Although the world is well into the 21st century, the United States isn’t quite caught up with the times in terms of tech. People are more dependent on technology in their daily lives than ever before, and the pandemic has exposed the gaps in internet accessibility and reliability all over the country. With healthcare, schools, and workplaces going remote every few months, it doesn’t make sense for the most disadvantaged communities to be left even further behind.
It was a shock to everyone when schools shuttered their doors in March of 2020, but it is unsurprising that many are still offering hybrid or remote options for the rise of each new variant. Just recently in January of 2022, a wave of the Omicron variant forced more than 2,750 K-12 schools to go remote nationwide, along with multiple colleges and universities. Schools either suffered massive staff shortages or were faced with staggering amounts of positive tests, leaving students of all ages to be sequestered in their homes and instructed to follow along online. This left parents across the country in difficult positions, facing questions of who will supervise their children, how will they eat if they don’t have school lunch, and, for people in the poorest communities, how will our kids keep up if there are not enough computers in the home for every child to follow along independently. This is all besides the fact that a household may not have reliable internet access.
Even when looking ahead to a potentially COVID-free future, it makes sense for schools and universities to offer hybrid learning, to accommodate immunocompromised students, and provide flexibility for seasonal illnesses. If schools can provide remote learning during a global pandemic, they can certainly have teachers record their lectures when a student gets the flu. Again, this would be easier for everyone involved if internet access wasn’t an obstacle for the quarter-million that use dial-up internet at home or the 22.5% of Americans that don’t have home internet at all.
Workplaces are also increasingly offering hybrid and remote options, across all sectors. Vaccinated employees can voluntarily come in person, choose to work from home, or do a mix of both. In fact, data projections show that 25% of all professional jobs in North America will be remote by the end of 2022, and the percentage will continue to increase through 2023. This is great for employees everywhere, as it eliminates commute, leaves room for personal projects, and allows for a more reasonable work/life balance overall. If employees don’t have reliable internet access at home, remote opportunities are no longer a realistic option.
With record COVID cases overwhelming hospitals nationwide, usage of remote healthcare has gone up exponentially. In order to accommodate seniors and the immunocompromised, telemedicine has increased by 38% since 2020. Doctors perform routine checkups for at-risk patients in the comfort of their own homes so they don’t have to worry about the risks of exposure. It seems like this option will continue to be preferable as long as COVID-19 maintains a strong presence in the United States.
So what’s the answer? According to a succinct argument I read on Vox, it looks public access options may be the way to go. Relying on monopolies to provide expansive and expensive internet access to the entire country isn’t realistic, particularly when it comes to providing service for anybody but the indiscriminately wealthy. They compare it to postal service, with high-capacity and high-speed internet options available both publicly and privately. Although government officials may gawk at the price, the article advises us to think of the internet in the same way we used to think of electricity. It used to be a luxury reserved for the very few, but now internet access is a utility that is necessary for daily life across the country.
Maybe it’s wishful thinking, but hopefully, someday the world’s second-wealthiest country can start providing basic needs throughout the nation.
