Good enough for my daddy? Good enough for me!
A survey released by Park Associates shows that less than one-third of U.S. households still have no Internet access. Furthermore, the households do not plan on getting Internet access because of the irrelevance of online in their lives or their homes.
Park, a Dallas-based technology research firm, also stated that the 29 percent without the ‘Net translates into roughly 31 million with no intent on getting service in the next 12 months. The National Technology Scan conducted by Park also found that concern over cost was not a major reason behind the Internet-free homes.
44 percent of the households have no interest in the internet while 22 percent cannot afford a computer or afford internet service. 17 percent of the participants answered “I’m not sure how to use the Internet” while 14 percent of respondents revealed, “I do all my e-commerce shopping and YouTube-watching at work.”
Are these the same people who think that the Earth appeared 6,000 years ago? And how many of those who say they can’t afford a computer spend more than $50 a month on cigarettes and beer?
#29….Podesta….Hey Podesta…glad to see you too. Makes my heart glow to know your still as much of an ass as you used to be. 🙂
Thought I would drop by, Joshua. Can’t say I see any improvement in you , bro.’ Your spelling is terrible, your grammar atrocious, and you lack any analytical reasoning ability whatsoever. So, it is comic that you are offering yourself as an example of a smart Southerner. Thanks for the chuckle.
Now now… Let’s see where the hell this argument began…
Was it comment #4?… no no no… Uh, let’s see here…
Aha! 16!…? No…
Ah yes, it was comment #1. Think about this next time while you smoke your fags and chug booze: Tread carefully on uncharted territory.
See, none of us knew before that 1/3 of households have no internet. Now, taking that into consideration, I would like you somkin’ boozin’ bunch to think about what you say before you actually post it on here to prevent flame wars in a (normally) intellectual forum such as this.
Im finding it interesting that 90% of our current tech, REQUIRES batteries..
Even your computer does.
Im just waiting for them ALL to DIE, and you cant find one that FITS.
Wow, lively bunch here tonight.
I can see a certain percentage of the world who are not interested in communicating with faceless people from around the world. Some people just like to deal with people. These same people will walk into the fast food restaurant and wait in a line even if there are no cars at the drive up. That does not make them unintelligent, ignorant, Xtians or any of the other stupid things I have read here tonight. They are just different.
I too have a set of inlaws who have no interest in getting a computer or getting on the net. They just don’t want to. Big whoop de do. So I have to put up with getting a birthday card mailed to me every year instead of the stupid email cards I just delete anyway. I know I won’t get a virus or spyware from Mom’s card.
Now, go away, I have some PRON to watch.
Don
#15 – Lauren, good evening. Good grief, I spend a quiet evening with my wife and a couple of friends [visiting from NC by way of AZ, btw], watch a couple of HiDef Discovery Channel docs and drop back by to find a bar fight has broken out. 🙂
Mine not reason why – but, thought I’d point out another point of contention sneaking up on those folks who “gots TVs”.
They’re analog and only have a year or so left till us taxpayers get to subsidize everyone who wants to keep that critter – and hook it up to a digital adapter box to keep ’em working.
An issue guaranteed to warm the cockles of every opportunist populist politician in the country.
Good posts Joshua. People do nasty things on these post because they know there wont be repercussions. Most of them are cowards. I grew up in the south and recieved my engineering degree in good old Virginia, yeah the SOUTH. Probably the state with the best Universities in the country, fuck em.
I just have to say, yes, computers are wonderful tools, the internet is also a wonderful tool, but seriously – yes, this is a great use of your time – making slurs against stereotypes of large groups for no real reason … yup, I can sure see why everyone wants to go on the internet. I’m an internet user, and a Computer Science major, and you know what, I’m not convinced we need it all – sure, it speeds up communication, but it depersonalizes it. Sure, you can find intelligent debate, with a wide variety of opinions, and useful information, but that’s not exclusive to the internet, and its depersonalized nature makes it much easier for said debate to degenerate into a flame war, or rampant bigotry and slurs. What I’m saying is, the net is useful, but if we got hit by and knocked back 200 years, I wouldn’t miss it.
You dopes will comment on anything. More liberals who think you know what is best for everyone. Get a real job and stop living off the sweat of others.
How can you survive on only for $50 for cigarettes and beers a month.
Must be a low alcohol cheap beer (urggghhh).
Basic Survival Needs should be met by the government….
Food, Shelter, Water, Clean Air, Full Strength Beer, Cigarettes and Free use of the Internet Tubes. (radio and Free to Air TV could be delivered by these aformentioned tubes) except on your powered motor wagon where you would need extra tubes and maybe a hosepipe extension of sorts.
Wow. I didn’t know everyone would get so bent out of shape. I love it.
All kidding and generalizations aside, people in the south are less educated and less informed. Stats back it up. The public schools are the worst in the country.
For some it comes down to cost.
When broadband internet costs $50/mo and Dial-up cost me $5/mo, you start to weigh your priorities.
