Can technology offer solutions to inequality?

[Commentary] America is seeing levels of inequality it hasn't experienced for a century. And if you believe some technologists, that can be addressed with gadgets. But does technology really address inequality? Over the last decade, I've looked hard for ways in which digital devices can help the world's poorest communities. What people got out of technology depended on what wealth, education, and social ties they already had. Technology is powerful, but its power depends on its human users. This is true as much in America as elsewhere.

How can it be that something that benefits so many of us could worsen inequality? The simple answer is that technology helps us in proportion to what we already have. That is to say, digital tools benefit the haves more than the have-nots; they don't add the same, fixed benefit for everyone. Technology is less a bridge, and more a jack -- it widens socio-economic gaps. Cheaper gadgets don't change the fact that rich, powerful people can always afford more. Smart tools don't overcome the advantage of the better-educated. Even when free, technologies don't dispel relative advantages. If inequality is the problem, we need something other than technological solutions.

[Kentaro Toyama is WK Kellogg Associate Professor at the University of Michigan School of Information]