Perhaps one of the most revolutionary things since sliced bread is the internet. It allows us to contact people all over the world in a matter of seconds. We can download any image, song, or movie in a short amount of time. The current generation of American high school and college students have grown up in an already digitized world. Yet, around 47% of the world is not on the internet. And as Gen Z-ers, I think we often take it for granted.

To many of us, the internet is a necessity. We are horrified at the simple thought of not having it at our very fingertips. But to 3.6 billion people on this planet, the internet is a luxury—a commodity that’s just too good to be true. This is caused by a myriad of reasons. The most popular one is that a lot of these people are based in rural areas, suggesting that internet carriers prioritize urban residents since their networks can only extend so far.

“In urban areas, 97% of Americans have access to high-speed fixed service. In rural areas, that number falls to 65%,” according to the Federal Communications Commission.

As Californians, we like to imagine the Golden State as, well, golden. From San Francisco to Los Angeles, we hold our cities as models for the rest of America. And we make the assumption that our sunshine state is fully connected to the internet, for how could something be golden without having it all?

However, last time I checked, the sun does not radiate tiny connections to the internet. So I asked Google, you know, for clarification. Guess what? The sun actually does not give off internet particles! It gives us UV rays! But I also discovered that our state isn’t so golden, especially in terms of internet access. According to a study conducted by University of California, Berkeley, 31% of Californians, as of 2017, do not have access to the internet.

“12 million people are shut out from our increasingly online society,” wrote the United Ways of California, an organization focused on helping low-income Californians, on the findings of UC Berkeley.

But do you wanna know what shocked me to my core? The fact that, in California, 26% of K-12 students and 40% of low-income students do not have reliable access to the internet as of fall 2020. FALL 2020. But since March 2019, most education has been online. So countless students have an obstacle to simply get their education. That is unacceptable. Even when we were physically in school, schools relied on internet-accessed tools. Heck, I am even utilizing the internet to write this! So as long as schools continue to integrate technology, no student should have to worry about their internet connection.

It’s funny; up until now, I never paid attention to the digital divide. I was aware that it existed, but I did not realize how detrimental it could be to a student’s education until very recently. In my AP Computer Science Principles course, we are currently learning about how the internet works, and the last lesson aimed to educate us about the digital divide. So when the internet at my home went out during school hours, I knew that it could be because of internet modem complications or simple internet congestion. While I waited for the internet to get back on, my middle brother came barging into my room—where the internet box is in—and complained about how terrible our internet was (even though we have pretty fast internet).

I get it: he was upset that he had been kicked out of his Zoom meeting. But I was far more concerned for my smallest brother—a kindergartner—who, right after being kicked out of his Zoom meeting, started to play with his toys. It made me worry not just for his education, but for the thousands of children who miss out on parts of their education because of their unreliable internet connection, even for short periods of time like in my brother’s case, because the moments add up.

So I write today to you, not just to inform you of the great digital divide, but to urge you. To urge you to advocate for greater internet access, especially for students. To urge you to speak out against this inequality because nobody deserves to miss out on their education, work, or anything else that is crucial for their well-being because of something as minuscule as internet access.

Photo courtesy of NEWS.CSUSM.EDU