IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/palcom/v10y2023i1d10.1057_s41599-023-02326-1.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Beyond structural inequality: a socio-technical approach to the digital divide in the platform environment

Author

Listed:
  • Jianghua Yang

    (Xi’an Jiaotong University)

  • Mengzhu Zhang

    (Xi’an Jiaotong University)

Abstract

With the widespread use of social media platforms, human-technology interactions in platform environments provide a new perspective for understanding digital inequality. This article constructs a conceptual framework through the analytical tool of “platform affordance” to reveal how the mutual construction of humans and technology extends the boundaries of digital inequality beyond structural factors. The framework considers the positive sequential relationship between technology-efficacy and self-efficacy, highlighting their dominant role in promoting stratified uses and outcomes on social media platforms. Using survey data from Sina Weibo users in China, we find that users’ perceptions of the location of the feature’s icon and methods of operation shape online content creation through their perceived capabilities and needs, resulting in an unequal distribution of digital capital. On the one hand, platform affordance weakens the mechanisms that reproduce social inequality; it does so by revealing the fundamental role of interaction between technological properties and personal expectations in guiding online activities. On the other hand, platform affordance also reshapes how social structural factors operate; it does so by triggering moderating effects of personal and positional characteristics on the relationship between technology-efficacy and self-efficacy.

Suggested Citation

  • Jianghua Yang & Mengzhu Zhang, 2023. "Beyond structural inequality: a socio-technical approach to the digital divide in the platform environment," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-12, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:10:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-023-02326-1
    DOI: 10.1057/s41599-023-02326-1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41599-023-02326-1
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/s41599-023-02326-1?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Carmen Llorente-Barroso & María Sánchez-Valle & Mónica Viñarás-Abad, 2023. "The role of the Internet in later life autonomy: Silver surfers in Spain," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-20, December.
    2. Hwankyung Janet Lee, 2023. "Interface as the site of infrastructural change," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-9, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jie Hu & Jingdan Hu, 2024. "The influence of age at first regular digital device access on digital reading performance: the mediating effect of cognitive flexibility," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-18, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.

      More about this item

      Statistics

      Access and download statistics

      Corrections

      All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:10:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-023-02326-1. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

      If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

      If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

      If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

      For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.nature.com/ .

      Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

      IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.