Since the pandemic, the digital divide has been regularly discussed in the public space, but the internet is already around thirty years old. Is illiteracy such a recent problem?
The digital alienation of part of the population has existed since the beginnings of the industry. Merely, the more digital takes place in our daily lives, the more illectronism becomes visible. By accelerating the adoption of tools such as videoconferencing services, for example, the Covid has made it more obvious the difficulty of some, at school or in business, to take them in hand.
You also worry about those who suffer from “digital dyspraxia”…
In France and around the world, there are perhaps 5 to 10% of people who are distant from digital technology, because they do not want or cannot acquire the knowledge necessary to use it. We talk about it a lot, but what seems to me even more important is the share of the population – which I estimate at least half of Internet users – who use technology, but still have difficulty performing tasks simple, like managing their emails. These are the people I call affected by a form of dyspraxia or digital dyslexia.
What causes this dyspraxia?
Digital tools have multiplied at work, in our homes and suddenly, a consensus has emerged on the fact of using them on a daily basis. But no one has been trained, no one has been supported in adopting these tools. For a company, it’s as if, because we make a large part of our turnover in China, we suddenly asked all employees to speak Chinese. Digital is a language, with its grammar, its spelling, its culture. It can be learnt !
To what extent can Web3 help people more or less remote from digital?
I have a hard time seeing how he could do that. For the general population, those who sometimes have trouble using their emails, the very concept of a database is abstract. So talking to him about blockchain, cryptocurrency or NFT is almost grotesque. Currently, Web3 applications are reserved for a very small number of people, perhaps a few hundred thousand in France, who have made the effort to look into them. And again, I include the holders of cryptoassets, but nothing says that they know what Web3 covers. For the inclusion of greater diversity it’s the same: it’s already very simple to launch an association under the 1901 law to do so, the contribution of a DAO (decentralized autonomous organization) in the project seems limited to me .
How to turn the tide?
You have to do pedagogy. On its website, the Ministry of Finance explains what blockchain, NFTs, etc. are. This kind of logic should be extended, because the lack of knowledge of digital in general and Web3 in particular is also fertile ground for scams and security breaches. Another approach would be that of investment. Rather than repeating the common mistake of only funding projects carried out by young white men with computer training, we should make sure to fund projects that include a section explicitly dedicated to inclusion.