April 12, 2026
2011 v 2026: digital divide and me
My personal history, and a name for the divide that replaced the one I wrote about.
Whose words Every sentence here is mine, written unassisted in April 2026. The later work: a light edit on republication — typos and punctuation only, plus the timeline set as a list. The fairyland rules are untouched. That edit was AI-assisted. The prose is not.
- 2010–2014 — college at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois.
- Spring 2011 — the semester I was a video game design major. Big mistake.
- 2014 — English Education for a semester, and then just English.
- February 2015 — moved to Korea to teach English. Three years, then more education work back in the States.
- 2026 — stay-at-home mom, still thinking about the digital divide after all these years.
Why was the video game design major a mistake? The digital divide. I was not ready for project classes.
Digital divide is unequal access to and use of digital technology, encompassing four interrelated dimensions: motivational, material, skills, and usage access. […] The digital divide worsens inequality in access to information and resources. In the Information Age, people without access to the Internet and other technology are at a disadvantage, for they are less able to connect with others, find and apply for jobs, shop, and learn.
— Wikipedia, “Digital divide”
In short: I chose “the digital divide” at random from a list of topics for a large paper, and then had revelation after revelation about how access to information, plus infrastructure, plus knowledge, makes it easier for some people to jump straight into a project-based curriculum like video game design. And about how I personally came up humblingly short when I considered my own skills and capabilities in the tech projects we were doing.
In my heart I enjoyed writing that paper far more than anything else I did that semester. So: English Education for a semester. And then just English.
The fear, and what actually happened
The 2011 fear was that without access to the internet or a home computer, children would fall behind and be unable to learn the skills to keep up with the future of work. Getting everyone onto high-speed access is still an ongoing issue globally, and even in America. But I wonder about another lopsided situation brewing.
Has more access to high-speed internet actually meant anything?
And as AI technology rapidly evolves, is there a growing new digital divide that has yet to be defined? Keep going — I am about to define it.
My husband is a software engineer who has been playing with LLMs the whole while, with me along for the ride, so I am seeing in real time the way AI is already dividing us. Most people truly don’t get the inner workings of any of it. Some people can see the utility. Some see it as a toy. And some see it as a solution to poor self-esteem, using it as a mirror to adore their own thoughts and words and reflections. Beware that trap.
Fairyland
I have much to say in the future about how technology — especially the Wild West social media scape we have built — is essentially a fairyland to visit. The rules are remarkably similar to the ones the brothers Grimm would pen as warnings:
- Entering is easy, exiting takes intention.
- Come with a question in mind, or leave more confused than before.
- Nothing is truly free and your name is easy to lose. So is time. So are your feet.
- The loudest creatures get the most attention (doesn’t mean they’re right).
- The food is placed to keep you coming back: consume at your own risk.
The intention gap
And so I propose a name for this: the intention gap. The divide between those who are able to use tech to build something, or as a utility for research and problem-solving, and those who only know how to use it as entertainment.
Do you use technology, or are you being used by it?
Alexis Dawn writes the inner library project as a way to show how one can live in a meaning-making sort of way. Thanks for floating along.