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