President Obama: “The Internet Is Not A Luxury, It Is A Necessity”

A lot of people are aware that third-world countries still need Internet access. That’s why there’s Facebook’s sometimes controversial Internet.org. What not a lot of people are aware of is that one out of every four people living in the U.S. don’t have Internet at home.

One in four.

When I heard that census data, I was floored. I had first heard this thrown out as an anecdote when I visited Kansas City a few years ago, but it’s true. The White House wants to change this through its new ConnectHome initiative.

Its mission:

Every child should be given the same opportunity to build a brighter future and to achieve their dreams.

Internet in the home can help build that brighter future by connecting families with information they need to get ahead in school and career life.

There are quite a few reasons why not everyone in the United States has Internet access at home (mind you, 98 percent of Americans have access to Internet of some sort), but a lot of it has to do with where you live and how affluent a neighborhood you live in. Some of it has to do with race:
Screen Shot 2015-07-15 at 5.55.44 PM

Google has gotten involved in the ConnectHome project by offering $0 monthly home Internet service to residents in select public housing authority properties through its Google Fiber project.

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