It is true. I don’t have high speed Internet. I’m canceling the dial-up as it’s faster to drive to Starbucks, drink a green tea latte, and update my farm on Farmville, and get home again before connecting a loading an average web page.
I live on a 5 acre farm just 4 miles between two larger towns which both offer high speed. No Clearwire (no line of sight.) No microwave (no line of sight.) No satellite (no line of sight.) I can use my smart phone as a modem IF I sit outside in the middle of the pasture, but not inside the log house. Most people aren’t sympathetic. Move they say. If every one who lived on a rural farm had to move to participate in the modern world, what would we eat?
I am a graduate student at the University of Washington. It is really, really hard to coordinate school when you don’t have Internet access at home. I’m at Starbucks tonight so I can download my homework, which I had no idea was out there. I’ve had classes where the professor posted homework into an online tool on Friday night that was due first thing Monday. I defintely lost at least one full gradepoint for that discourtesy.
We need universal access so that there is a somewhat even playing field for everyone. You know who benefits most from my lack of access? Starbucks, of course.