Can you imagine a world where you have to pay for the amount of broadband you use on your computer? That unfortunately might be the case in the near future. Many people are unaware of a battle going on in our government that affects college students and how we use the Internet. But then again, most college students are unaware of what’s happening at all unless it involves free food or cramming for tomorrow’s exam.
If you don’t already know about net neutrality, you should. Net neutrality means that Internet providers can’t discriminate between different websites online. This is how the Internet currently operates and should always operate, because that means we got to binge watch Netflix for five hours after a rough night on the town. But recently big corporations like Verizon and AT&T want to charge websites to use more speed and charge consumers for using certain sites. This causes a number of issues and they all affect you.
Verizon plans on charging Netflix for each user, which means we poor college students have to convince our parents to pay more each month to fuel the TV addiction. 80 cents for each user would be the slowest speed and about $4.80 for the ultra-fast speed we use now. This will force Netflix to charge their users more to pay for those charges. You (your parents) would essentially be paying double the amount you do now to watch “House of Cards” and it would take twice the amount of time to load. Let’s face it: that’s awful.
Major companies owning the Internet also means they can charge each website for use. Your personal website, start-up blog or basically any website that isn’t wealthy enough to pay The Man (i.e. this very website) won’t be noticed because it will take too long to load. New websites will cease to exist and/or will stop being created because the average Joe can’t afford to have one. However, if you’re one of those college freshmen that decided to start a fashion blog along with the rest of the world, maybe it’s a good thing the Internet won’t work for you. No one really needs to know how great that neon clutch pairs with your J Crew Sweater.
Most importantly, these network owners want to charge you for access to the network, like a pay-per-view type scenario. Would you be willing to Facebook stalk during class if you knew you had to pay a fee to do so? It seems completely ridiculous that such a thing could occur. I know I can’t fathom a day in which I couldn’t pop open my beautiful Mac and spend hours of my life “surfing the web” (a.k.a. wasting my study time scrolling Pinterest).
So how do we stop it? We have to make sure the FCC hears our concerns and protects the free Internet as we know it. If you’re really interested, you click here and “join the movement.” Or if you’re still super confused and want to watch a funny mockumentary about it, check this out.
It’s unnecessary to go back in time and undo all the progress the Internet has made since the days of dial up. The Internet should be free. Instead, the future of our world wide web could look more like cable TV. And besides the occasional “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” binge, nobody even watches TV anymore.
Via: dailytech.com
Featured photo courtesy of: TheBlaze
