Wi-Fi-ing the homeless

Shane Wade
Opinion Editor

In the future, will your Wi-Fi hotspot by a homeless person?

A presentation at this year’s South by Southwest technology conference stirred controversy when BBH marketing agency unveiled an experimental innovation that used homeless people as wireless Wi-Fi transmitters.

That’s right: In exchange for a charitable donation, a homeless person would provide customers with access to a Wi-Fi hotspot that they’re carrying.

Innovations like this show us how our Internet-addicted society has embarked upon a morally ambiguous and ethically uncharted path. Although the focal question in the matter regards whether it is right or wrong to degrade a human being into such a position, a closer examination asks us to consider the matter holistically and objectively.

Moral outrage clouds the issue. In a struggling economy that encourages frugality, a person might be more inclined to donate money in return for a service, rather than a warm feeling in their heart. What could it hurt to explore this enterprise, other than one’s pride?

Furthermore, such transactions would spur interactions between the public and the homeless. This allows for an opportunity to build a dialogue, both on a personal and societal level.

The combination of our urban environment and structured routine might have us frequenting particular spots devoid of Internet access. Should a “homeless hotspot” become available there, the continual interaction would steadily correct stereotypes and lead to a more favorable view of the average homeless person by the public.

We should make the best of a bad situation. As degrading as such a service might initially sound, it could very well be life-altering when put into practice. At the least, homeless people are being provided with an opportunity to positively interact with the public, provide a valuable service and utilize the Internet, should they be provided with a device for accessing it.

If nothing else, this marketing experiment reignites an opportunity for us to make a concrete and concerted effort to cut the epidemic of homelessness that pervades our country. The potential backlash from a campaign that would turn homeless people into Internet access portals might be the motivation needed to shift paradigms and get people to really have a heart for the homeless.

The possibility of Wi-Fi-ing the homeless is both utterly exploitative and utterly transformative. The manner in which it ends up being is entirely dependent upon how we, as a society, respond.

We can collectively accept the concept as a positive opportunity for homeless people to integrate themselves into everyday society, or we can collectively shudder at the notion of degrading human beings to human equivalent of a router.

At the end of the day, my opinion and the vast majority of opinions might matter least. In this ethical venture, the opinions of those that are directly and truly affected will be largely unheard.

How many of us will stop and discuss issues of utilitarianism and personhood with a homeless person? How many of us will actually care enough to be moved to action?