Digitally Excluded V2

<h4>Who am I? </h4> Hello! My name is Michael and I have been made redundant since April 2017 from my job as a chef for a local public house. Since losing my job, I have been getting welfare for a few years in which I get £400 to live on each month. To say it's been difficult living on this amount of money is an understatement and I'm so keen to get out of the rut I'm currently in right now. Having no internet in a house I'm living with my grandmother Pippa is difficult because I'm unable to stay updated with my journal updates for the job centre or access my emails and even stay in touch with friends and family. My old myPhone is still going but only just on a cheap SIM-only contract which costs £10 a month. The only internet I can access is in my local library or on my phone, but due to the coronavirus pandemic, the library has closed which has meant that I've become more disconnected with my friends and work coach. Previously, I used to have a laptop prior to losing my job, which would have been my lifeline to still engaging with friends and family. After being made redundant, my laptop had decided to die, leaving me with limited internet access at best. Even the internet on my SIM-only contract on my phone barely lasts half a month, which means I'm disconnected from everyone when my allotted data allowance runs out. Most of my friends don't even call me but at least I have 500 texts which is not much, but its better than nothing. I would love to have any job that gets me out the house, I'm not fussy and enjoy working in a team. <h4>Can you help me become a digitally inclusive member of society?</h4> [[Continue the game]] [[I'm not playing anymore]]

Excellent! Thank you so much. As I have been living without home broadband for what seems forever, it's meant that trying to find a job has been next to impossible unless I go and use the internet from the library. I've been spending most of the £400 I get from my welfare payment each month on food, energy bills and a cheap SIM-only contract for my phone. However, if I want to get a job, then I will need to be able to install home broadband in my grandmother's house. My grandmother is reluctant towards having broadband in her house but I tell her that if I want to get a job, I need to get online at home and not rely on the internet from the library. <h4>What do you do? </h4> [[Convince your grandmother]] [[Don't bother, it's not worth it]]

I spend half an hour convincing Pippa, my grandmother to install home broadband in her house, going as far to show that I will use it to hopefully find a job and keep ourselves connected with other family members online. After much deliberation, Pippa gives the go-ahead for installing broadband in her house, but she tells me that it's going to come out of my own pocket. She's also given me a condition, not switching away from the line rental she's paying for her phone line through BT1. As the house has a BT1 phone line, it means that getting cable broadband through VM Max means having to change suppliers, which is one of the drawbacks for getting fast fibre home broadband for the household. <h4> Which broadband provider should I go for? </h4> [[BT1 - Expensive, but fast]] [[Blueyonder - Cheap fibre broadband]] [[Superfly Broadband - Slightly cheaper than BT1, but still expensive]] [[Talk1 - Cheap, but inconsistent]]

You've tried to convince your grandmother to have home broadband installed in your house, but she refused to budge to your numerous requests of getting online at home. Facing a choice of being digitally excluded from society permanently or at least having a lifelong future of being jobless, Michael's hopes of getting a job in the past few years has slowly sapped his motivation to find work. At least, he's never been sanctioned from being on welfare and has done everything his work coach has told him to do in his contract when he first signed up for his monthly welfare payments more than three years ago. [[Next -> Michael heads to the library]]

The stress of being digitally excluded has gotten to Michael to which he decides to give up living on welfare and the job search altogether. I've had enough. These few years have been an absolute struggle and my life is not what it used to be. I don't want to live like this but where do I go from here? Pippa repeatedly tries to call Michael on his phone for weeks. She has not seen him since he tried to convince her to install fibre broadband in her home, which led to a massive argument between her and Michael. This argument has left their relationship completely broken. She hopes he is okay but weeks of missed phone calls have made it hard for you to repair what is a broken relationship between you and Michael. [[The end of the game]]

Makes sense considering I've got a BT1 landline in my house that my grandmother pays for. It is expensive though, the cheapest fibre broadband is £28 a month for 24 months, but if my grandmother is already paying for line rental, then I will need to convince her that I'll pay for the entire service I get from BT1. If it means it takes a slight chunk out of the welfare money I get each month, then so be it! [[Next ->Get BT1 broadband]]

It's cheap and will not take a huge chunk of what I'm getting through my monthly welfare payment, but my grandmother did say to get the broadband package through BT1. Oh well, after all, I've got to remember that even though there are alternative suppliers around, I have to stick to what my grandmother has told me with getting BT1 broadband. [[Back to the options menu ->Convince your grandmother]]

