Abstract:
Pakistan is a developing country. Trend of using ICT’s (Information and Communication
Technologies) is not yet embedded in Pakistani community. But gradually, Pakistani people are
getting aware about the benefit of using ICT’s. Despite the growing awareness there are
possibilities of gender, age and area based digital divide. The expression “digital divide” is
normally described in terms of gaps between those who can efficiently use new technological
tools, such as the Internet, and those who cannot; also this term is sometime used to refer the
perception that the society should not be divided into “information haves” and “information
have-nots”. The goals of this research are twofold. First, we conducted a survey on presence of
“digital divide” in urban and rural areas of Azad Jammu and Kashmir. Second, through a case
study we see the effect of usability problems of social networking sites. From this, we discuss the
dynamic relationship between the web 2.0 based sites and their contribution in bringing people
towards using ICT. Our results indicates presence of age based and area based digital divide, but
gender based digital divide is disappearing in our targeted area. The survey results also supported
our hypothesis about web 2.0 based sites that they are playing a major role in attracting people
towards using ICT. Our case study survey indicated some major usability problems for two most
famous social networking sites. Solving these usability issues can help in bringing more nontechnical
people towards using internet and communication technologies.
