The awareness of ICT devices among Orang Asli Community in Royal Belum

Abstract

Information and Communication Technology or often known as ICT has considerably transformed people lifestyle and also their daily activities. With the use of ICT, all the information is seamless and can be retrieved online at anytime and anywhere in which the ICT has brought us to an era of ‘information society’. The awareness of ICT is tremendously occurred in the urban areas whereby every person at least must posseses either a mobile phone or a laptop and can be both. Unfortunately, the disparities of ICT awareness can be seen in the rural areas, particularly for Orang Asli. This is more likely due to the least benefits that they have gained. This paper presents the ICT awareness in terms of the ICT devices and its functionalities for the Orang Asli adults in Royal Belum, Malaysia. We investigated the views of twenty-five volunteered respondents via survey questionnaire. The results demonstrated that the number of male respondents who has a mobile phone (81.82%) outnumbered the number of female respondents (28.57%). All respondents used the mobile phone as a medium to communicate with their relatives and colleagues, and only a few male used it for an employment purpose. On the other hand, 36.84% of female respondents used the mobile phone for entertainments, such as listening to music and playing games. The studies also found that 96% of Orang Asli in Royal Belum is unacquainted with the presence of computer and also the internet.