My wife and I choose to not have Cable TV and use the money to help pay for rising health insurance costs.
Maybe if people stop spending $300 on a cell phones and use the money to replace those bald tires on their 15 year old Cutless, or get their ignorant children some badly needed tutoring, maybe this world would be a better place.
#36 – Eideard
“They’re analog and only have a year or so left till us taxpayers get to subsidize everyone who wants to keep that critter – and hook it up to a digital adapter box to keep ‘em working.”
That observation just ignited a brief burst of my old friend, Cognitive Dissonance; I had this vision of Cletus explaining to Kent Brockman what he’d do if’n he won the lottery jackpot: “Ah’d git me one o’ them wide-scream TVs, so’s me ‘n Brandine kin watch Hee Haw in that thar High Defecation. The man down ta the TV store tole me you kin count all them l’il hairs in Roy Clark’s nose.”
Yea, one third sounds about right. Remember, 2% of households still do not have a TV which translates to roughly 2 million US households.
DVD player penetration is still “only” 82% of households 10 years after the introduction of the format with virtually no VHS movies being released at this point.
The point is, some people will never upgrade to the next technology for whatever reason. There is no reason to berate or belittle people because they are not interested in the technology. True, some people’s reasons may be strange or luddite in our opinion, but that is their choice.
I’ve said it a zillion times, I’ll say it again:
Computers are too damn hard.
That’s the reason computer use will not increase until there is a major paradigm shift in computers.
Think about it: how many people do you know who won’t bother to , as they are now.learn how to program their VCR or figure out the features on their digital camera? That’s a lot of people!
Those people aren’t getting a computer.
But if computers could be as easy to use as TVs, a lot more people would buy them.
Better yet, these computers should be bundled for “free” with broadband, the same way most of us got our first cell phones.
Eideard, your particular editorial commentary is, to put it bluntly, idiotic.
If someone doesn’t have the same priorities or needs that YOU have, they’re what? Ignorant? Stupid? Beer-guzzlers?
Elitism based on what shiny gadgets you have is pretty sad. Always was, always will be.
Did Eideard have brain fart or was his post a deliberate troll?
I hesitate to comment because I worry about being associated with everyone else commenting.
All kidding and generalizations aside, people in the south are less educated and less informed. Stats back it up. The public schools are the worst in the country.
We’re also rude. Go fuck yourself, you yankee cunt.
And what is it that makes the Internet so dispensable that people should pay $10 a month and an upfront $300 for it(and that’s the low end)? The fact is most people can go through life without that access pretty easily, especially if we got some cheap cybercafes.
#47 – It’s a troll – with a point. Discussing it with friends, who have traveled most of the world – we wondered if [1] there was an “educated” nation that cared less about knowledge than the U.S.? Not just knowledge of the world around us; but, in fact, knowledge as a useful acquisition. And [2] – witness #48, #46 – comprised to a certain extent of those who revel in embracing ignorance. Missing the point is a matter of pride. 🙂
The Internet, after all, is an extension and expansion of communications methodologies – by design and intent. The essential purpose of those communications is to make information available. If you ever worked with survey analytics, a common final question is: Do you feel the Internet provides access to a world of information or do you think it’s an overload?
The former is why Google is a success, after all.
I now see why some people get so much enjoyment out of trolling. I need to find some nice Xian forum and get to work. RFLMAO. Suckas.
I think I can go out on a limb here and speak for some of the other commenters, as well as m’sel; no disparagement is intended, of course, of those who, through no fault on their own, can’t easily get access. The abuse is reserved for those who could easily have a connection to the tubes, but don’t.
#46 – Terry
Eideard is too nice to put you in your place – but no one has ever accused me of being too nice. 🙂
There’s nothing “idiotic” about noting the demonstrable stupidity of a segment of the none-too-bright-to-start-with general American populace. If you actually think the Internet is a “shiny gadget” then it’s quite likely you belong to that segment.
Your comment is a fine example of smug, Politically Correct, faux- egalitarian bullshit.
“Everyone is just as smart as anyone else. Stupid people don’t exist.”
So you would have us believe that if someone takes the few dollars needed to access the greatest social / intellectual / cultural / communication resource ever imagined, and instead invests it in something lasting, educational and life-enhancing – like cigarettes and alcohol – they’re not stupid. Oh, no, they’re just making a perfectly valid, intelligent choice based on their deeply-held and deeply-considered values, which just happen to be different from ours. That we don’t recognize their grounds for that decision are every bit as intellectually valid as theirs makes us the inferior ones, since we’re “judgemental” and “elitist.”
Get real, Terry. The idiot masses who want only to numb their minds will always far outnumber the “elitists” who seek to improve theirs. Get over your sour-grapes anti-intellectual resentment. Your chosen segment of society is much larger – why doesn’t that make you happy?
And re your closing statement there – there’re those of us who are mystified as to why anyone with a choice could be dense enough to squander the incredible resource that is the Internet – and for you to misconstrue that as being some kind of petit yuppie materialism strongly indicates that you don’t make your living with your mind.
