Dear Editor:

Here at NHS six WiFi networks exist with only one of them being a public network for students.  One should be fine; unfortunately, it blocks the majority of all the apps we like to use such as Snapchat and Instagram.  Basically, what seems to be going on is we are getting WiFi shown to us just like a baby seeing candy, but when you want it you can’t have it.  Now if we want to use apps on the public WiFi we have to use a VPN app that allows us to use them but at a very slow speed.  

Not only is the WiFi blocking our phones from using the apps we want.  Also chromebooks have many websites blocked that we would use, if they were not blocked.  According to the Pew Research Center, American Internet Access is problematic.  Unfortunately, school is not the only place the sites are blocked; the websites are also blocked at home even on our own WiFi networks.  

While it seems like we are almost getting our options of using WiFi taken away, schools in Augusta, Georgia are giving students more opportunities to get online, according to CNN.  One of the first schools in the United States to bring WiFi equipped buses to the market, gives students more chances to get their homework done before they get home or even because they may not even have Internet at home.  With 16 percent of households in the United States without Internet, a large amount of kids have no other options besides the school  or community-driven Internet.

From the school’s perspective, it is probably educationally savy not to offer access to school-based Internet for social media because it is one less distraction for the students.  In my case, it is challenging to study media without access to it.  For example, I enjoy reading my letter to editor, which is my summative assessment in Composition for Journalistic Publications.  I also enjoy reading the published writing of my classmates.  At least that could be done by using our chromebooks for our own things at home since it is free time to be curious and expand my thinking.  

Sincerely,

Sam Brazee, senior