INFO DIVIDE

4. Robert Reich (former Secretary of Labor who also made a cameo in the “Digital Divides” video) has suggested “the principal division [in labor] is no longer between blue-and white-collar workers but rather among three new categories” (22). What are those categories and how are they different than blue- and white-collar divisions? How do these divisions play into our discussions about inequality, digital divide, and racial ravines?

The reading broke down the new social classes into three primary groups which replace the old two class (white/blue collar) worker classes. It specified that people fall into either production workers, or in-person service workers , or symbolic analysts. These three classes differ from one another based on how dependant they are to ICT. The production worker may be involved with some ICT but only to a very elementary level. ICT isn't critically involved with their fields and in often, they make less money since such workers dont need much training in ICT; they often just need to operate a certain part of an assembly line. Such workers are often less educated and earn less money.

Then there is the in-person service workers. for example, the cashier at a mcdonalds register, the secretary at a law firm, or a police patrol office. Although they may use ICT for common communications that they need to carry out on a daily basis. I.e. ringing up a customer, sending/recieving emails for the boss to arrange their schedule for the day or checking on someone;s records. However, becuasse these jobs do not require much technical ability, and are often quickly accquired without the need for much background knowledge - but still require a modest familarity with ICT, such workers recieve mediocre pay.

Lastly, there are the Symbolic processers who depend on ICT on a daily basis. For example, a city;s traffic transit monitor, a computer programmer who is learning a new program; a PR trying to find new clients while maintaining the old ones. In essense, anyone who is ultimately working under a "network" infrastructure, as the readings would suggest, would fall into this group of workers becuase they HAVE to communicate with many others frequently to get things done and then use what has been communicated, interpret/develope and expand upon it. Obviously, this requires a mastery of ICT: emailing, tele-conferencing, setting up servers to communicate withing a network and consequently, as ICT employed in a large network setting yields higher production, and probably higher profits these employees - on average - probably make the most out of any of the other groups.

Blue collar and white collar are very white/black. To me i feel like white/blue collar means one either works in industry or one works in an office and that there is no mixing in between. In addition, this model of the job industry doesn't account for the service industry which - in today's soceity, every one falls into one or the other of the classes.


IN relationship to our discussions, the class of job that one falls into definitely plays a role on that person's success and salary and consequently, their socioeconomical status which in -turn could be seen as an inequality . So it comes to no suprise that the totem pole generally comes to production workers < in-person service workers < symbolic processors. Since the production workers dont make much money and have little to no opportunity to use ICT unless they actually go out there and actively pursue that skill, they will not advance. So they are basically in the hole. The in-person servers dont get to expand upon the skills that they already have since they probably dont have much opportunity/need to process/interpret the information communicated through ICT. And obviously, since the symbolic pocessors are already required to have high level of understanding in said technology and apply it on a daily basis, they are unlikely to lose those skills. Therefor, we have clear divides where - unless someone actively put themselves out there to pursue their goals - people cannot easily move between.