Digital Acess

    Each year the latest and greatest iPhone hits our TV screens and shortly after hits our hands. We live in a society where we have access to affordable and accessible technology for virtually anyone. Free wifi in coffee shops, charging stations in libraries, and the ability to call your friends at ease. As we are born into this society it is easy to forget that other countries have a completely different world of digital access. Most recently, the global pandemic has brought to light the great digital divide our country faces. With a global shutdown, forcing people in quarantine, billions had to rely on the internet for work and to stay in touch, but with almost half of the world lacking internet access, millions suffered.
    The 2020 pandemic was one for the history books. On January 9th of 2020, a mysterious pneumonia was reported in Wuhan, China. As cases increased and spread to surrounding countries, Airports began to scan for symptoms. On January 21st it was confirmed that the diseases was spread by human transition and 2 days later Wuhan was in lockdown and China closed its borders. By the end of January a Global Health Emergency was issued and on February second, global air travel was restricted. As the death toll climbed, the coronavirus was officially named a pandemic on March 11th and the world went into lockdown. Travel was banned, countries were closing there borders, and more people were staying inside than ever before. Due to the severity of this virus, a global shutdown was necessary, but the economic impact was immense as many were forced out of work, and not to mention the mental toll taken on those who lost contact to the outside world. 

    As people moved inside, people moved online. According to UNESCO, just over half of global households have an internet connection. During the pandemic, if you did not have access to internet, you most likely didn't have access to school as a child, work as an adult, or even access to your family. However, the worst part is that under developed countries simply lacked the ability to update their citizens on the pandemic itself. Take sub-Saharan Africa for example, one gigabit of data, which is enough to stream a film for an hour, costs nearly forty percent of their monthly wage. This makes it virtually impossible for them to have any form of internet access, they simply cannot afford it. 

    South Africa was given the title, World's most unequal country, in 2019, and can't seem to shake the name. According to Global Citizen, "South Africa’s digital divide can be broken down into three factors: access to hardware, understanding digital means of communication, and internet affordability." First of all, actual internet access aside, most of the country doesn't even have a device to access the internet on, and if they do, the quality of these devices is so low that their reliability is virtually non existent. How can students be expected to learn when the storage on their phone only allows for one photo, if they miss a class there is no way of accessing the information. Even if they do have access to internet, for example when Africa offered a free website on coronavirus updates, most of the population would have no idea how to work a device to access this information. Then it just comes back around to how expensive this access is. If one GB of data is nearly half of your salary, eating just seems more important for the month. 

    Global pandemics are once in a lifetime events, but are definitely eye opening experiences for major global issues. Digital access in under developed countries has proven to be a major soft spot in the development of these countries. Whether is the lack of equipment, price of internet, or simply not showing how to use the device in front of them, citizens in countries like South Africa struggle every day with simple communication with the outside world. Efforts are being made do decrease the digital divide around the globe, and tragedies such as the pandemic show us just how important it is.