The Land That the Internet Era Forgot
W. Ralph Eubanks | November 7, 2015
[...]Even when he’s talking to me, Gallardo delivers this message with the straitlaced intensity of a traveling preacher. “Broadband is as essential to this country’s infrastructure as electricity was 110 years ago or the Interstate Highway System 50 years ago,” he says from his side of our booth at the deli, his voice rising high enough above the lunch-hour din that a man at a nearby table starts paying attention. “If you don’t have access to the technology, or if you don’t know how to use it, it’s similar to not being able to read and write.” |
| Rural Mississippi, Abandoned USA. Source: http://www.abandonedusa.com |
These issues of digital literacy, access, and isolation are especially pronounced here in the Magnolia State. Mississippi today ranks around the bottom of nearly every national tally of health and economic well-being. It has the lowest median household income and the highest rate of child mortality. It also ranks last in high-speed household Internet access. In human terms, that means more than a million Mississippians—over a third of the state’s population—lack access to fast wired broadband at home.
<more at http://www.wired.com/2015/11/the-land-that-the-internet-forgot/; related links: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2013/08/19/the-60-million-americans-who-dont-use-the-internet-in-six-charts/ (The 60 million Americans who don’t use the Internet, in six charts. August 19, 2013) and http://www.pewinternet.org/2014/02/27/part-1-how-the-internet-has-woven-itself-into-american-life/ (Part 1: How the internet has woven itself into American life. February 27, 2014)>
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