We Should Be Thankful for the Same Thing, But it’s Not What You Think
This is how much I love the Internet
It’s that time of year again. To “eat a lot with people that annoy the hell out of us” as my favorite comedian would say. Logistics, cleaning, massive amounts of cooking, compromise… and remembering the whole point of Thanksgiving is to be, well, thankful.
What am I thankful for this year?
The Internet.
I grew up booting games on MS DOS from 3.5” floppy disks. Internet was a thing when I was in high school, although it was dial-up. I taught myself to code HTML websites and for kicks built a website to publish all my guitar chord charts. In college, many conversations were had via AOL Instant Messenger (some very important).
Cell phones, when we got them, were Nokia Bricks or a crappy flip phones. Outside of computers themselves, there were no screens to get addicted to. This might be hard to imagine, but at parties, none of us were staring at our phones.
I need to pause and let that sink in.
It’s actually hard to remember what it was like back then. Did we have Google? Or did I actually search with Yahoo or something else? What bloggers were around that far back? Was YouTube a thing yet?
It’s amazing how fast you adapt to technology.
The iPhone is only 10 years old. The epidemic of people staring at screens and oversharing on social media began in 2007. That’s crazy. I remember what life was like before then, but there are a ton of people who don’t. Growing up glued to a screen is normal life now.
What I love most about the Internet is it’s unpredictability — the enormousness of it. This is a terrible analogy, but when I think of what the Wild West must have been like… “Whooo free land! Gold! Let’s go get it!” That’s kind of like the Internet, right?
Entrepreneurs Online
Have an idea? Stake a claim in a corner of the Internet, build a website and bam, you’re in business.
I would go so far as to say a lot of ideas — and businesses — are birthed by the Internet.
- When I decided to get into design, I found a job where I could learn in the real world. I found that job on the Internet.
- When I needed to figure out a specific software technique, I found that on the Internet.
- When I decided to start a business, how did I figure out what paperwork I needed to file and how? The Internet.
- When I decided to add web design to my list of services, how did I learn to build websites? By building websites (on the Internet!). For real though, all my resources were found online.
If you have an idea, you can create a business, build a website, market it, sign up users / make money, and get acquired by Facebook for 1 billion (Instagram).
Social media/tech giants do not make the Internet great.
Facebook adds more features and options because they don’t want you to leave Facebook. Which is also the reason Instagram doesn’t support links. Google doesn’t want you to use other search engines, so they’re not happy that Amazon has become one. While useful, the tech giants are not what makes the Internet great.
You do.
If you want to write a blog, you can. If you want the world to know about your competitive underwater basketweaving league, you can make a website. You could use Medium for a blog, or you could start your own. You can do whatever you want, wherever you want, and connect with whomever you want. That’s the beauty of the Internet. Connections.
But what if small websites can no longer compete for bandwidth with the tech giants? Imagine a new streaming service competes with Hulu, so Comcast (who co-owns Hulu) intentionally slows this new company down unless they pay up.
This is what could happen when all restrictions are removed from Internet Service Providers.
This is why we need Net Neutrality.
Repealing Net Neutrality turns our beautiful, crazy, free Wild West over to land barons and let’s them do whatever the hell they want. Comcast just promoted this tweet:
This tweet is laughable — it’s Comcast, one of the most hated companies in the country. They even respond to comments, saying they support net neutrality, yet in 2012 alone they spent $14,680,000 lobbying against it. They’ve also already throttled bandwidth — Netflix had speed issues in 2014 until they came to a “mutually beneficial interconnection agreement.”
The FCC opened comments about net neutrality to the public in April 2017, which were flooded with fake comments using the identities of real people. They refuse to participate in the investigation:
Ajit Pai (a former Verizon lawyer), the FCC and the lobby-happy telecom companies are trying to give themselves more power and keep you in the dark about the whole thing. They announced this plan the day before Thanksgiving.
Repealing net neutrality is not in (our) consumers favor. It affects everyone regardless of which side of the political spectrum you’re on. The Internet has shaped my entire life, and I worry that my kid won’t have that same access. You should be worried for your kids too.
It’s Up to You
- Use that amazing piece of technology in your pocket and call Congress with this awesome service.
- Share about Net Neutrality on social media — do your part to inform people.
- Use ResistBot — text RESIST to 50409 stating you support Net Neutrality. Here’s dummy text courtesy of Luke Trayser: “Keep net neutrality. Do not kill it. Giving more power and money to ISPs is not a good idea, and supporting that idea shows a lack of integrity, common sense, and brain capacity. Happy Holidays.”
- Host or attend a protest at a Verizon store near you on December 7.
Finally, for a comical explanation of net neutrality, I’ll leave you with The Oatmeal:
