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11% of Americans don’t use the internet

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Re: 11% of Americans don’t use the internet

#131

Post by EGreg »

ezequiel-garzon wrote: post #45

It’s reasonable to assume that 11% of the adult US population is still illiterate [1]. I know this is not unique to the US, and that these people may very well be as happy as anyone else. Still, if we sometimes point out that HN is a bit of a bubble, well there’s a big bubble I can’t wrap my mind around well into the 21st century! I would certainly be surprised if an illiterate person made heavy use of the Internet (…

If literacy involves writing, then most kids are illiterate.

Remember the three R’s? Now it’s down to two. Well, maybe one (American kids have long been using calculators).

But a deeper question is, what do we actually lose if people can’t write by hand or do arithmetic?

Re: 11% of Americans don’t use the internet

#132

Post by LyndsySimon »

novia wrote: post #88
jMyles wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm completely floored at how she tries to fill every waking minute passively consuming content such as YouTube. ...is that so bad? She has an incredible world of content at her fingertips; what's the virtue in refraining from involving herself in it?

I'm not the OP, but having also watched a ten year old consume YouTube videos... they tend to stay far far away from anything remotely educational. For example, this is the kind of thing that the particular kid I know watches: https://youtu.be/5O66ssNpg_A 22 million views. So basically nothing is gained from watching these sorts of videos. But what's lost? Maybe the opportunity to connect with family members?

Is it really substantively different from “imaginative play”?

My own kids watch similar stuff quite a bit, and while I don’t enjoy watching it with them, they enjoy it and talk about it with their friends. They even make their own (private) videos for fun.

Ask any kid age six to twelve or so these days what they want to be, and most will reply “I want to be a YouTuber!”

Re: 11% of Americans don’t use the internet

#133

Post by ams6110 »

cm2187 wrote: post #53
simmons wrote: post #12

My Dad is in his early 70's and has never used the Internet. In fact, he never even had a cellphone until this year when I bought him a flip-phone and convinced him to accept it. I think he's plenty capable of learning such technology, he just doesn't see any compelling reason. And I think that's a perfectly reasonable choice -- I'm certainly not going to tell a senior citizen what they need to be happy. He is starti…

What is interesting is that it seems to have more to do with age than intellectual capacity. I know very smart 60yo+ doctors with a lifetime of scientific achievements, who understands concepts way more complicated than the IP protocol or a browser, and who just refuse to learn it. They might learn just how to use it but have no curiosity on how it works.

My parents both had Ph.D. educations in chemistry. A big part of my father's work involved scientific programming in Fortran. Both used computers in their research. Neither really got on board with the internet. My father never even used email. My mom did, but minimally.

Re: 11% of Americans don’t use the internet

#135

Post by Koshkin »

pixelmonkey wrote: post #87
guildenstern wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What’s the connection between reading books and the internet, aside from literacy? They’re such different things, I’m not clear on the connection between reading and the internet.

> I’m not clear on the connection between reading and the internet. Prior to the internet, books were the only way humans consumed large amounts of textual information. Now, we have web pages, which 89% of people use, whereas books, which have never been more accessible, still linger at 76% usage. One assumes of the 89% of people who use the Internet, 100% of them use web browsers, web sites, and thus read lots of te…

> books were the only way

I am sure you mean newspapers and magazines. Books still are.

Re: 11% of Americans don’t use the internet

#136

Post by LyndsySimon »

walrus01 wrote: post #38

Makes me wonder if when we are 80 years old, we'll be organizing retro LAN parties to play Unreal Tournament (1999 release) in our retirement homes.

... you’re not already doing that?

I organized a LAN party to play SiN a while back. It was fun!

Re: 11% of Americans don’t use the internet

#137

Post by reaperducer »

cm2187 wrote: post #53
simmons wrote: post #12

My Dad is in his early 70's and has never used the Internet. In fact, he never even had a cellphone until this year when I bought him a flip-phone and convinced him to accept it. I think he's plenty capable of learning such technology, he just doesn't see any compelling reason. And I think that's a perfectly reasonable choice -- I'm certainly not going to tell a senior citizen what they need to be happy. He is starti…

What is interesting is that it seems to have more to do with age than intellectual capacity. I know very smart 60yo+ doctors with a lifetime of scientific achievements, who understands concepts way more complicated than the IP protocol or a browser, and who just refuse to learn it. They might learn just how to use it but have no curiosity on how it works.

I know very smart 60yo+ doctors with a lifetime of scientific achievements, who understands concepts way more complicated than the IP protocol or a browser, and who just refuse to learn it.

I know a woman who until recently worked as a secretary to one of the presidents of a large regional bank. The first thing she did each morning was to print out the president's e-mails, and bring them to him on paper. He would then dictate his responses and she would send the e-mail responses for him.

The job paid big bucks for several reasons:

- She knows how to take fast, accurate dictation with steno. They don't teach that anywhere anymore.

- She knows how to file. Real paper files.

- She would place his phone calls for him, old-fashioned style. He would say, "I need to talk to Mr. X," and a in a couple of minutes she'd be on the phone: "Is this Mr. X? Please hold for bank president Y."

- She dressed the part; coming to work in a proper business suit and briefcase each day, not carrying a backpack like a sixth-grader.

- She didn't mind making coffee for the boss. It's a hate crime to even ask these days, but she did it happily.

That bank president must have a very low stress level, since he only had to see his paper e-mail once a day.

Re: 11% of Americans don’t use the internet

#139

Post by reaperducer »

stephengillie wrote: post #110
simmons wrote: post #12

My Dad is in his early 70's and has never used the Internet. In fact, he never even had a cellphone until this year when I bought him a flip-phone and convinced him to accept it. I think he's plenty capable of learning such technology, he just doesn't see any compelling reason. And I think that's a perfectly reasonable choice -- I'm certainly not going to tell a senior citizen what they need to be happy. He is starti…

My 70-something parents keep their cell phones at home, since they are so nice, so nothing happens to them. They carry pens and paper if they need to track something. My dad was a privacy-conscious bus driver in the 1980s, and has always had an unlisted number. These days, I know he's calling because caller ID shows "Private Number" when he calls.

They carry pens and paper if they need to track something.

I do, too. And in the nerdiest possible way: https://logostore-globalid.us/ProductDetail.aspx?did=17363&p...

And it's super cheap!

Re: 11% of Americans don’t use the internet

#140

Post by reaperducer »

SamUK96 wrote: post #41
simmons wrote: post #12

My Dad is in his early 70's and has never used the Internet. In fact, he never even had a cellphone until this year when I bought him a flip-phone and convinced him to accept it. I think he's plenty capable of learning such technology, he just doesn't see any compelling reason. And I think that's a perfectly reasonable choice -- I'm certainly not going to tell a senior citizen what they need to be happy. He is starti…

Even as a ~20-30 year old, libraries and them acting as community "hubs" seems so foreign already. Part of me worries about the growing individualist and transactional nature of our social lives that the internet is causing [citation needed, I know]. Part of me thinks that the easy way now where we can do IRS forms (and everything) online and to our door of our houses, will make us weak. There is some old Roman bit a…

Even as a ~20-30 year old, libraries and them acting as community "hubs" seems so foreign already.

I'm not sure why. Libraries are still massively popular, and most have embraced digital media fully. In many of the cities where I've been in the last 10 years, the libraries are struggling to keep up with demand. Many even have coffee shops and internet cafes.

In my estimation, a lot of people under 40 think the library is empty all the time because they've never been to one to see what it offers.

It's like how people say they don't watch PBS because there's nothing good on. But how do they know there's nothing good on if they don't watch?

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