True Story: An 18-Year-Old Who Doesn't Know What "Broadband" Means

I've been up in Cape Cod for the OpenCape Summit (which I'll write about soon) but for now despite all the wonderful things I learned at that event what's sticking out most in my mind happened after the event as I sat down to catch up with my 18-year-old cousin, Lydia.

Sometimes there seems to be a sense that anyone under the age of 25 knows everything there is to know about broadband, that they're all hard wired with an inherently deeper sense of the what, how, and why of the Internet.

But then there's my cousin. Last night while chatting, she made a startling admission: she didn't know what "broadband" meant.

Now, that's not entirely true. As we discussed it further, she acknowledged that she knew broadband meant faster and that it came from the cable company.

And when I followed up by asking her if she used the Internet, she quickly confirmed that while she may not be a power user she does partake in some of the basics of an online existence as a young adult, like watching videos on YouTube and creating a Facebook page.

But I'm totally fascinated by the fact she didn't know what broadband was.

I had to take her through the explanation that the Internet is a bunch of interconnected fiber optic networks and that broadband encompasses the access networks that allow us to reach the Internet. That made sense to her.

Then I tried tackling the reasons why I support full fiber deployments. When I first started talking about bringing the full power of the Internet to her front door I could tell that didn't mean a lot, but when I began talking about how all the world's Internet traffic can be delivered today over a single strand of fiber, her interest perked up. And what really grabbed her attention was when I started covering how all that bandwidth makes possible those next-gen high-bandwidth applications that once seemed relegated to the realm of science fiction, things like communicating via hi-def holograms.

By the end I felt like I'd gotten her to see the light, not enough so that she'll become a champion for broadband but at least enough so that the next time she hears the word she'll know what it means and hopefully whenever she next encounters someone talking about fiber she may be more predisposed than before to supporting the concept.

But for now stories like this should show us that we can't make blanket assumptions like "all young people know broadband" just like we shouldn't assume that all old people don't know it.

And we can't forget that for the vast, vast majority of Internet users today, "broadband" doesn't represent the opportunity to revolutionize society through greater capacity, it just means faster Internet.