Aug. 11, 2026

Back from college for the summer, a young Action NC intern has been developing a “toolkit” designed to help teens understand the neighborhood impacts of the tech infrastructure that increasingly powers the digital resource in their own pocket.

Ashley Meier’s presentation below offers a glimpse of the kind of detailed info that one of their own thinks teens should be aware of as their parents worry that a noisy, thirsty, energy-scarfing megawarehouse building might come in and degrade the neighborhood quiet.

Action NC Political Director Robert Dawkins offered context, along with a remark that the best way forward may be not to drop the cell phone in the trash but to focus on data center facilities similar in size and adverse impact to the electricity substations already distributed throughout the community.

Meier graduated from Hickory Ridge High School in Harrisburg in 2025 and returns this fall to Princeton University in New Jersey for her sophomore year.