Equal Accessibility

As much as we like to think of the internet as being an open and equal place where anyone can use it to communicate, or read other opinions, there are economic issues still in the way. Not everyone has equal access to computers, let alone internet. Even in our country, we have some of the most expensive internet rates of the developed countries in the world, partly because there aren't a lot of options in service providers in most neighborhoods because they haven't put a lot of investment in this infrastructure.  The people that are missing out the most in these online conversations are the poor and minorities. I definitely haven't thought about this all that much, now that I it talked about, I understand it, and why I haven't heard of this before. The thing is about having less access to the internet, you don't have the internet to help tell other people about how hard it is to get or afford internet access. There's another demographic that also doesn't have great internet access and that's the old, which can't really be helped, since a lot of them don't understand, can't keep up or don't want to learn. The idea behind the internet and social media is for more free interconnection between people, and not being able to have equal access defeats the whole purpose. It's disappointing that there is such a high rate of people without internet access in their own homes. Of course there's places like public libraries, but who is going to check their Facebook daily at the library? 

Then when you start to look out to other countries around the world, the rate of internet access falls sharply. Many countries have a lot bigger issues to deal with than internet access, but the lack of infrastructure and internet access keeps it hard for their perspectives, which are just as valid as any other persons' on the internet, from being heard. Even with access to the internet, that doesn't quite fix all of the issues to. If a person reads a blog and no one reads it, does it make an impact? If no one reads what you write, what does it accomplish? Popularity is what gets you heard, quietly posting on topics doesn't get you noticed. In a way you need to advertise yourself and what you write, or post in a forum where you will get noticed.