I put together a Digital Circle post on the Digital Mentor project.
All people need is access and time. This is a big ‘all’. Unpicking this, use of social media is a luxury. Access to basic equipment is enough for basic interaction, but the technology you have dictates whether you can access features like broadband. When internet access has a price, time becomes limited. Your ability to have an ambient awareness of the passing world depends if you are near a screen much of the time, for example in a job that is both computer-based and where access to social sites has not been blocked.
This is core to some of the thoughts being CoWorkingBelfast and the funding we applied for.