Page 97 - JOURNAL OF LIBRARY SCIENCE IN CHINA 2018 Vol. 43

YAN Hui / Structural origins of digital poverty in rural China 097

no strength to overcome other psychological barriers in using ICTs.
Poverty in digital ability, which defines poor conditions in agent’s literacy and skills in
motivating one’s own resources and capability to finish digital tasks and behaviors, frequently
leads to shortage of basic literacy to understand the digital tasks, impossibility of manipulating
and using skills in ICTs, the incomplete enabling process of discovering physical, social, cultural,
and political resources to equip with one’s digital behaviors, and insufficient physiological and
psychological preparations.
With the name of digital efforts, I argue that digital poverty could be observed through measuring
the agent’s attitudes, time, energy, and experiences in the digitalization. For instance, the failed
experiences in access and usage of ICT sometimes result in resistance to invest enough time and
energy in the digital behaviors and furthermore directly fastening the degree of digital poverty.
The less time the agent spends on the digital practice, the more difficulties are confronted by them.
Generally speaking, whether or not the agent is making efforts and the hard-working degree are
determined by their attitudes towards digital tools and practices.
The social dimensions of digital poverty are composed of social norms and social support in
digitalization. Social norms refer to standpoints, stereotype, regulations, thinking principles,
standards, and paradigm on digital practice and behaviors by disadvantaged groups in traditional
society. Poverty in social support in the process of digitalization means agent’s shortage of
instrumental support and emotional support from its social networks. Digital poor individuals
are imbedded into homogenous social network and thus difficult to gain social support without
effective bridging social capital.
Agent’s poverty in digital impacts is defined as negative effects or no improvement on daily
life, study, and work by digital behaviors and practices. Although individuals are accidently being
digitalized, for instance, making trials in using ICT devices, no positive influences are imposed on
themselves.
Among the 8 dimensions of digital poverty discovered in fields, digital tools, digital services,
social support in digitalization, and social norms are relatively objective and external factors
for agent, while digital psychology, digital ability, digital efforts, and digital impacts are
subjective and internal. Digital tools and digital services are unsteady and tend to be changed;
and other 6 elements often refuse to evolve dramatically and therefore are firm in the observing
periods.

2.2 Types of digital poverty

Digital poverty can be measured and classified in terms of different compositions of the 8
elements, as described and displayed in Table 2.