Five-year-old Memphis Quintero wanted to show off. In a family of six children, Memphis’ precocious performances outshine even her cuddly younger twin sisters. But instead of flaunting newly acquired reading talents or “watch what I can do” dance moves, Memphis had something else to parade – the list of Web sites she visits when she has her turn on the computer.
One of her favorite sites is Zwinky.com, where she can create 3D images of herself and her family. But mostly, she can be found trolling BrainPOP.com. “BrainPop has a lot of stuff and you can learn and they have videos,” she said. “I watched a show about the continents.”
Memphis’ exuberance is understandable. Until six months ago, she could barely get online, as her family struggled with slow dial-up that would never load the videos she loves. The Quinteros, on a low-income budget, couldn’t afford high-speed Internet. But thanks to a grant through a local community organization, The Little Tokyo Service Center, the Quinteros, who live in Los Angeles, now have a broadband connection.
The family’s one laptop rarely leaves the kitchen table in their small apartment, where 14-year-old Christian does his homework, 11-year-old Erica plays online games, and mom Rosy stays connected to family and friends abroad. It’s not an overstatement to say that broadband has changed the Quinteros’ world. With almost every aspect of life demanding a high-speed connection, the family is finally able to fully participate.
“It’s been easier because I can spend more time doing my homework instead of waiting for the page to load,” Christian said.
Dad Derek had been worried about his children’s education and future when they were locked to dial-up. “If you don’t have access to the Internet, you’re missing a giant portion of the world and it makes it hard to interact with the world,” he says.
“Knowing how to get on the Internet and how to gather the information is essential – especially for young children. If they don’t have computer literacy as they get into the higher grades and progress into college, they’re so much more behind the children who have access.”
Derek also sees his own parents struggling in the new digital world – not because they lack Internet access, but because they don’t know how to use it. Like millions of Americans across the country, Derek’s parents, who live in Wyoming, are casualties of another aspect of the digital divide: digital illiteracy.
“My dad spends hours on the phone, either with me or my brother, trying to figure out how to do simple things,” he says. When the Final Four basketball championship was available online for the first time, Derek tried to help his father download the games he couldn’t watch on TV. “It took me three or four hours to talk him through setting up a password, getting it to where he could download and see the games.”
Derek is relieved that his children are no longer being left behind, and he thinks that someday soon, in a reversal of roles, they’ll be teaching him about new online innovations.
“The world is swiftly becoming a world of bits and bytes,” he says. “As it becomes more and more digital, our children need to be more digital. One day, I’ll need Christian to help me get online to watch the Final Four, either through a PDA or Blackberry or chokecherry or whatever they got.”
It’s not just the kids of the Quintero family that are benefiting from broadband. Rosy has long been separated from her family in Mexico, and now she can finally communicate with them in ways that make them feel closer than ever.
“I can post videos of my children,” she says. “My mom can see my children. I don’t know how to express it. It makes me feel really happy because they’re not here and it’s not easy for them to come and visit. They can see my family.”
While the Quinteros were lucky to acquire high-speed Internet, millions of other families across the nation don’t have the same fortune and are currently struggling offline in an online world. But rather than luck, logic may be on their side. President-elect Barack Obama has acknowledged the detriments of the digital divide, and has already made nationwide high-speed Internet deployment a priority.
“I really do hope that with our new government, [Obama] really brings hope and change,” Rosy says. “[Internet access] is one of his plans. Hopefully it becomes real. Internet in every household.”
And while Obama makes promises, more than 130 public interest organizations and businesses have come together at InternetforEveryone.org to hold Obama to that pledge. They’re asking citizens, organizations and businesses to sign a New Year’s resolution to make 2009 the year our lawmakers connect every home in America to broadband.
With the benefits of an open, affordable and fast Internet so evident, it may only be a matter of time before Rosy’s vision – and Obama’s – becomes reality.
“Imagine if [broadband] can do so much for my family, imagine in other states where people don’t even have access to a road, if they had a computer and free Internet, imagine how much they’re going to accomplish and know about the outside world,” she says. “I think that could be something that our President-to-be could do for us.”