How Technology Changes Our Lives

Africa is about USED 60 a month and USED 22 a month in the US. The average African monthly salary is less than USED 60. * Native English speakers represent 35% of the online population, although they are less than 10% of the world population. Native Chinese speakers represent the second largest group: 16% of the online population.

* In Chile 89% of internet users have had tertiary education, in Sir Lankan 65%, and in China 70%. * Iceland has the highest percentage of internet users (68%); the united States stands at 56%; Malaysia 34%; Jordan 8%; Palestine 4%; Nigeria 0. %; Atkinson 0. % The Gender Divide * The typical Internet user worldwide is young, male and wealthy - a member of an elite minority. * A gender gap exists in access and usage of information and communication technologies.

Women represent 42% of Internet users In the world. 37% In Italy and Germany. * The gap is narrowing in certain countries: Brazil 47%, Thailand 49%, united States and Canada 51 * At the end of the 20th century, 90% of data on Africa was stored in Europe and the United States. With only 18% of the world population, COED countries contain nonetheless 79% of the world's internet seers.

* The united States, with a population close to the population of the Middle East, has 199 million Internet users while the Middle East has only 16 million. 34% of internet users are in developing countries. 81% of the world population is in developing countries. * The density of fixed telephone lines and mobile telephone lines Is 5 times more In developed countries than in developing countries.PC ownership is 11 times more, and internet usage 8 times more. [developed-western Europe, Australia, Canada, Japan, new Zealand, the US; everyone else in developing] Of the estimated 5-8 million internet users in Africa, only about 2 million users are outside of North and South Africa.

This implies about 1 user for every 250 to 400 people. This compares to the world average of 1 for every 15 people and a North and European average of 1 user for every 2 persons. * Within the Global South, 1 OFF internet users are in the capital.In China, the two cities of Shanghai and Beijing contain as many internet users as the 15 least connected provinces of 600 million people combined. In India, home to a major global hub of innovation, only 0. 4% of people use the Internet.

Of the approximately 816 million people in Africa in 2001, it is estimated that: *1 in 4 have a radio *1 in 13 have a TV * 1 in 35 have a mobile phone * 1 in 40 have a fixed line phone in 130 have * 1 in 60 use the Internet Telephones * One third of the world population has never made a telephone call. While Sub-Sahara Africa contains about 10% of the world's population, it accounts for only 0. 2% of the world's 1 billion telephone lines. * The cost of renting a telephone connection on the African continent averages about 20 percent of GAP per capita compared to a world average of 9 percent and an average of only 1 percent in high- income countries. * There are under 5 telephones per 100 people in India.

* In the world, there are over 1. 2 billion fixed telephone lines, 1. 3 billion cellular subscribers and 140 billion international telephone traffic minutes each year.Mobile * As of 2002, mobile subscribers worldwide have outnumbered fixed-line subscribers. The mobile cross-over has taken place across geographic criteria, across socio-demographic criteria such as gender, income, or age, and across economic * Brazil has the same number of cellular phone subscribers as the whole criteria.

Of Africa combined. Asia, with 450 million subscribers, has twice the number of subscribers as the Americas combined. There are 836. 5 million mobile subscribers in * While the United States has 199 million cell phone subscribers, COED countries. T is not part of the top ten countries with the highest percentage of mobile subscribers.

55% of the US populations are mobile subscribers. * Africa holds only 3% of the world's mobile subscribers, yet Africa is the first place where mobile subscribers outnumbered fixed-line subscribers. In five years (1997-2002), the number of cell phone subscribers in Africa grew by 1600%. Nicaragua has more than 3 times more mobile phone subscribers than fixed land lines (739 thousand compared with 214 thousand). The number of mobile subscriptions per 100 people in a given country range from 120 in Luxembourg, to .

44 in Malaysia, 24 in Jordan, 13 in Palestine, 3 in Nigeria EOT. 7 in Atkinson. Patents * COED countries, with 14% of the world's people, accounted for 86% of the patent applications filed in 1998 and 85% of the scientific and technical Journal articles published worldwide. * Firms in developed countries currently account for 96% of royalties from patents, or $71 billion a year. The Computing Sector * In the I-J, women constitute only about 20% of computer science classes (SAGAS 2003).

In the US, the percentage of female computer science bachelors has decreased by 28% between 1983 and 1998 (Greer and Camp 2002). Similarly in the computer science industry, the average female presence hovers around 20% (Defer 2001 , JAW for women, others for men) as well as horizontal segregation (women clustered in lower echelon occupations); in 1991 only 10% of the members of the British Computing Society were women. In 2000 9% of US IT engineers were women. On the there hand, 80% of data entry personnel was female. Joshua 2002; Webster 1996; Taught ; Garry 2000) State * 220 million tons of old computers and other technological hardware are trashed in the United States each year. * Only of PC's are recycled; the percentage for televisions and mainframes recycled is lower.

* The United States generates more e-waste than any other nation . * An estimated 50-80% of e-waste collected in the United States for recycling is exported to areas such as China, India or Pakistan. Unusable equipment is also being donated or sold to developing nations as a way to avoid recycling costs.