Bridging the Digital Divide: Older Workers Know the Business; Younger Workers Know the Technology. Eaps can Help Employers Bring the Two Together to Share Technological Expertise and Critical Business Knowledge (Focus: EAPS and the Electronic Society‪)‬

Much has been said and written in recent years about the so-called "digital divide," the gap between those who have access to information technology and the skills to use it effectively and those who don't. For better or worse, some people use the term as a proxy for "generational divide" and specifically to differentiate between the Baby Boomers (born 1946-1962) and the two waves that followed, Generation X (born 1963-1980) and the Millenials (born 1981-2000). The assumption is that Baby Boomers are uncomfortable with technology and thus avoid purchasing and using it, whereas Gen Xers and especially Millenials would be lost without it. Research (both mine and that of others) has shown that the digital divide is not a matter of age or technological proficiency There are a lot of older workers who are extremely proficient with computers and plenty of younger workers who are uncomfortable using them. The digital divide is really a distinction between (1) the experience of coming into the workplace with a set of assumptions that technology will be networked, information will be available, communication will be instantaneous, content will be free, and interactions will be informal and direct versus (2) the experience of learning workplace practices first and using technology to implement pre-existing views of work and management.