Mathews & Ali: “Come on f—er, just load!”

In “Come on f—er, just load!” Powerlessness, Waiting, and Life Without Broadband, authors Nick Mathews (Communication & Journalism, Missouri-Kansas City) and Christopher Ali (Communications, Pennsylvania State) discuss the lived experiences of those waiting for a fixed broadband connection and shine a critical light on the power dynamics of digital inequality and chronic waiting.

This article provides a concrete discussion of the study of waiting and its effects on people. Other scholars, such as Pierre Bourdieu, have written that waiting is a way of experiencing the effects of power. Mathews and Ali pair this analysis with a discussion of broadband in rural America and the “unconnected” population. The divide between the “haves” and “have nots” of digital technology, access, and skills overlap with pre-existing inequalities of race, income, and education. Of no coincidence, this digital divide frequently falls along a urban-rural boundary. Rural “broadband deserts” have been around for decades but became particularly visible during the COVID-19 pandemic.

To conduct their study, Mathews and Ali conducted in-depth interviews with residents of a rural Virginia county. From these interviews, the article articulates three major findings. First, rural people suffer from “chronic waiting” and have no timeframe for gaining broadband access to their homes. Second, people wait while they are still using the internet, resulting in buffering, interruption, and slow download and upload speeds. Third, to enjoy a better connection, people choose alternative times to use the internet, resulting in a “second-shift” family that waits until the middle of the night to enjoy entertainment. 

This article aims to articulate the lived experiences of those waiting on broadband connection and to bring needed nuance to the discussion of the digital divide. The article argues that waiting is central to the lives of those without fixed broadband connection. This study finds that those waiting on connection are powerless to end the waiting and increasingly frustrated with powerful actors – the government officials, policy makers, and broadband providers – who control their waiting.

In sum, this article offers a deep and rare exploration of the inequalities facing those on the wrong side of the digital divide, demonstrating a painful feeling of powerlessness. This article’s findings emphasize critical concerns of “digital dignity,” or more – the indignity of waiting, which shines a light on the distinctions between those with connection and those without connection.