Human Connection and Digital Inclusion

The irony was almost palpable.

A panel called “Digital Inclusion is Driven by Human Connection” failed to do just that. Although the panelists were well-known in their fields, they didn’t explain how human connection leads to digital inclusion. Instead, they provided us with a view from teh top - from the very ivory tower of tech development - the very disconnection that keeps us from achieving real digital inclusion.

Let’s break it down: If human connection actually does drive digital inclusion, shouldn’t we be hearing from people who have been digitally excluded? Shouldn’t we be learning from communities that have successfully bridged these gaps through human-centered approaches? The panel’s composition itself contradicted its premise – how can you speak about human connection driving inclusion when the voices of the excluded are absent from the conversation?

The title of the session promised a discussion about human connection, but instead, it was another tech first conversation. The panelists’ “nothing about us without us” is empty when “us” doesn’t include the 1 in 15 households struggling just to get online. Real human connection would mean understanding why a single mother in rural or urban America can’t help her kids with their online homework, or an elderly person living in a food desert can’t get connected to tele-health services.

If we genuinely believe that digital inclusion is driven by human connection, then our approach needs a complete overhaul. We should be developing and building new solutions technologies based on:

• Realities of people’s lived experiences
• Developed technology that enhances existing social connections rather than replacing them
• Ensure human connection remains at the heart of our digital inclusion efforts

The panel title made a big claim about human connection but the panelists’ execution of that claim was exactly the kind of disconnect they should have been addressing. We aren’t going to get right on digital inclusion until we bring real human connection (not just talk about it) into our discussions and our solutions. The gap between the panel’s promise and its delivery wasn’t just disappointing – it was glaringly telling of a larger problem. We can’t drive digital inclusion through human connection when we can’t even make those human connections ourselves. And it starts with the right voices in the room and on the panel.