Life in the Network

Do you have internet access? That's a question I'd consider to be fairly simple and innocuous, and personally, I'd actually be somewhat surprised if the answer was anything less than yes. Of course, much of that attitude is likely heavily influenced by my age and social demographic, as well as the fact that I'm up here at college, where most students and staff easily have multiple points of access even if they don't necessarily have their own computer. Still, as technology continues to increase, we will have more and more ways to use the internet, and many of those will be public. Generally though, I would personally consider having internet access and being able to access the internet to be two different things. Pew counts the people who choose not to use the internet along with the people who literally have no internet as people who aren't online in The Ever-Shifting Internet Population, but just because you're not online doesn't mean you don't have internet access. After all, it's always there waiting for you to use it, even if you don't necessarily know how. Most unwired seniors do have the opportunity to go online, but simply choose not to since they're more comfortable like that. Those who live in rural or underprivledged areas who simply can't obtain the technology or go somewhere they can use it for free are the ones who are truly without access.

As a wired society as a whole, it is becoming more and more important to be literate with both computers and the internet, but that doesn't necessarily make either of them an absolute necessity. Becoming dependent enough on the internet that it becomes a required aspect of living in society is a bad thing since it relies so much on machines, which can break down at a moment's notice. Giving everyone at least a choice to become internet literate is a good thing, but everyone needs to know that it's a tool, not a requirement, especially children. That said, I still believe giving children in less developed countries laptops is still a worthwhile goal because access to technology does significantly improve the quality of education, but it really shouldn't come at the expense of more basic needs, like food, shelter, and clothing.