<p>Our local library system only allows use of the free internet for 30 minutes during peak times (after school, weekends). Makes it hard for kids to get homework or research done in that amount of time! They don’t have printers available at most of the libraries, either, and those that do charge per page. S1 didn’t get a data phone til his employer provided it, and S2 just got one for the holidays, courtesy of his brother (who got a free one from work which he didn’t need). S2 and I share 3 GB, so not a lot of movie-watching or music streaming going on there. His campus is all wi-fi, so that takes care of that.</p>
<p>That said, I see internet as a higher priority than cable.</p>
<p>^^ You’re assuming people live in cities. Where I live, in Georgia, A LOT of people live in very rural places and it would cost an arm and a leg to drive to the public library. </p>
<p>^^ True. I used to live in GA and our county didn’t get a public library until the mid-1980s. Used to have to ask my parents to drive me into down Augusta to do research. No public transit to get there from where we lived. In my senior year of HS I finally had a license and I went to Augusta College to do research at their library, Thought I’d died and gone to heaven!</p>
<p>Not everyone lives near a public library with viable computer access. Several public libraries near my area have had chronic issues with broken down computers, demand in such excess one’s limited to 30 minutes/day, limited open hours, etc. </p>
<p>The internet is needed for job applications, including ones for service jobs in areas like fast food and retail. Many places no longer accept old-school dead tree job applications.</p>
<p>Moreover, not everyone necessarily needs to expend money to get a reasonably decent computer for basic office and internet tasks such as job searches. </p>
<p>There are plenty of folks like yours truly who have given away older still viable computers dumped on us from clients, institutions, and random folks who don’t want them. </p>
<p>I’ve probably given away nearly 2 dozen computers free in the last 15 years to various random folks on CL, neighbors, and struggling friends who needed something for job applications and learning basic PC/Windows/office skills. I sincerely hope you’re not going to cast aspersions on them due to the fact they have a computer.</p>
<p>Also, there are organizations in some geographic regions which provide assistance for struggling families to get low-cost/free basic internet access. </p>
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<p>The ones in my area are charging an outrageous 20 cents per page to print from library computers. That’s just as expensive as what Columbia U charges to photocopy or print from computers once one has exhausted their weekly free print quota. </p>
<p>To put this into perspective, printing from my own laser printer at home is somewhere in the neighborhood of 1 cent/page and photocopying/printing is around 5-10 cents/page if one knows where to go in the area. </p>
<p>I think we’re splitting hairs a bit. It is impossible to live without food, water, and shelter of some kind. It is, of course, possible to survive without internet-- it is not a necessity on the same level as food, I think we can all agree with that. However, you can live without electricity, too-- you really can. We’ve done it for a while during an extended power outage. It’s just really damn hard in this day and age, as is living without internet. Personally, we would not get rid of internet service until every other possible item had been cut including cutting our food budget to bare minimum. Some of it is generational, but personally I don’t even know how to find a job without internet these days, are postings for real jobs listed anywhere else anymore? It seems I’m at a disadvantage if I can only check my email a few times a week when I can get to a library. I wouldn’t die, but it would make life really hard. I’d cut anything else I could before cutting basic internet.</p>
<p>Within some corners of the tech and public policy communities, concerns and discussions about this very digital divide on the basis of SES state has been occurring over the last 20+ years. </p>
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<p>Discussions about municipal wifi have been going on for the last decade, but only a few municipalities have actually successfully implemented them in practice. It would also require having a computer with compatible recent wifi hardware…especially if they want any form of decent connection security. </p>
<p>Also, a lot of that implementation is still in the beginning stages and meeting stiff resistance from ISPs and their lobbyists. In many cases, those ISPs and lobbyists were successful in getting the municipal wifi shelved or eliminated from political consideration. </p>
<p>Good grief. To print at home one has to be able to afford the printer, the ink/laser cartridge and the paper. We are talking about POOR people here, Flossy’s comment is spot on. This as said earlier, is a generational thing. The young’uns can’t imagine life without a cellphone, internet and a data plan.</p>
<p>And the cheapest printers drink the expensive ink</p>
<p>Regarding printing at home or small businesses, this is one area where those who are least able to afford getting a decent quality B & W laser printer get screwed the most as you’ve referenced.</p>
<p>The cheapest inkjet printers are often exceedingly cheap or even given away. However, the cost of ink and corporate machinations to sometimes falsely make the printer think it’s running out is such that instead of 1 cent/page as with black & white laser printers, you’re paying more like 10-20+ cents per page. </p>
