In the TED Talk, Mignon Clyburn speaks about how the Internet is “the most enabling, powerful tool of our times.” She expresses how her grandmother’s inability to achieve an education past grade 6 was reflected in a letter she wrote, that stunned Clyburn, because a person Clyburn looked up to could not write to the level that her young granddaughter (Clyburn) expected. This led to Clyburn learning about her grandmother’s upbringing in South Carolina under Plessy vs. Ferguson, where her education was severely limited in this way. Clyburn spoke hypothetically about what an online platform could have done for people in society one hundred years ago or so, or even decades ago. She states that the Internet does not see race, gender, or zip code, but rather opens up the opportunity for anyone to bear witness to “endless possibilities” from a single search. She calls Broadband Internet Access “the greatest equalizer of our time.”

Clyburn said that the Internet “meets us where we are,” in the way that we control its features and determine the starting point of our knowledge when interacting with its options, and it does not judge. Data granted access on the Internet also reveals telling information about issues faced by least connected communities, such as rural, tribal communities facing the highest rates of chronic disease. This fact stands out to Clyburn who calls it a “negative legacy,” and a severe limitation, as a consequence of less access to Internet, and she related this to her grandmother’s limitation to education, since both experiences have deprived people of necessary information for their wellbeing and functioning.

Clyburn suggests a digital civil rights bill to grant all people access to the answers of their lives. Certain classes in society benefit from having the opportunity to access the Internet, while others suffer from a lack of critical knowledge without the same abilities granted by digital media. She says that people living paycheck to paycheck, or even under the paycheck, “have their opportunity limited to gain the services they need to thrive.”

From my experience, I know that my mom has worked as a senior director of community impact for The United Way in central Pennsylvania for the past few years. In her role, she helped to organize free Wifi vans to drive out to communities that needed to help low-income families and their children attend work and school from their laptops through these delivered services, especially during the pandemic. This difference made for families shows me why a digital civil rights bill is probably very necessary to help equally provide for families in the age of evolving media, job positions and requirements, the need to develop and send resumes, use Handshake and LinkedIn to find jobs, etc. Laptops are becoming even more important for school needs, and children who lack Internet access have suffered immensely during the pandemic by missing important school content and any connection to educators in the process.