Your grandmother said to get broadband through BT1 right? This is not BT1 and she has no interest in paying for lots of channels which will be glossed over through the broadband package you recommended to her. Also, paying for a lot of channels you don't watch seems a waste of money considering you only have £400 a month to live on? [[Back to the options menu ->Convince your grandmother]]

Did you tell yourself that you would never get Talk1 broadband? Your friend who used to have that broadband provider told you of how terrible the customer service and broadband speeds were on Talk1. I'm definitely not buying anything from Talk1 anytime soon that's for sure. [[Back to the options menu ->Convince your grandmother]]

<h4>Fibre broadband is coming home! </h4> A week after making the call to get BT1's fibre broadband, a knock on the door is heard throughout the house. Michael opens the door and says: "Are you the BT1 engineer who will be installing my broadband in my house?" "Yes I am, can I come into the house please?" asks the BT1 engineer. I tell him to come into the house and show him where the landline is for installing the BT1 fibre broadband. The BT1 engineer tells Michael if he has the broadband router that was sent to his house a few days ago. Michael said: "Yes. It's here in my hands." So many years of frustration with limited access to the internet were about to become a thing of the past as the engineer got to work setting up the broadband connection in Pippa's house. [[Next ->Installing the broadband]]

Michael walks to the library and heads to the computer to access his welfare journal. When he goes onto the welfare website, his smile turns into complete despair when he reads this latest journal update from his work coach. Dear Michael, Despite being on welfare for a few years and having limited success in finding work, I'm afraid I'm going to have to sanction you for not hitting your target of applying for 20 jobs a week. This means you will not be receiving your monthly payment of £400 for the next three months. I'm so sorry for giving you this piece of news but I guess as my job is to get you into work, if you do not complete the targets I set to you as part of the contract you signed with me, then you will be unable to get your monthly welfare payments. You can challenge this appeal in court or accept that you will not be receiving any money from the state for the next three months. Kindest Regards, Department for Welfare and Employment [[Next ->Here we go]]

Heading back from the library, Michael quickly heads to his bedroom and uncontrollably sobs after receiving the news of being sanctioned by his work coach. Pippa has no idea what has happened with Michael and assumes he's okay after going to the library to continue his quest of finding a job. She knits away as Michael is left lying motionless on his bed, exhausted from a day which went from bad to worse. I'll never become a digital member of society, it's impossible when so many odds are stacked against you. I used to be so happy, now there's no hope left for me in this world anymore. [[Next -> The next day]]

<h4> Things can only get better </h4> Michael wakes up and leaves the home without saying a word to Pippa. She assumes that he is heading to the library to continue his job search. Two hours later... I tell myself: "I give up, this job search lark is so difficult, it's unbelievable." That's what I did, I gave up on my welfare payments, as well as my job search and called it a day. Pippa repeatedly tries to call Michael 10 times during the day for an update from him. You hope he is okay, but have no idea if he will ever come back home again. [[The end of the game]]

Thank you very much for playing Digitally Excluded. What I wanted to do was try to create a game around what it would be like to be an individual who is digitally excluded from society. The option to install broadband at home or go without home internet access is one many people and families face in the UK. The Good Things Foundation's Blueprint for a 100% Digitally Included UK report found that <a href="https://www.goodthingsfoundation.org/sites/default/files/blueprint-for-a-100-digitally-included-uk-0.pdf" /> nearly a quarter of poor families do not have access at home to broadband or a desktop, laptop or tablet. </a> By creating a game around this subject, it would enable the player to put themselves in the shoes of someone who is living in digital exclusion and is trying to become a digital member of society. Having the aspect of getting a job online would replicate how unemployed people have to navigate the world of having no internet access in their homes to not only get a job, but also access their bank account, pay bills for utilities and book hospital appointments. [[Return to the start of the game->Digitally Excluded]]

I can hardly contain my excitement about having fibre broadband in my grandmother's house. The days of constantly going to the library to access the internet are almost coming to an end. Three hours later, the BT1 fibre broadband is installed in the house and the phone line is still intact. Michael and Pippa are very happy at how quickly the broadband has been installed in the house. <style> img { max-width: 100%; max-height: 100%; } </style> <div class="img5"> <img alt="broadband-router" src="https://umarhassan.neocities.org/Images/broadband-router.jpg" /> </div> They thank the engineer for installing the broadband, which makes Pippa and Michael no longer digitally excluded citizens. However, Michael remembers that he has an appointment at the job centre at 9am tomorrow, which he has forgotten to prepare for. "Oh no! I'm not ready for my appointment at the job centre. Better get to work on that now." [[Next -> Preparation for the job centre appointment]]

