Introduction

This chapter argues that digital skills are central to meaningful participation in smart societies. Moving beyond early understandings of the digital divide as a matter of access, it situates digital inequality within the broader process of technology appropriation, including motivation, material access, digital skills, usage, and outcomes. The chapter introduces a framework of seven digital skills: strategic media choice, operational, formal, information, communication, content creation, and strategic media use skills. It shows how these skills apply across print, audiovisual, computer, internet, and connected intelligent media, while emphasizing that AI and smart technologies introduce new demands related to algorithmic awareness, prompting, data interpretation, and human oversight. The chapter concludes that digital skills do not develop automatically and that inequalities are likely to deepen as media environments become more complex, unless individuals receive sustained support to use digital media critically, strategically, and responsibly.