5G. Will it Break the Technology Social Norm?
Globally, as a society, we are clearly at a stage where our predominant form of electronic communication is through mobile technology. More notably, the Internet. We no longer have simple human-to-human communication but also machine-to-machine communication. Billions of devices creating a labyrinth of information accessible at any moment. The 5G infrastructure, as we all know, is designed to handle this constant increase in connected devices and the increase of data throughput that comes with it. This immediate access to information also has significant social, economic, cultural and political implications on individuals.
Given that access to the Internet is increasingly taking place through mobile technology, this also means that how people access and use 5G will have consequences on their life chances. Increasingly, people are using the Internet for day to day activities such as shopping, social networking, job seeking, business opportunities and for entertainment. Within the era of 5G, this trend is invariably set to increase. This suggests that those people with unrestricted access to 5G — and have the ability and skills to fully utilize it — have a distinct advantage over those with restricted access, or those who, for a variety of reasons, are unable to fully utilize 5G in pursuit of their life goals.
Digital Inequality
The term “Digital Divide” is often used to refer to unequal access to digital networks such as the Internet. In practice, the term “Digital Divide” has been used to differentiate between those who have access to a communication medium and those who do not. We could argue that this is no longer appropriate as the majority of society is, in some way or another, “online”. Individuals, however, do have varying levels of access throughout the world, so would the term “Digital Inequality” be more appropriate? A stated goal of 5G is to provide universal mobile access to the Internet, and so “Digital Inequality” could be seen as more descriptive of how society is likely to engage with 5G as opposed to “Digital Divide” which has an implication of binary access.
However we look at it, it’s fair to say that digital inequality and digital divides are rooted in social inequality. When the Internet was conceived in the early 1990’s it was advertised as a fairer access to information for all, but unfortunately it soon became apparent that certain social groups such as the highly educated and those on higher income were more likely to use the Internet. 5G offers the same promise of providing equal access to information channels and social networks, and it is therefore pertinent to explore these potential digital equalities.
There are four dimensions that have been identified within digital inequality: lack of experience with new technology; non-possession of technology, such as computers or smartphones with access to communication networks; lack of digital skill; and finally, lack of usage opportunities. When the Internet was introduced, inexperience with the emerging technology and the possession of the devices needed were the most critical dimensions. People most affected by this included the elderly, those with low educational qualifications, those on low incomes, as well as those who lived in rural areas.
As a general rule, the young and the educated are better able to adopt and experiment with new technologies and to use them in their day to day lives. In contrast, the elderly and poorly educated are less inclined to adopt new technologies. An example is, again, the Internet, whereby in advanced economies, the elderly are less likely to use it, despite its scope to offer a better livelihood given their potential restricted mobility as a result of age. If the elderly are able to access and use the Internet, then it becomes possible for them to take greater control of their lives by using it to undertake every day activities such as banking, shopping and even getting medical advice.
With advances in Internet and networking technologies, including 5G, it is apparent that more and more activities are going to be accessible over the Internet, thereby making access to 5G a necessity for modern day life. 5G will enable a wide variety of sensors to be connected to homes and to individuals, and this will enable doctors to monitor the health conditions of the elderly directly and in real time. Hence, it is of direct benefit to the elderly if they are sufficiently motivated to engage with emerging 5G technologies.
5G promises equal access to all individuals regardless of location. This means that even people in rural areas should have the same level of access as people in urban areas. However, compared to urban areas, rural areas are more sparsely populated, and therefore more expensive to connect. The task of interconnecting rural areas cannot therefore be left solely to mobile network providers. Governments have to contribute to this by formulating appropriate policies, giving incentives to network providers, and directly investing in network infrastructure. Just as it is the responsibility of governments to provide people with access to fixed broadband, perhaps access to 5G should also fall under this remit?
5G also promises to make the complexity of emerging technologies more transparent to end users. This is extremely important, as technology and devices that are not user-friendly can cause access problems in practice. 5G users shouldn’t see a significant jump in the look and feel of their devices. Plus, with the increased application of Multimodal user interfaces, people can interact using hand gestures and facial gazes. Multimodal user interfaces reduce the need to learn complex sequences of instructions, and in this way, they make complex technology more tractable. In addition, we are also witnessing the advent of intelligent personal assistants. These personal assistants simplify man-machine interfaces by anticipating user needs and issuing commands and requests to the underlying technology to carry out various tasks on behalf of the user. This will help realize another goal of 5G, namely, to facilitate personalized services for end users.
A key feature of 5G is the widespread utilization of IoT devices. These IoT devices will have application in logistics, utilities and healthcare, as well as our homes, all with the potential to improve our quality of life, taking charge of mundane day to day aspects of our business and social lives. A consequence of this is that the need for digital skills may simply disappear as IoT devices are more widely utilized.
Final Thought
There is plenty of evidence to suggest that 5G will usher in a generation of equal opportunity technology users. However, history is against us. With each new generation of mobile technology there has always been a promise of better quality of life for all and with only early 5G deployments to evaluate, it may be too early to make assumptions. It is clear that the divide between those with, and those without is closing but is it quick enough? Will 5G break the technology social norm?
If you’d like to learn more, feel free to check out our 5G Use Cases course.
