How and why has the Internet become central to the daily lives of Inuit people? - Michael Delaunay

The romantic view of how Inuit lives in the Arctic is very strong in the south, and in Europe, in the minds of the people who have never been there. This view derived from the work of 20^th century well-known anthropologists who depicted Inuit people living, in that time, in igloos and using sledge dogs to move. But of course the reality is very different now and even if the Arctic, especially Nunavut, is distant from the big urban areas, has no roads, and can only be reached by plane or boat, modernity and globalization has reached the Inuit. As they have done for new technologies imported by southern people in their communities, Inuit have largely adopted the internet and use it to their advantage. Internet became even more useful in isolated communities, where Inuit use it every day. Internet is now central to the everyday life of a large number of Inuit and most of them use social media. That is why Inuit crave better internet service. We will see that the internet is not only used for leisure, but also in order to promote the Inuit culture, raise awareness about the living conditions up here, to administer the territory, to do business and to engage in politics; even though the connection available in that area is still very limited in capacity and very expensive.