Internet access has become a basic and important necessity, even to the extend that the United Nations are currently pushing countries to consider it a human right. The UN started calling for universal access to important and basic information and communication services at the assembly of its Administrative Committee on Coordination early in the 21st century, following up in 2003 when addressing delegates of the World Summit on Information Society. France, Estonia and Greece were among the first to react, enacting and enforcing laws that make Internet access as a human right. Observers, analysts and advocates are waiting for more countries follow suit.

Every day many millions of people log in to the services offered across the Internet. Online shopping is very popular: clothes, collectors’ items, foods, gadgets, appliances, furniture, jewels… just about anything can be obtained via the web. Specialized sites sell concert, movie, plane and even ferry tickets. Banking transactions like depositing and transferring of funds are increasingly being done online. Movies, videos, news streams, and amateur clips can be downloaded through the internet. Computer applications and software are sold, sent, and downloaded online. Booking and reservations for accommodations in other cities and countries are conveniently done via the net.

Indeed, convenience is a keyword regarding internet access. Goods and, even more important, information are available from home – translating into big savings in time, effort and money. If Internet access is successfully made a human right, more people will enjoy and use it for their own educational, material and other benefits. Technologically it’s no problem at all: internet access, even via broadband, is becoming increasingly available all over the world. It’s only politicians that can, and often do, stop it. That’s why it should become a human right.

At the moment I write this I am 64 years old. That makes me a so-called senior citizen, and as such I am generously allowed the odd senior moment. I certainly make good use of this privilege: every now and then such a moment seems more like a senior year! Anyway, I wasn’t brought up with computers: I got my first one in 1988 when I was 42. I still remember the machine: Amstrad was his name, hurrying along at the amazing speed of 9Mhz, while the RAM memory consisted of an utterly astonishing 520K!

In the years that passed, somehow the relationship between my computer and me seems to have been reversed: right now it’s me who hasn’t much more memory than 500K, while the impressive computer that hisses contentedly beneath my desk owns 4 Gigs of the stuff… or 6… or even 8… I forgot the exact amount. It’s for ancient geezers like me (and gals, of course!) that books like the one in this post have been published. For we must admit: when it comes to computers we’re not only seniors, but also (more or less) dummies.