Hallelujah, we’re finally going to get hooked up to the 21st century.

Wilkes County got good news this week from the U.S. government. The USDA announced that Recovery Act funds were going be made available to bring broadband coverage – real big-city internet service – to Wilkes County.

We’ve never had enough population to make it worthwhile to a company to build the infrastructure necessary for broadband, and we still don’t. The government money will fill in that gap, where no business can find a profit.

When the dream of rural broadband access comes true, it could help save our rural economy in the years to come. More and more every year, high-speed internet access is a necessity in a global economy and a critical requirement for rural economic revival.

Every time I see my son in Athens enjoy his lightning-fast internet connection, I’m reminded that we’re a generation behind here, and two generations behind out in the county. It’s 2010 for crying out loud – dial-up internet access is pitiful, but that’s all that is available outside of Washington. The DSL here in town is bearable only if you’ve never had real broadband access.

The need for internet speed isn’t just about being able to play a You- Tube video or download movies – it’s a necessity for business now. Getting broadband access opens doors to business and industrial companies that wouldn’t otherwise locate here. Existing businesses can do business better here, and agricultural businesses both large and small need to be connected to the modern world.

Educators, too, say that our children need full and unfettered access to the digital world to thrive in the coming economy. That’s true, no doubt. Advancing the technology available to our schools and our children at home should increase their educational opportunities, allowing them to access the same range of global information as other school children.

But recent studies have shown that making the internet accessible to some students is hazardous to their grades. A Duke University study of the impact on bringing rural broadband into North Carolina in 2005 showed a strange effect. Soon after they first got hooked up to the internet, many middle schoolers’ test scores dropped dramatically. Apparently teens, who are champion time-wasters anyway, suddenly get on the ultimate time-waster and can’t find time to study their math. Having been a teenage boy, I can easily imagine making that lifechanging choice. Should I get online, chat on Facebook, play World of Warcraft, and download movies, or should I use this afternoon to study polynomial equations?

Back then, I was pretty well corrupted by a giggly girl on the other end of a single-line phone. I can only imagine the gigabytes of distractions that will come at kids by way of broadband internet. No wonder test scores drop, for some kids.

As with everything else, it comes down to personal responsibility. While it’s true that broadband internet access is absolutely necessary to the success of Wilkes County in the 21st Century, what we choose to do with the internet is entirely up to us.

Bandwidth, like brainpower, is a terrible thing to waste.