Eideard, you know, you still haven’t made a point.
“Acquisition of knowledge” is not equivalent to “wanting internet”.
Neither does “lack of internet” equal “embracing ignorance”.
Remember books? Radio? Television, newspapers and other periodicals? The means to acquire knowledge existed long before the computer or internet.
A truism is “Don’t feed the troll”. Still, if someone makes some truly egregious statements, they need to be called on it, at least once.
Now, Eideard, since you have admitted that you are a troll, is there any particular reason anyone should pay any attention to anything else you have to say?
Eideard, 29% of the US population has an IQ of less than 92. That is a simple fact of life. I don’t mean to imply that everyone not connected to the Internet belongs in this group or that someone with an IQ of 88 can’t benefit from exposure to the Internet. What I do mean to say is that it’s silly to think everyone should be connected.
#53 – Terry
““Acquisition of knowledge” is not equivalent to “wanting internet”. Neither does “lack of internet” equal “embracing ignorance”.”
Wrong. Intelligence entails love of knowledge and desire to acquire more. No truly intelligent person would voluntarily shun the greatest source of knowledge which has ever existed. It’s a ludicrous idea.
“Remember books? Radio? Television, newspapers and other periodicals? The means to acquire knowledge existed long before the computer or internet.”
So what? You are making a false implication that the mere existence of other means of imparting information makes them equally effective and accurate, when nothing could be further from the truth.
Horse drawn chariots existed long before the internal combustion engine or airplanes. So they’re just as good, right?
What a load of crap.
Lauren the Fish you speak in absolutes and it makes your statements meaningless. “No truly intelligent person would voluntarily shun the greatest source of knowledge which has ever existed.” What? Says who? You? Are you the judge of true intelligence? BTW your definition of intelligence is flat out wrong. What about people who seek happiness and contentment through knowledge? You are saying that knowledge should be acquired for it’s own sake, but a truly intelligent person would shun the greatest source of knowledge ever created if it wasn’t necessary for their happiness and contentment.
My favourite line is this one though “Your comment is a fine example of smug, Politically Correct, faux- egalitarian bullshit.” You accuse him of doing exactly what you are arguing for. You are saying that anyone who isn’t on the net by choice is ignorant. You are making yourself an elitist by doing so and you are too stupid to realize it.
Eidard, can I assume that from your posts that only people who aren’t on the net are beer guzzling smokers? I like how you manage to know so much about a group of people based on one piece of information about them.
I do concede that anyone on the net must automatically be better than anyone not on the net simply because they were able to make the choice you guys feel is the right one. It would be foolish to turn away so much knowledge. Hey did you guys see the YouTube video about the guy getting kicked in the nuts? Lotsa knowldge.
Lauren, thank you so much for putting me in my place. My life is so much richer now that I have the benefit of your wisdom.
Did you follow the link Eideard provided? Did any of you? (Check the graphical breakdown at http://tinyurl.com/2t2zf2).
NO WHERE does it mention ‘location’, ‘economic status’, ‘intelligence’. How can you (plural ‘you’) make such condescending statements based on nothing? Who’s being elitist now?
Lauren, I really like your ad hominem response. I don’t agree with you, therefore I must be part of “the idiot masses”.
How about YOU getting real? While the internet IS the greatest tool for information retrieval developed yet, it is NOT the only one available.
And *that* is the point I’ve tried to get through.
In your #55, are you really claiming that the internet is *superior* to every other form of knowledge acquisition out there? That it’s more accurate? That there is more information available is simple fact. That doesn’t mean it is any more accurate.
“Horse drawn chariots” … non sequitor. They’re not better; just different. In *some* circumstances, a horse can be better for a particular job than a car or an airplane. Camels, too. How about, rice farmers should use tractors instead of water buffalo to till the paddies? Oh wait, tractors aren’t as useful.
And Lauren, you must be psychic to know so much about me without knowing anything about me.
#53 – If your remark was logical and legitimate – and it isn’t – there would only be one response: “You’re pwned!” 🙂
I would just like to add some fuel to the fire.
#54 – Smith
Agreed. We must accept human variability; there will be, always and forever, the average majority, the smart minority (or what insecure, resentful members of the first group call “elitists”), and the stupid minority (the happiest group of all).
Pretending, as some of these commenters insist upon doing, that ‘everyone is above average’ is counterproductive. A misconception has taken root in the liberal West that, because everyone merits an equal right to hold an opinion, therefore all opinions are of equal merit, which is, of course, an absurdity.
#57 – Terry
I should be back later, and if so, will demonstrate the numerous errors and fallacies upon which your attempted refutation is based. I will also deal with the illustrious Mr. Ascii King, who apparently labors under some of the same misperceptions as yourself.
In the meanwhile, you could do something to enhance any claim you may make as regards your status as an allegedly intelligent person. Since you’ve done it twice now, it obviously isn’t a typo – so before (mis)using the term non sequitur, please try spelling it correctly.
TTFN