Opinion: Treat internet as a basic human need and utility

The internet is seemingly ubiquitous at this point — chances are you’re reading this online.

It’s become a necessity for most daily activities and a precursor to many opportunities.

Because of its importance, the University provides students on campus with free internet.

Students and guests with passwords can use that internet for everything from homework to finding apartments. At this point it is hard to imagine a college community without internet.

But when you don’t have a connection to an institution like UNC that will provide that for you and you can’t afford internet, you might be stuck.

Indeed, with about 100 million Americans without internet, those in poverty often find themselves on the wrong side of the “digital divide.”

The negative ramifications are numerous and fairly obvious: a person without internet is not able to easily apply for jobs or even find open positions, search for a house or apartment, or access resources like health care or child care.

As such, we propose making internet more widely available for those who need to access it the most.

We see two possible ways to do this. First, we could treat internet much like we do other utility bills.

Currently, people within the lowest income brackets and with vulnerable individuals within their households, such as children or the elderly, can have some or all of their heating and cooling bills paid for them.

The same could be done for internet, allowing people to find jobs and access other opportunities.

Second, we could follow Carrboro’s lead and provide free Wi-Fi at a large scale.

With this, we provide internet for not only those in the lowest income bracket, but also those struggling to pay their bills.

While obviously this is more expensive than the first option, it is far more equitable and has been consistently funded since its inception.

For either path, we need to focus on getting more people internet access.

The internet has become the toolkit for any kind of success in the US.

Without those tools, we can’t expect people to pick themselves up and out of poverty.

The small amount we would spend on providing these services would easily come back to the community from lower rates of poverty.

The United States may be in dire straits, but free internet for all would at least afford each American the accessibility to become more informed for future elections and communal decisions.