Abstract

This study focused on the second-level digital divide and examined how objective socioeconomic status (OSS) and subjective social status (SSS) influenced two usage types–learning- and entertaining-related Internet use. Using three-wave data from the China Family Panel Survey, this study challenged the traditional notion of a bipolar division between learning-related and entertaining-related use, revealing that high OSS individuals reported more engagement in both types of Internet use. Furthermore, by incorporating the subjective perspective into digital divide research, this study found that SSS was positively related to learning-related use, while its relationship with entertaining-related use was nonlinear, with the middle group reporting the highest level. Notably, it uncovered an interaction between SSS and OSS in predicting learning-related use, where the SSS-based learning-related usage gap became more pronounced within the high OSS group. The findings were also supported by lagged regression models, and this study provides a countermeasure reference for effectively bridging the digital usage divide.

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