<p>That, and they have a disturbing tendency to break down within a couple of years…or even after several months. </p>
<p>Which is why it is not a necessity and may, especially for someone who does not print much, be a waste of money. Both my s’s stopped taking their printer to college. Used the campus printers. </p>
<p>^^and expensive, and not able to be bundled. I do think children are at a horrible disservice without internet access. Many teachers, especially younger ones, assign entirely too much that makes internet access necessary.</p>
<p>I disagree about printers to some extent. We bought H’s and S’s laser jet printers for $70 and the cartridges have lasted for years. Laser jet cartridges last a very long time. Inkjet are very expensive and so short-lived. Both my 23 and 25 yo sons currently live without printers and don’t seem to mind. That would drive me nuts.</p>
<p>I would have agreed more back when I was in college when unlimited printing was included as part of one’s college tuition and fees. </p>
<p>Not too long after I graduated, most colleges in the Boston and NYC areas started charge for every printed page or do so after one has exhausted one’s limited weekly print quota*. As a result, I find many students were actually using their own printers MORE frequently than students did back when I was in college. </p>
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<li>Sometimes as little as 20 pages a week which is a pittance if one needs to print not only drafts/final printouts, but also limited access journals and other specialized publications for one’s weekly assigned readings.<br></li>
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<p>You graduated WAY before my s’s did, and they had no printing charges at their schools. Don’t know what the schools in the NE are doing, nor anything about what students you may or may not have had contact with were supposedly experiencing, but apparently if true, this reported sampling is not representative of the rest of the country, once again. </p>
<p>I’m curious whether school systems in poverty stricken areas have the same expectations of every home having computer and Internet access as the suburban middle class schools do. I suspect those kinds of differences change the perception of whether it is necessary or not. When my ex (with whom I had 50-50 custody) was unemployed for 4 years and was going to cut off his Internet, I told him I would pay for it because a) The kids wouldn’t be able to stay at his house without Internet access and I think it has been healthy for them to have two very involved parents and b) He would have a harder time job hunting without Internet. I paid for it until his GF moved in and started helping with the bills. </p>
<p>The “printer or not” issue at colleges varies greatly by the college and needs to be evaluated on a case by case basis. </p>
<p>2016, when I was a teacher’s aid in Lansing (99% free & reduced lunch school), they had the same expectation. I had to explain to the teacher more than once that even if the kids had internet in their homes (unlikely), most of the kids were children of refugees and couldn’t rely on parent help. </p>
<p>I can’t speak universally, but unfortunately, a lot of teachers are just completely clueless about this.</p>
<p>However, employers and colleges have greater expectations that job and college applicants will have phones with them and internet access. Given today’s more competitive environment for both jobs and colleges, not having a mobile phone and internet can put one at a significant disadvantage in these areas.</p>
<p>Note that low cost prepaid mobile phones are probably the cheapest way to get any phone service, so if you consider phone service a necessity (to contact employers for jobs and the like), you should not be resentful of poor people having mobile phones. Public library internet access works for some people, but may be more difficult if the library hours are cut back due to budget cuts, or there is insufficient computer equipment for all of the people using it (probably more common in poor areas which have less tax base to fund public libraries).</p>
<p>I know a physician who will carry a pager but does not have a cellphone.</p>
<p>I also think that access to modern technology is important for college students and job applicants, but they do not make up the totality of the poor in the US. IN some cases perhaps one person in a household can have a phone, or heaven forbid, the have a landline. Then of course there are the homeless… Thats another story.</p>
<p>Even the cheapest land lines cost significantly more than the cheapest mobile phone plans. And if you actually are homeless but want to find a job, a mobile phone works a lot better than a land line for the purpose of giving an employer a way to contact you.</p>
<p>Most of the homeless around here are not job hunting. Just sayin’.</p>
<p>Isn’t this thread about savings? If someone is looking to cut costs living without technology for a while could be a reasonable way to find some extra cash. I personally know people who have done this so it is possible. It doesn’t have to be forever or in the middle of a job search, obviously. Also, my middle schoolers don’t get much in the way of homework that requires internet. Mostly, it’s worksheets and projects. So, I’m not sure who these teachers are who are assigning IT research projects to refugees. Good grief.</p>