Digital inequality is a critical issue in our knowledge economy. Often digital inequality is framed as a problem that only older people encounter. This rather stereotypical portrayal can result in improvised and unsuccessful policy actions. The goal of the article is to take the experiences of citizens who never or seldom use information and communication technology as a point of departure to show the impact and outcomes of digitalization on the lives of people with a low socioeconomic position (LSEP) and across different intersections, such as gender, poverty, ethnicity, and age. The results of this qualitative study emphasize that not being able to use the Internet negatively impacts feelings of belonging and self-confidence. Citizens need to invest continually in new or different equipment and in skills to keep up. Opportunities to invest are shaped at the nexus of gender, class, educational level, and occupational status. Therefore, simply training people in particular digital skills is insufficient. We show that the complexity of digital inequality and its interrelatedness with social inequalities along lines of class, age, gender, and ethnicity demand that policy and practices address digital inequality across the entire scope.

中文翻译：

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“永远不够好。” 对数字化对生活在社会经济地位较低的公民的影响的情境理解

数字不平等是我们知识经济中的一个关键问题。数字不平等通常被认为是只有老年人才会遇到的问题。这种相当陈规定型的描述可能会导致临时的和不成功的政策行动。这篇文章的目的是以从不或很少使用信息和通信技术的公民的经历为出发点，展示数字化对社会经济地位低下 (LSEP) 和不同国家和地区人民生活的影响和成果交叉点，例如性别、贫困、种族和年龄。这项定性研究的结果强调，无法使用互联网会对归属感和自信心产生负面影响。公民需要不断投资于新的或不同的设备和技能以跟上。投资机会取决于性别、阶级、教育水平和职业地位。因此，仅仅培训人们特别是数字技能是不够的。我们表明，数字不平等的复杂性及其与阶级、年龄、性别和种族等社会不平等的相互关系要求政策和实践解决整个范围内的数字不平等问题。