But particularly amongst those not attending school, a wide gap still exists between those who have the skills and competencies to effectively evaluate the appropriateness of a given piece of information, and those who do not. A major divide still remains between those able to apply critical thinking and evaluation to an information source and those who cannot. The huge gap in the appropriateness of online content to under-served populations threatens to greatly increase social disparities. In their studies, under-served populations were primarily interested in the kind of local information that forms only a tiny portion of the content on the Web. Considering that 21 million Americans fall below the poverty line, and that the Web has very little information about local jobs, vocational training, and social programs, this lack of local information will do nothing to bridge this gap between haves and have-nots.
Most online content is written for people with average or above literary skills.
The vast majority of online content is virtually inaccessible to the 44 million adults and children who do not have those average literacy skills. So this group is also disenfranchised by the advent of the digital age. Most online content is in English. And online content in other languages primarily comes from foreign sources. Yet, over 32 million Americans don't speak English as their primary language.