First-Level Digital Divides Matter: The Importance of Quality of Access and the Digital Divide in Predicting Internet Use

Recent research has examined the reliability and quality of internet access (“under-connectedness”) separately from digital divide issues. This paper examines the relationship between under-connectedness and the digital divide, as well as their impact on internet use. We use the Internet and Computer Use supplement to the 2023 Current Population Survey (CPS) to obtain a representative sample of the U.S. population. We find that digital divide measures are more important than under-connectedness in predicting variety of internet use. This is true both for the population as a whole and for lower-income respondents. Our results indicate that even in countries with near-saturation levels of internet use, first-level digital divides concerning internet and device access continue to play a critical role in people’s internet usage, and these divides need to be considered in digital inequality research, which has largely ignored them in recent years.