The Digital Divide

[Music]

when robert khan

invincir develop some of the protocols

that were at the heart of the early

internet

they never could have imagined what it

would one day become

at the time the internet was this

abstract thing

a global network of information but over

time

it’s become what we know and rely on

today

the internet has connected our world

bringing us closer

than ever it’s compiled the world’s

knowledge

giving us the most complete telling of

our history

and has given us answers to some of

life’s most

thought-provoking and deep questions

such as

if a guy doesn’t know how to ride a bike

could any girl love him i’ll let y’all

think about that one for a second

now yes the internet does give us the

ability to

watch our favorite youtube videos catch

up on a new season on netflix

but it does so much more than that

organizations and websites like vote.org

have made it

easier than ever to register to vote

and find a polling location job

applications

are increasingly moving online

and emails give 20 somethings a reason

to never learn how to write a letter

and y’all i know it looks a little

difficult but

it’s not that hard at all put a stamp on

the envelope

give a little lick send it off it’s that

easy

in an increasingly digital society

access to the internet

is a requisite to participate in our

world

and in a global pandemic as our lives go

from looking like this

to this we can no longer refute just how

important the internet is

for those who don’t have access to a

doctor in their area

or for those that are of a high risk

category so they can’t visit their

doctor right now

telehealth services give them the

ability to continue with their

healthcare

for small businesses that are struggling

to stay afloat

online marketplaces and food delivery

apps give them a lifeline for survival

and for us all of us the internet has

been major

for finding tips and things we could do

to help fight this virus

the internet is no longer just the place

where you post pictures

of all the breads you make and y’all

there have been so

many pictures but it’s become an

extension of who we are

an extension of our lives

now broadband is a term that’s used to

describe

a high-speed internet connection and

despite its importance

so many people today don’t have access

to it

31 of us households do not have access

to a broadband connection

and a majority of these people are

low-income and minority individuals

so we’re seeing a growing divide among

socio-economic

and racial lines cost

is the leading reason a person would not

have access to broadband

and so in the middle of a public health

crisis

as so many people are losing their jobs

or facing severe financial difficulty

i only imagine that this divide is

getting wider

and wider for so many people

accessing the internet is not a luxury

it’s the path towards socioeconomic

mobility

and what we’re increasingly seeing is

that those

communities that lack access those

people

they’re having to jump over hurdles just

to survive and be a part of this world

there’s no place or situation where i

think the digital divide is most

prevalent

in the ways that it affects the person’s

access to education

right now many schools are going online

all in the hopes of curbing the spread

of kova 19.

