Digital Inequality Among Young People in the Age of Aigc

It is believed that the digital inequality is becoming implicit in age structure. However, in the era of Artificial Intelligence and General Computing (AIGC), the innate advantages previously enjoyed by the ‘digital aboriginal people’ Generation Z, are becoming uncertain. The digital divides between digital laborers and digital elites, as well as the digital divides between attitudes and behaviors, become more and more obvious. Based on a questionnaire survey of 732 young adults aged 18-35 in Shanghai, China, in 2023, this study finds that: 1) As the scope of digital applications continues to expand, the digital divide among young people from different socio-economic status (SES) has become more significant in the dimensions of digital access, digital literacy, and salary income. 2) Beyond the traditional realms of digital divide, novel forms of inequality are founded in social areas. Differences in social attitudes, social network and social participation opportunities are widely discovered among young people from different SES. 3)Digital literacy serves as a significant mediator between SES and social participation. Drawing upon the digital inequality stack theory (Laura Robinson, 2020), digital technology not only exacerbates the unequal effects of traditional social stratification factors and traditional digital divides, but also engenders a "Matthew Effect" of stacked inequalities. The mechanism of the influence of subjective factors such as social attitudes and user experiences cannot be ignored in future studies.