Technology Changes In America

Words: 1536
Pages: 7

Technology in the past 30 years has changed faster than any other generation. It is clear there is one simple answer for this massive change, the Internet. Somehow in only 20 years the Internet has changed how people communicate, how entertainment is consumed, how people do their jobs, how the basic parts of people's lives have changed because of the Internet. People use the Internet for jobs, for school, and for change. With this massive change in technology this has opened the world to diverse communication and the ability to be what you want to be, people rely on the Internet for basically every part of American life, even ordering their groceries online is now possible. So if the Internet is now such an influential part in societal life, …show more content…
American companies have mass produced cars and through the Rural Electrification Administration the government were able to give electricity to rural America. However it is clear that the same cannot be said for the Internet. “Many Americans still lack access to advanced, high-quality voice, data, graphics and video offerings, especially in rural areas and on Tribal lands”, according to the 2016 Broadband Progress Report adopted by the Federal Communications Commission. According to the report “10 percent of all Americans (34 million people) lack access to basic service (25Mbps/3Mbps)”. Accordingly of the 34 million people lacking access “39 percent of rural Americans (23 million people) lack access to 25 Mbps/3 Mbps, and the availability of fixed terrestrial services in rural America continues to lag behind urban America at all speeds”: “31 percent lack access to 10 Mbps/1 Mbps, down only 4 percent from 2011, and in other areas such as tribal lands they lack even more access” according to the FCC report. "41 percent of Americans living on Tribal lands (1.6 million people) lack access to basic broadband”, and in U.S. territories “66 percent of Americans living in U.S. territories (2.6 million people) lack access to basic broadband”, and schools even have trouble gaining access to the internet, with “approximately 41 percent of schools, representing 47 percent of the nation’s students, lack the connectivity to meet the Commission’s short-term goal of 100 Mbps per 1,000 students/staff ”, according to the report. Consequently one issue with slow Internet or even the lack of access to it is accessible through multiple outlets. According to the FCC, “For relatively high-speed Internet at 25 megabits per second, 75 percent of homes have one option at most”. This stops people's ability to search for better internet and stops companies