8/19/2023 0 Comments Tank force of nature zipGiven that the pandemic has impacted everyone’s web search behaviors across many different topic categories, however closely related to the pandemic itself 9, 19, our goal and key contribution is to identify differences across communities in their digital behavioral responses to the pandemic and to discover potential barriers and challenges in accessing critical resources on the web. This includes the use of critical digital resources such as online educational sites in response to school closures, online food delivery information in response to restaurant closures, online social interactions in response to physical distancing and travel restrictions, or online unemployment and economic assistance in response to economic instability during the pandemic. Leveraging web search interactions enables us to model users’ search interests which are reflective of their underlying resource needs 16, 17, 18. This study extends prior work on pandemic-related disparities, many of which concern the epidemiological dynamics of the pandemic 4, 5, 6, 7. We conduct a retrospective and longitudinal observational study using search data to quantify the changes during the pandemic in how offline exclusion (e.g., lack of sufficient economic resources, lack of health insurance) relates to changes to existing digital exclusion (e.g., reduced participation in online banking or eHealth). In this study, we harness the centrality of web search engines for online information access to observe the second-level digital divide at population scales. Digital inequalities also manifest themselves as the differences in the usage of digital technologies and skills relevant to the usage of digital technologies, the so-called second-level digital divide 14, 15. The most basic form of digital inequality, the so-called first-level digital divide, manifests itself as the difference between adequate and inadequate digital infrastructure and devices (i.e., access to technology or the quality of access) 13. Unfortunately, disparities in digital access also reflect socioeconomic and environmental dimensions of variation 12. During the COVID-19 pandemic, digital engagement in resources across health, educational, economic, and social needs grew in importance because of lockdown mandates, social isolation, and economic burdens 9, 10, 11 as well as due to internet-based communication methods employed by public institutions, such as the online dissemination of COVID-related information by the World Health Organization 10. In recent decades, digital access has also gained attention as an important factor modulating health outcomes, as individuals harness the internet to seek health information and to access healthcare services (i.e., telehealth, online pharmacy) 8. Despite pandemic-driven efforts to close the long-term and emergent health equity gap 2, studies during the COVID-19 pandemic have demonstrated that socioeconomically and environmentally disadvantaged subpopulations have been disproportionately and negatively affected by the disease 4, 5, 6, with threefold higher infection rates and sixfold higher death rates in predominantly Black US counties than in white counties 7. Socioeconomic and environmental factors play a significant role in the health and well-being of individuals and communities 1, 2, 3. Such differences frame important questions on the relationship between differential information search behaviors and the downstream real-world implications on more and less advantaged populations. We show that ZIP codes with higher proportions of Black or Hispanic residents intensified their access to unemployment resources to a greater extent, while revealing patterns of unemployment site visits unseen by the claims data. For example, we find that ZIP codes with lower income intensified their access to health information to a smaller extent than ZIP codes with higher income. Our analysis of 55 billion everyday web search interactions during the pandemic across 25,150 US ZIP codes reveals that the extent to which different communities of internet users enlist digital resources varies based on socioeconomic and environmental factors. The COVID-19 pandemic has stimulated important changes in online information access as digital engagement became necessary to meet the demand for health, economic, and educational resources.
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