If you’re reading this right now, or have read an article on ArchDaily, it’s because you were in a place that enabled you to connect to the internet. Think about a time when you found yourself in a dead zone, where the internet was lagging and you were unable to connect your computer to WiFi to finish an assignment or even without the ability to connect your phone to quickly Google something. You likely dashed to the nearest coffee shop, or place where WiFi was more reliable, just to have the feeling of being online again. The internet, in an ideal world, is equally open to all providing access to knowledge and the ability to easily connect with others. But what happens when you don’t have internet? How is your life impacted if you’re on the wrong side of the digital divide and live in an area without broadband access?
It almost seems unfathomable, living in an area where you don’t have access to the internet- but it’s a very serious reality for many people around the world, and a shocking amount of people in the United States. Especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, people without access to the internet struggled to work from home, attend virtual school, and access necessary government services that impacted their general well-being. In 2020, the FCC reported that more than 20 million Americans, including 10 million school-age children did not have access to the internet, automatically creating a divide where almost 7% of Americans will face setbacks and challenges that will hinder their future economic opportunities.
Low income communities are the least connected, many of which are considered to be more rural or tribal regions where fewer jobs and less infrastructure can support the economic activity of the area. For those families who live in an area with a median income of $35,000, there’s a 50% chance that they won’t have an internet connection. The connected divide and the economic divide seem to almost mirror one another, where wealthy regions have extremely high connectivity rates. In 2010, The Gates Foundation studied 77 million people who did not have internet access at home and therefore relied on public spaces for broadband service. What they found was that a majority of these people were visiting local libraries to seek out academic help, apply for jobs online, and even research possible health issues that they were experiencing, including exploring ways to seek out health care providers. So how does this need for the internet translate into the built environment?
As our world becomes increasingly digitally interconnected, especially with the work-from-home trend continuing to dominate our daily lives, it’s important to consider what it means to be able to access the internet from anywhere, in both terms of the infrastructure that is needed to support signals and the way that technology can be accessed and used. Both the public and private sectors have explored ways to address low-income communities that can’t access the internet, by providing hotspots in public areas (especially schools) installing new small cell technology on existing infrastructure, subsidizing the overall cost of setting up new networks and creating new opportunities for market dilution for service providers.
New buildings that are constructed in both rural areas and dense cities that lack connectivity need to consider how to can improve the surrounding communities. Developing designs that ensure future connectivity can be enabled, even if the infrastructure doesn’t currently exist, can help create the framework for these areas to improve. Also heavily considering the users, whether it be a library that will need ample space for computer labs, schools where children may need after-hours spaces to do homework if they can’t get online at home, extra seating in coffee shops for people who want to spend the afternoon doing research, and specifying furniture in workplaces that provide room for multiple screens to enhance productivity, are all small steps to bring internet access to places where people will want to be connected. Our society in the modern age relies on being online, so much so that it impacts how successful we can be in our everyday lives. While those in lower-income and rural communities suffer without internet, we can take steps to build a digital bridge across this divide.
This article is part of the ArchDaily Topics: Cities and Living Trends. Every month we explore a topic in-depth through articles, interviews, news, and projects. Learn more about our ArchDaily topics. As always, at ArchDaily we welcome the contributions of our readers; if you want to submit an article or project, contact us.
