Final answer:
Access to high-speed Internet is most prevalent in affluent urban and suburban areas, with rural and low-income areas experiencing significantly lower access rates.
The digital divide is compounded by disparities in technology use and Internet access across racial, class, and generational lines, with minority groups often relying on smartphones rather than computers for Internet access.
Step-by-step explanation:
People have the most access to high-speed Internet in affluent urban and suburban areas. Census data from 2018 indicated that whereas 78 percent of U.S. households had Internet access, those in rural and low-income areas were 13 percent below the national average.
Particularly, 'completely rural,' lower-income counties had the lowest rates of home Internet adoption, hovering around 60 percent. The issue of the digital divide reflects inequalities in infrastructure upgrades, with a tendency for upgrades to favor wealthy urban and suburban regions, excluding many parts of the country.
This division is further exacerbated by disparities in technology use and Internet access among different races, classes, and ages in the United States.
Moreover, the reliance on smartphones for Internet access among minority groups introduces another layer to the digital divide, as tasks that are crucial for empowerment, such as job searching, are more challenging on mobile devices than on traditional computers.