Computer literacy in the first world

Computer literacy is considered to be a very important skill to possess in developed countries. Employers want their workers to have basic computer skills because their company becomes ever more dependent on computers. Many companies try to use computers to help run their company faster and cheaper.

Computers are just as common as pen and paper are for writing, especially among youth. There seems to be an inversely proportional relationship between computer literacy and compositional literacy among first world computer users.^[2] For many applications - especially communicating - computers are preferred over pen, paper, and typewriters because of their ability to duplicate and retain information and ease of editing.

As personal computers become common-place and they become more powerful, the concept of computer literacy is moving beyond basic functionality to more powerful applications under the heading of multimedia literacy.

It is frequently assumed that as computer and Internet access is common-place in the first world, everyone in those countries must have equal and ready access to this technology, and to skills in how to effectively use it. There is, however, a significant digital divide in even the most technologically advanced and enabled countries, with digital haves and have-nots. Older workers who do not use the internet at home and are computer illiterate may be frozen out of the job market even for relatively unskilled jobs such as clerking in anauto parts store.^[3]

The Digital Inclusion Forum,^[4] a consortium set up through joint participation from the Wireless Internet Institute,^[5] IBM, Intel, Microsoft and Ohio's One Community,^[6] is just one organization developed to address this. Their organizational mission in this is to provide a "comprehensive resource center to inform, educate and share best practices among state and local government leaders, industry and institutional stakeholders on identifying and implementing sustainable market solutions to bridge the digital divide in North America."

A variety of private sector nonprofits and foundations also contribute to this, in addressing the needs of underserved communities. Per Scholas, for example runs programs offering free and low cost computers to children and their families in underserved communities in the South Bronx, New York, Miami, Florida and in Columbus, Ohio.^[7]