The Internet as an Equalizer
By: Treathyl Fox
Tags: Human Rights, Society And Culture, Discrimination, Internet, Equality

The Internet as an Equalizer

I don’t have a drawing of the cartoon otherwise I would share it. But in the cartoon, there is a dog sitting in front of a desktop computer and the dog is talking to a cat that is seated right next to him. The dog says to the cat: “On the Internet, they don’t know you’re a dog!”

That cartoon cracked me up! But for the most part. it’s true.

When I first started working online (over 10 years ago) I used a tool called Cartoon Yourself. I think. It’s been a while so I don’t remember the exact name and nowadays if you Google that term, several different products pop up in the results. But anyway! It was free to try and I created a cartoon of myself, which really doesn’t look like me. But I have been using it as my avatar for years. The only reason I created it was because my late husband told me not to use a real picture of myself and his reason was … Hold on! Wait for it! … “Nobody wants to do business with an old lady!”

I did NOT agree with him. But just in case he was right and since I was just starting out, I figured: “I see other people using avatars. Maybe that’s why. So I’ll use one too!”

As time went on I finally got brave enough to put my real face out there. Actually, that’s another story too. What happened was my son got married and the photographer provided him with digital photos as well as the traditional wedding photographs. One of the photos was of me and my husband. My husband did not want his face on the Internet. So I cropped the photo and cut him off. That’s the real photo that I’ve been using, along with my avatar. So now … folks KNOW … I’m an old black lady! And if they have a problem with that … SCREW ‘EM!!

Contrary to what my husband said, for the type of work that I do online … affiliate marketing, article writing, blogging, miscellaneous stuff that earns cryptocurrency … my age, my ethnicity, etc. does not really have an impact.

Why am I bringing this up? Well because, to go back to the dog cartoon, on the Internet, people really don’t know WHO YOU ARE!!

Working on the Internet I have made friends with a lot of online entrepreneurs and work-at-home professionals and it is amazing what some of these people are going through.

I have two friends that had brain cancer. One passed away recently but the other one is still pushing forward. Yet when you read her social media updates or her articles or her blog or view her Zazzle products, you don’t even realize that this person is sick.

I have other friends who are handicapped … they have a debilitating illness … etc. The only reason I discovered they had ailments was that during a friendly conversation they mentioned it.

I had a friend who writes the most interesting articles that I have ever read, She’s a qualified historian with an advanced degree and she’s deaf! All the time I was talking … or rather typing to her online … I never realized she couldn’t hear! And we had really long conversations!

Last but not least, another friend told me that she didn’t realize I was an African-American. She said that based on chatting with me, she had a completely different picture of me in her mind.

This is the year 2020 A.D. By now, people should have figured out that there are other people who live in the same world who are totally different from them but also totally the same.

Everywhere you go … what do you find? You find a family unit, you find people living together in a community and getting along. Who told them to do that? It’s not like they watched you and followed your example. They are people who exist in remote parts of the world and they aren’t even on the map! They get discovered accidentally by some foreigner, an outsider … who … (???) … probably wasn’t even looking for them!

Why am I saying all this? Because … DISCRIMINATION IS AN UGLY THING!!

It doesn’t really serve a constructive purpose in our society … in our culture … IN OUR WORLD.

And I think we should all Thank the Lord for the Internet!

You could be handicapped, bedridden, deaf, etc. It doesn’t matter where you live or where you are from. Your age doesn’t even matter. That’s why there are so many wealthy child entrepreneurs who made their fortunes via the Internet.

If you have Internet access you can work, do business around the world, and be successful. You can accomplish many things before people even realize that they were supposed to be discriminating against you and holding you back!

The Internet, though it probably wasn’t planned that way, serves as an excellent EQUALIZER.

Of course, now we have the problem of governments trying to BLOCK people’s access to the Internet for fear their citizens might become AWARE! They might become tolerant, open-minded, independent thinkers.

Some human beings can always make a problem where there is none. Can’t they?

That’s why some people argue that Internet access should be a RIGHT! I don’t think it’s necessarily a human right. But it sure is a good thing to have access to! However, if it takes this kind of argument to fight against discrimination, to aid and uplift those who are impoverished or disadvantaged, and make this world a better place, I’ll side with those who are fighting for this. I mean … by my logic … and I believe the logic is universal … we all have the right to be treated as equals.

So what is your opinion or perspective?

Do you think access to the Internet is a human right?

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Interesting Articles:

Is Internet Access A Human Right? | Amnesty International (Jan 2012)

UN says internet access is a human right | Business Insider (Jul 2016)

Why Internet Access Is a Human Right — Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (Jun 2017)

The Case for Internet Access as a Human Right | Vice “A new study says internet access shouldn’t be an exploitable luxury good, but a basic, protected human right provided for free to those who can’t afford it.” (Nov 2019)