Nineteenth International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic & Social Sustainability

Abstract

In the current phase of technological development, society is facing a new challenge – digital inequality. While, until recently, it was considered that providing equal access to digital technologies and services would solve it, today we realize that this is not enough. The inequality no longer remains in binary terms (i.e. the availability vs lack of access), but it persists in the opportunities to use technology related to other factors, such as education or age, and even in the extent to which this use is effective. There are currently three levels of digital inequality. In this study, the authors describe them in detail and justify the relevance of the problem of quantifying third-level digital inequality. The authors developed a methodology to assess it by analyzing the popularity of Google search queries relating to different topics, which can be markers of Internet efficiency. This paper presents a pilot test of the methodology the examples from the Russian regions. The analysis and mapping of the data obtained with Google Trends allowed us to identify the territorial features of digital inequality at the level of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation.