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There continues to be a great deal of talk about the necessity of expanding high-speed "broadband" (cable, DSL, etc.) internet access to rural areas and improving its connection speed elsewhere. Some are even claiming that DSL internet access is "too slow"; a search for the phrase "DSL is slow" on Google now produces over seven thousand results. While many find it hard to disagree with pleasant talk of expanding high-speed access, it is not without significant cost to ISPs and their customers. It also encourages web designers to keep designing less efficient websites (see this data) with more advertising, animated menus, long keyword tags, unwanted features, and so on. These websites require newer web browsers (with higher system requirements) and more processing by the computer, regardless of connection speed, thus compelling users to wastefully discard and replace their computers yet again. This can hardly be considered good for the environment, especially when taking into account the dangerous practices now being used to extract materials from discarded computers in some Asian countries. A high-speed connection or the newest software wasn't considered necessary to watch video or listen to audio online in the past. Using efficient websites like CraigsList, Google, AltaVista, and LessWaiting is surely not "too slow" on dial-up, let alone DSL or cable. Do people really want to see the latest celebrity gossip (and wait for it to load) when they go to the home pages of MSN or Yahoo to search the web? Regardless of whether connection speeds, storage devices, memory, or processor speeds are being discussed (this even applies to electricity or fuel, for that matter), the same is true: the more of it that is available, the more will be used, not necessarily with any real benefit. People have become far too accustomed to technological solutions which cost large amounts of money and involve massive material waste. The solution to gaining faster internet access is free: creating more efficiently compressed and/or designed websites, media recordings, and software, not upgrading expensive infrastructure and computer equipment to temporarily solve the problem. |