“Newspapers are dead, and the Internet killed them.”

For years now, this has been the refrain spouted by many media pundits, who have foreseen nothing but doom and gloom for printed news and nothing but sunshine and roses for that of the digital variety.

For those of you reading these words on paper rather than a computer screen, you’re witnessing first hand proof that predictions of newspapers’ death have been somewhat exaggerated.

In the years since Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the world wide web over 20 years ago, though, one thing has been made abundantly clear: for many Americans, the Internet has become a basic necessity for their lives and careers, as basic as water, electricity or heat. Whether they’re checking up on friends on Facebook, watching cats play piano on YouTube, or finding out the latest news on Leaderpub.com (excuse the cheap plug), constant access to internet, whether or a computer, phone or tablet, has become a fact of life for most people.

And in that in same period, people have come to expect the internet to behave in the same basic way: open up your web browser, type in the site name you want to visit, and boom, stuff appears on your screen. And up until recently, the companies providing internet service to Americans, like Comcast or Verizon, had to play by these rules.

However, over the last few years, many of these providers have pressured the Federal Communications Commission, Congress and other lawmakers in Washington to change these rules, in a way that would change the way we all use the internet, and not for the better.

On Feb. 26, the FCC will meet to decide the victor in this latest struggle between the companies providing internet service providers (or ISPs) and the users who depend on it. On that day, the commission will vote on whether or not to adopt a set of protections that will keep the web in tact with how we use it today.

Known in tech circles as “net neutrality,” this someone nebulous concept refers to ISPs treating all web content, be it a simple search request on Google or high definition streaming movie on Netflix, the same way. It’s sort of like buying a bag of jellybeans, where, no matter how much the package costs, you’re going to get all sorts of flavors inside.

In a world without this protection, ISPs could charge customers extra for access to certain websites, effectively segmenting the internet as we know. Just like being charged extra for a particular flavor of jellybean, companies could force customers to purchase higher tiers of service for access to sites like Hulu or VEVO, similar to how cable companies put certain channels in different packages.

This is not a very good system for customers, and could even limit the free distribution of information that people currently expect from websites.

Regardless of how much or what you use the web for, net neutrality is worth fighting for. I encourage readers to write either Rep. Fred Upton or Sen. Gary Peters and Debbie Stabenow to let them know that you too feel that a free internet is a better one.

 

Ted Yoakum is the community editor for the Dowagaic Daily News. He can be reached by phone at (269) 588-1040, or by email at ted.yoakum@leaderpub.com.