Michael O’Rielly You have failed this city! No that is not a message from the Arrow (my favorite show) That is a message from The Streaming Advisor and the American public. Michael O’Rielly has not just failed my fair city of Raleigh NC but every other city town in the US and the citizenry who live in them. How? By failing to understand the importance of his position to influence policy that help and maintain modern life and the essential role that the Internet plays in the lives of modern people. At a speech to Internet Innovation Alliance O’Rielly said this.
“It is important to note that Internet access is not a necessity in the day-to-day lives of Americans and doesn’t even come close to the threshold to be considered a basic human right. I am not in any way trying to diminish the significance of the Internet in our daily lives. I recognized earlier how important it may be for individuals and society as a whole. But, people do a disservice by overstating its relevancy or stature in people’s lives. People can and do live without Internet access, and many lead very successful lives. Instead, the term “necessity” should be reserved to those items that humans cannot live without, such as food, shelter, and water.”
Sir I must disagree. When the Internet first became available via AOL disks and 56k modems or less the Internet was not much more than a tool for research and basic communication. Businesses had yet to figure out how to use the technology, and images took 5-10 minutes to load. It was a novelty for consumers and a research tool for academics. This is not the case any longer and you should darn well know this. But if you need a lesson on the role that the Internet plays in the daily lives of millions of Americans I will be more than glad to educate you on the most important communication tool in the history of mankind. What you call necessities are nothing more than the basics that prevent someone from dying. Why not include oxygen while you are at it.
Applying for jobs
You, being a government bureaucrat may be quite unaware of what it is like to be a normal citizen looking for a job but let me clue you in. Almost all jobs are applied for online now. Whether they are executive level positions or a cashier job at a McDonald’s. Many companies across the country have stopped using paper applications completely. Can someone go to a library to apply for a job? Maybe. If they happen to live close to one but there is no guaranty that someone will have access to one.
Shopping
Food is a necessity. Glad you noticed. While the ability to shop for groceries online is not an essential for those who are mobile and healthy like yourself or your personal assistant, the ability to shop from bed, a desk the couch and so on can be life changing for those who are disabled or cut off from the world. With Internet access one can order food from a restaurant to be delivered to their door, a person in a food desert can order fresh vegetables for themselves and their family, access their pharmacy online and more.
Registering kids for school
Maybe you are past this stage of your life but at this point registering children for school essentially requires internet access.
Registering for Health care
Remember the centerpiece of the President’s (Reminder it’s Barack Obama not Ronald Reagan) campaign, healthcare? As a federal official it would be laughably shameful if you do not but again maybe you need to be reminded. In order to apply for healthcare through the federal exchange you must access a website. In fact the lack of understanding of just how many people would have to access the websites in order to sign up caused a PR disaster early on that threatened to undermine the entire program.
Paying Bills (Paperless)
There is this notion of a paperless society. Companies are pushing it more and more as a cost saving measure disguised as concern for the environment. But the long and short of it is that people have more and more difficulty getting access to bank statements and bills for services like water, which as you said we can not live without. Less and less companies will take paper checks as payment so the primary way to pay a bill is quickly becoming using a credit or debit card to pay via a website.
People did not ask for the Internet to be weaved into the fabric of modern society but it has been. Just like electricity in a home it has become a day-to-day utility that is used in so many aspects of life aside from the ones mentioned above. To act as though it is a no more than a extra service is to show a complete disconnect with the common people and families who pay for all of your essentials.
