Information technology availability and use in the united states: A multivariate and geospatial analysis by state

Abstract

Exploratory empirical studies of the digital divide exist for various nations including the United States. The contribution of this paper is to enhance understanding of factors associated with availability and utilization of information and communication technologies (ICTs) at the state level in the US. In our conceptual model of technology utilization, eight dependent technology availability and utilization factors are posited to be associated with twelve independent socio-economic, demographic, innovation, and societal openness factors. Technology utilization variables are spatially analyzed to determine extent of agglomeration or randomness, and regression residuals are examined to eliminate spatial bias. We find that societal openness, urbanization, and ethnicities are significantly associated with higher ICT utilization. We report interesting findings for social media communication technologies of Facebook and Twitter. Implications for policymakers at both federal and state levels are discussed. © 2014 IEEE.