<h4>Another job centre appointment to attend to</h4> Michael logs onto the welfare website and finds out he's been sanctioned for not applying for the set number of jobs a week he's been allocated by his work coach. I'm sanctioned by my work coach, but I guess I have fibre broadband which is great. Never will I ever be digitally excluded again, but I fear that for the cost of being a member of a digital society will be short and brief. Michael rushes to prepare for his appointment with the job centre for tomorrow morning. It's going to be a long day tomorrow, Mike sighs after his BT1 fibre broadband was installed in his house today. [[Next ->The Job Centre appointment]]

<h4>The next day</h4> It's 6am and Michael gets out of bed to prepare for his appointment at the job centre. He's nervous about what his work coach has to say to him after a dismal week of job searching. "Hope you do well with your appointment at the job centre today," Pippa tells Michael. He leaves the house to walk in a much happier state compared with previous months as the job search started to take its toll on him mentally. He leaves the house to start a relatively short walk for his 9am appointment at the job centre. [[Next -> Next]]

<h4>Time for my appointment with my work coach </h4> Michael arrives at the job centre at 8:45am. The work coach calls Michael's name as the clock strikes nine o'clock in the morning. "How are you doing?" asks the work coach to Michael. I tell the coach: "I'm doing much better than I was two weeks ago." A smile breaks out from the work coach, but I'm reminded of my sanction for not hitting the number of jobs I had to apply for each week. However, I'm offered a lifeline of getting a full-time job in a factory, but it's up to me to accept if I want to go with an interview for this role or accept living on no money for the next three months. It's a life-changing decision, but I'm torn whether to take the job interview for this role on short notice or live on ramen noodles for three months? I'll take this job interview offer from my work coach because I'm sick of living without stable employment and its time I got off my backside and started being optimistic for once in my life! [[Michael accepts the interview offer for a job ->Yes?]]

I accept the interview offer for a job working in a factory to which the work coach calls the employer to book the appointment for today. 10 minutes later... Michael is informed that the job interview is taking place at 1pm this afternoon. I'm used to having interviews on short notice, it's where I work best. The work coach wishes me luck and tells me: "Let's hope today is the day you get a job." From having no hope to potentially on the verge of potential employment feels like a small, but important step in the quest of leaving my years of unemployment behind me. [[Continued -> The job interview]]

<h4> Today will be the day I am going to get a job </h4> It's two hours before the interview for the job at the factory and Michael has already had lunch and is heading to the factory for his interview. I'm so nervous about this interview as it's the first one I have had in so long. I may never get another opportunity like this for a long time to come so I need to get this job. No ifs, no buts. The time is now 12:45pm as Michael switches his phone off and heads into the factory for his job interview. [[Time for the interview]]

<h4>The job interview </h4> The interviewer calls out Michael's name and he comes into the interview room at the factory for this job role. I see you have been working as a chef, what makes you well suited for working in a factory, asks the interviewer? "Working in under pressure environments have always played to my strengths. In my previous job, I used to have to cook on many occasions up to 100 guests at the time, requiring maximum concentration and teamwork to get the meals served. "This means making sure every dish I served to a customer was perfect and with this job as a factory worker, I would use the skills I had acquired from working in hospitality for five years and apply this into the products the company makes in the factory." As the interview continues, the interviewee is so impressed with Michael that the interviewer makes an offer that he cannot refuse... [[Next->The job offer]]

<h4>I've got a job! </h4> After half an hour, the interview ends and the interviewer is so impressed with Michael that he decides to offer him the factory worker job on the spot. "I would be more than happy to accept the job offer of working in a factory thank you," Michael replies back to the interviewer. He is told by the interviewer that the role he job tomorrow, which is music to Michael's ears. One handshake later ends many years of digital exclusion for Michael, who leaves the factory smiling from ear to ear knowing he is not unemployed anymore and that he will no longer be a digitally excluded member of society. Two months later, Michael is still working as a factory worker and is on the verge of being rewarded with a promotion by his manager for the work he's doing at the factory. Despite many obstacles put in his way, Michael puts his three years of digital exclusion behind him to start a new life as a digital member of society. [[The end of the game]]