I remember as a senior in high school, my computer science teacher gave our class a short lesson on net neutrality: what it means, why it’s important, and what ending net neutrality would mean. Prior to his class, I had absolutely no idea it was a political issue, and after seeing the two John Oliver episodes, I believe it’s absolutely abhorring that net neutrality is an issue at all. To explain it briefly, net neutrality means you get free and open access to all content on the internet (except the dark web, of course, because that's all illegal content).

The internet in this day and age is just as essential as water. Everybody needs access to it, and its accessibility determines to a great extent your standard of living. WIFI is your ability to have internet altogether, but net neutrality means you can access anything on the internet at any given moment. The FCC wants to end net neutrality, and that means your provider determines what you can access on their plan and you have to pay more to access content NOT covered on their plan.

Here's a hypothetical example: Comcast is your provider and you want to access Google, but Comcast covers Bing and you hate Bing, so you would have to pay more to Comcast just to access Google. Would you pay more to access Google Play, Google Mail, Google Drive and all of the other add-ons Google has to offer? Because I sure as hell wouldn't!

Now let's revisit the water analogy; remember it's just as essential as the internet. Suppose a federal agency wanted to take access to water and put in the hands of private companies. That would mean companies like Dasani, Aquafina, Deer Park, Diamond Springs, and Evian determine your access to water.

Now take a big step back and look at the whole picture. While the FCC is trying to deregulate the internet, it is still going to be regulated; internet service providers are the ones setting regulations rather than a federal agency. Compare that to China. The Chinese government censors a great deal of content on cyberspace. Sure, it might not be the same as ending net neutrality, but the principle is strikingly similar. One entity is controlling an individual’s access to a resource, and the only way they can access more is if they pay more money to that entity. Does that sound right at all to you?

Water is a necessity, and it’s by this logic that we should not treat it as a luxury. As of the twenty-first century, otherwise known as the Information Age, the internet has become an absolute necessity. Everybody needs it. Ending net neutrality means limiting access to information. If this still doesn’t make any sense now, Google it now while you still can and get your own fill.