while this is a really great move and

measure it must be done in a way

that doesn’t leave anybody behind

now let’s look at what the digital

divide really looks like

but it really is this is a picture

of two little girls sitting on the

street

we’ll talk about all the hopes of using

the free wi-fi nearby

i i want you to really take a look take

a pause and analyze the details in this

picture

you’ve got workers wearing masks

these girls on the floor you try to

really gain an understanding of what

this means

in the middle what is arguably the worst

public health crisis in a hundred years

these two little girls are sitting

outside in the hot sun

out of their homes in a taco bell

parking lot

all with the hopes of getting their

education

it’s horrible it should never be the

case

this is a picture of miss anali solis

and her five children mr elise doesn’t

have

an at-home internet connection so the

only way that her kids

are able to participate in online

learning is by sharing the one mobile

hotspot that she has

if you and i get frustrated whenever a

netflix

episode takes more than a few minutes a

few seconds

to load imagine the frustration

of not being able to participate in your

classes or finish your work

because of slow inadequate internet

the truth is that this situation is

nothing new

this didn’t just start happening because

of the pandemic

it’s been going on for years now

70 of teachers nationwide before this

pandemic

we’re assigning homework that required

an internet connection

and 17 of students have said that

they’ve struggled to complete their work

because they didn’t have adequate access

to the internet

or a computer in my hometown

of laredo texas i’ve been seeing this

issue

for years in 2017

loretta was named the worst connected

city in the united states

with about a third of residents lacking

an at-home broadband connection

and last year i sat down and spoke with

one of these students

i wanted to learn more about what their

experiences actually were

and what they told me was horrible

every day having to get up extra

early so they could do their work using

the school wifi

if they didn’t finish by then then they

take their lunch break off

to continue to work and use that

connection

if by that point they still weren’t done

and they stay at school

extra late doing all that they can

and if even by that point they had not

finished

then they do what they could going to a

library

going to a fast food restaurant and if

by the end of the night they couldn’t

finish all of their work

which is common for students work takes

time

then they’d have to start the cycle all

over again

waking up early the next morning to get

work done

and over again and over again

missing out on sleep having a constant

stress about how they were going to

finish their homework

that’s the reality for so many people

and it’s not just a reality for these

people we’ve talked about today

there are stories like it that can be

heard and found

all across the country

think about that a student

shouldn’t be held back because of what

they don’t

or do have access to

access to the internet should not be the

thing that determines a student’s future

success

we have to change that now

the good thing is that there is some

work being done

to help close the digital divide in the

context of this pandemic

those two girls we saw earlier they were

connected with their local school

district

and were given hot spots so they could

complete their work

and in laredo the school districts have

been working towards ensuring that every

student has the resources they need

for online learning these are great

steps

but we have to keep working to tackle

the issues

that are at the very core of the digital

divide

how do we do that what do we do

what starts with looking at broadband’s

connectivity

issue across the us

there are tribal lands and rural areas

that don’t even have a broadband

connection

they don’t even have the infrastructure

that’s necessary to support it

this is largely because internet service

providers

have deemed these areas unprofitable

unworthy for any investment

and so the reality is that we have these

communities of people that are

completely

disconnected from the and internet

this pandemic is connected

from the rest of the country

now the government must can

and should take action to make sure that

every single american

has access and this wouldn’t be

a new action this wouldn’t be something

that

hasn’t been done before when electricity

was first

being installed in the u.s a lot of the

deployment

revolved around urban areas these

densely populated areas

and over the years we began to notice

that rural areas were largely being left

out

and so it wasn’t until the government

took action

and local advocates started creating

their own change that we’ve gotten to a

point

where every single american has access

to electricity

we don’t even have to think twice about

whether our area has access or not

that needs to be the reality that we

create for a broadband connection

we also have to look at broadband’s cost

issues according to a study by new

america

across europe asia and north america

the united states is the area with the

highest monthly broadband costs

a way that we can help remedy this is by

pushing

for more municipal-run broadband

networks

these are networks that are owned and

operated by the local community

and in many cases they’ve provided

faster

internet speeds at lower more affordable

costs

but the catch with this is that so many

states across the country

have laws that restrict communities from

starting their own networks

you’d see the states here in red are the

ones that have these restrictions

now what this does essentially

is that it restricts these people from

seeking out the resources and

opportunities

that could expand their access another

thing we could do

we could push for greater price

transparency

for a lot of americans the price that

they see when they’re going to be

signing up for broadband

is not the price that they’ll end up

paying when you factor in

hidden fees modem fees and so much more

you end up paying a lot more than you

really thought

we have to push for greater price

transparency to ensure that consumers

know exactly what they’re paying for

from the start

that way we’d give consumers more power

and more

ability to really choose what option is

best for them

what options are actually affordable and

lastly

we need to collect more data on the

current state of the digital divide

the way that the government collects

data to see

how many people in the u.s have access

to broadband

is through a self-reported filing that

internet service providers fill out

called form 477. on form 477

the area unit of measurement are census

blocks

like the one that you see right here now

these census blocks could be about the

size of the city block

in urban areas and they could even be as

large

as hundreds of square miles in rural

areas

if it is found that at least

one person in a census block

has access to the internet or at least

one person could have access

then the whole census block is counted

as having access to the internet

think about that when we look at this

larger

census block if only one

person in that area has access

or only one person could have access

then the whole

area is marked and counted as having

access

as you could imagine this has led to

severe over

counting when using 2016 data

the federal government estimated that

there were about 25 million people

that didn’t have access to broadband but

a 2018 study by microsoft found that

there were 163

million people that were not using the

internet

as broadband speeds this means

that millions of people are not being

counted

and if they are not counted then we

don’t really have a great view of what

this digital divide currently looks like

it’s a lot larger than what we really

think it is

and so when we fail to get an actual

accurate view

of what this is then we won’t be able to

properly allocate our resources or

create solutions that could truly close

the digital divide as we continue

to advance in our technology and

innovate

we have to accept the individual

the internet is a major part of our

lives

from job applications to educational

opportunities

access the internet brings a whole

amount of benefit to our lives

but for those people that don’t have

access

those people that are having to sit on

city streets

or use hot spots or wake up early

and stay up late to use the internet

these benefits are nowhere near

equitable

as we continue to move forward we have

to ask ourselves

a very simple question will we close

this digital divide ensuring that every

american has access

to the same opportunities that the

internet brings as others

or will we leave people behind

thank you

you