The penetration of internet services across the world has been improving year in year out, owing to ever innovative individuals who will never rest until the whole world becomes a global village. Of the whole population of the world, I am saddened by the fact that only 3.5 billion people can access the internet in this age and era. While I applaud the efforts of the developers and techno savvy persons, I think it is time that the world became connected so that we may all be under one roof; the internet. I know various people may argue that organizations are connected via the intranet hence the need for internet is erased.
I beg to differ. Intranet is for organizational purposes while internet is for the good of the world. Besides, how will other people know that your organization exists? How will I know that you are in a certain corporate social responsibility activity and I contribute? I cannot know all these were it not for the internet. I cannot sit under the guise of intranet and assume that someone else will take up the challenge and make the internet available to other parts of the world. If we do not do it now, there are areas in this world that may never have the privilege of having the internet close to them.
Of all the 3.5 billion people that have access to internet, it is unimaginable that 80% of them are from the top twenty nations. The remaining 20% is shared by the other countries. This is a sad situation to me. It means that if a family member is in an area that has no internet, then I will have to wait for other means of communication to be set up in the host country so that I can speak with them. So sad. China leads the pack having 642 million internet users. This is followed by United States, Japan, and India. I do not want to imagine that I can live in country that has no internet. How would I live? How would I run my business? How would I know how the rest of the world is fairing? I would be having such a hard time trying to figure out how the world is moving.
I think it is only fair to say that those who live in countries that have little or no internet connection live on guesswork. I cannot afford to live on guesswork. Internet in this age and era is a basic necessity. I remember we classified needs as per Abraham Maslow’s classification of needs. The classification remains to this day, but I think it is prudent to add internet as a basic need.
Were it not for the internet, I could not have finished my doctoral thesis. I had to burn the midnight oil for several nights to try and research online. If my country had no internet, then my thesis would have been late and graduation would have been a nightmare. It is time that for those countries that have no countries to get it. Internet is power. Without internet, I am powerless, and so are you. If we do not advocate for internet provision for all, I can bet that we will have a very rough future trying to communicate and gather things together. Nothing will hold together if only the top countries can access the internet. There should be more. The 3.5 billion should be doubled and tripled.
I hold the opinion that if there is one country with no internet connection, then that alone is too many. Some governments have made it impossible for internet service providers to work in their countries due to unfriendly business policies. I think that such leadership does not understand that an empowered citizenry is self-reliant citizenry. Sometimes I do not need anyone to hold my hand to move anywhere. I just engage the internet and I have all the directions I need. Moreover, I do not need to keep watching the television to get news, I get news as soon as it happens courtesy of the internet. Therefore, I cannot do without internet since it is my lifeline, my informer, my educator, and direction giver. I have realized that having internet is in itself an empowerment. Get empowered. Get access to the internet!
