Verizon vs. The First Amendment

Verizon has been fighting in court to end net neutrality. Verizon claims that newspapers choose which articles to publish, therefore Version should be able to choose which websites it will carry. Verizon’s main goal in doing this is to charge websites for the amount of fiber-optic traffic they generate, if the websites refuse that website’s bandwidth is restricted. The newspaper argument may sound valid, but Verizon holds a monopoly on America’s broadband coverage. Should Verizon be given the right to govern the internet, we could quickly find ourselves under pervasive internet censorship similar to that of China. Furthermore, the internet has grown to become a first-world liberty. A great quality of our nation is the freedom of expression. Imagine what damage would be done in charging tariffs for publishing information. I for one am not ready to hand off my first amendment rights to Verzion.

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Lamps and Loneliness

America is working hard to help Botswana become a first world nation. Outside the cities, people live in villages with dirt roads and cinderblock homes. If you follow our culture’s natural tendency, you feel some degree of pity for them. While the desire to bless them with electricity is noble, we often do not realize the impact of modernization. As homes are connected with power, cable, and internet, families within them disconnect from the community. Children stay indoors to watch television, neighbors interact less frequently, soon the community consists only of strangers. That is the American dream in a nutshell. I’m not saying technology is evil. I love computers and advocate modernization, but often it is easy to overlook the costs. As we embrace the marvels of advancing technology we must remain aware of its impact. Otherwise we may fool ourselves into thinking we need nothing but facebook friends.