Digital Skills: Key to the Smart Society

The digital landscape has changed dramatically in recent years with the continued rise of social media, Artificial Intelligence, and Internet of Things applications, creating a complex ‘thick’ mediated reality spanning numerous online and offline platforms (e.g., TV, radio, newspapers, smartphones, smart devices, apps, websites, social media, and more). These changes have transformed the digital skills required to participate in contemporary society. In this book, Alexander van Deursen and Jan van Dijk build on their earlier work on digital skills (published in their 2014 book Digital Skills: Unlocking the Information Society) to explore how technological developments reshape skill demands. They systematically examine the skills needed today, assess how they are distributed across the population, and provide guidance on how policy can address gaps, offering a comprehensive framework for navigating digital inclusion in a rapidly evolving media environment.