Over the last week everyone has been like a bee, abuzz, with the implications of net neutrality. I don’t think the majority of our population even understands that there is a war transpiring over the internet. So, I figured I would take the time to explain why I personally care.
There are two major reasons for my concern: 1) my website, and 2) other websites like mine. First, lets set up an analogy that we can use for the internet. Imagine that the internet is a finite bundle of pipes and each pipe is currently equal in size. Understand, that if there is no net neutrality, it means major businesses can pay internet service providers to engorge their pipes. Well, since it is a finite amount of pipes, the business is now allocated more pipes while the rest of the internet has to run on what is left (realistically they would be given preferential priority and not a dedicated line to your home). That means that it takes longer for you, the consumer, to reach that non-paying website since they can’t pay for a larger pipe. This is great for companies like NetFlix who devour a massive amount of bandwidth for their streaming services. Since they have the money, they would pay to get faster speeds to your home which improves their product for the end consumer. Using their larger pipe, they could create a large barrier to enter the streaming media industry.
So, that means if you try to access my website it will take longer to load. Why is that an issue? Well, as a society we have become more impatient and demand things to be ready immediately. With that entitlement, imagine waiting ten seconds for a website to appear? Then you click and wait another ten seconds. No one would stick around to view that website, and that would make those ten seconds a death sentence! Now, my website is payed for by me. I foot the bill, and I refuse to allow advertising. That means, I will not be paying to expand my pipe. My hosting company may, which would be awesome, but I doubt they have the money to compete with NetFlix or Amazon. That echos for all the other websites that are small and make meager profits. I am talking about web comics, Wikipedia , research websites (my university’s library that I use to research for my books), and other universities websites. That is my issue with the topic. I would like this website to be equally viewable to everyone. If the changes purposed go through, that may not be the case. If you are interested, trust me, there are a lot of sources that can explain it better than I did. I am not a journalist, and this is my personal interpretation based on what I have read. If anything is not correct, contact me and send me a source explaining the misinformation.