Unresolved Issues: Quality of Life and Digitalization in Marginalized Communities

Digitalization is a catalyst for the development of an information society, transforming how individuals interact with the world. However, its implementation across countries and regions has been uneven, contributing to social polarization and declining social trust. Among the most pressing concerns related to digitalization and inequality are the conditions of marginalized communities and persistent gender disparities. This study examines whether digitalization is associated with quality of life in marginalized areas and whether these effects differ between men and women. Using a quantitative approach, this study applies an ordinal regression model to data from two surveys conducted in 2021 and 2024 in a marginalized community in Mexico City. The results indicate that digitalization is significantly associated with quality of life: households possessing technological assets were 4.17 times more likely to report improvements in quality of life. Moreover, notable gender differences emerged. Although men’s quality of life increased by a factor of 35.7 in relation to digitalization, no statistically significant association was observed for women. The findings suggest a growing and statistically significant association between digitalization and quality of life in marginalized communities, but its benefits are distributed unevenly across genders.