https://ruralsolutionsportal.org/en/-/farm-radio-trust
• Photo 9:  Here Comes the Rain Again: Team MoA-INFO springs into action - Precision Agriculture for Development 
• Photo 10: https://crowd2map.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/596daa63-b151-4c75-9d1a-58d14875f7be.jpg
• Dijk, J (2020). The Digital Divide
• Dodge et al. (2012). The challenge of defining wellbeing. International journal of wellbeing, 2(3).
• Bridges, W (1986). Managing organizational transitions. Organizational dynamics, 15(1), 24-33
• Cantril, H (1965). The pattern of human concerns. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press