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.

Alexander van Deursen is Professor of Digital Inequality and Director of the Centre for Digital Inclusion at the University of Twente, The Netherlands. He is particularly known for evaluating the role of technological developments in fostering inclusive societies. His research focuses on how people with different backgrounds and resources use technology in daily life, and under what conditions technology can be leveraged to obtain positive outcomes.

Jan van Dijk is emeritus professor of communication science and sociology of the information society and still working at the University of Twente, the Netherlands. His main domains of research are the social aspects of the digital media, digital democracy and the digital divide.