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7% of Americans don’t use the internet. Who are they?

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211–220 of 405 posts

Re: 7% of Americans don’t use the internet. Who are they?

#211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

not OP but I've had a long running subscription to The Economist since the early 90ies. One of my favorite sections usually glossed over by everyone I know (but I'm weird) is the quality from "Letters to the Editor" that are incredibly well selected and often hilarious when checked with the original piece that they are referring to. The Letters are not my causa primera for reading it, but if something so mundane is d…

>had a long running subscription to The Economist >their Tech section ... stands out among the rest this is some hardcore Gell Mann sorcery right here

having trouble understanding the reference. would you care to elaborate?

Re: 7% of Americans don’t use the internet. Who are they?

#212
post #195
post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see life slowing down, maybe after some natural or man-made disaster wipes out half the population and most modern infrastructure, but until then, I only see things getting faster. HFT is the perfect example of the benefits of being fast, literally by trading faster, not necessarily better, billions in profit are made. In other fields, first-movers often have a massive advantage, AWS for example. Just look at…

I'm sorry, Europe has missed out on the last three generations of technology? I live in Europe and have visited the US. My impression has been the opposite. When I was visiting (5 years ago): - The trains didn't work - People printed out google maps instructions instead of using a network connection because data connections were bad/expensive - I had to sign my name to pay with a card at gas stations. I couldn't use…

After all, Germany makes all the cars that end up in the US.

I just pulled up a list of the top 25 selling cars in the US and there are 0 German brands on that list. Plus most of the 'German' cars sold in the US are also made in the US.

Re: 7% of Americans don’t use the internet. Who are they?

#213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

not OP but I've had a long running subscription to The Economist since the early 90ies. One of my favorite sections usually glossed over by everyone I know (but I'm weird) is the quality from "Letters to the Editor" that are incredibly well selected and often hilarious when checked with the original piece that they are referring to. The Letters are not my causa primera for reading it, but if something so mundane is d…

>had a long running subscription to The Economist >their Tech section ... stands out among the rest this is some hardcore Gell Mann sorcery right here

To the child sub comment.

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/65213-briefly-stated-the-ge...

867 is either implying that because something you know is good you judge the rest likely to be good.

Alternatively they are being sarcastic because they think The Economist's tech section is poor.

Re: 7% of Americans don’t use the internet. Who are they?

#214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ha! you think illiterate people are voting?

Given that literacy tests before voting are illegal and people fought against them, they are.

Literacy tests were used to keep people of color -- and, sometimes, poor whites -- from voting, and they were administered at the discretion of the officials in charge of voter registration. If the official wanted a person to pass, he could ask the easiest question on the test -- for example, "Who is the president of the United States?"

The same official might require a black person to answer every single question correctly, in an unrealistic amount of time, in order to pass.

--

From https://www.thirteen.org/wnet/jimcrow/voting_literacy.html

Re: 7% of Americans don’t use the internet. Who are they?

#215

Honestly, I wish I could stop using the internet. I make a lot of things and enjoy sharing them because other people might find them useful. It has often led to wonderful and inspiring conversations. Yet it's obvious there's something very very wrong happening with American culture that began around the time of social media platform consolidation. "Being online" entails a distinct mindset and attitude that is incompa…

I’ve been trying to put The Internet back into the role of Tool, but even that is a challenge because for so many topics the search engines are overrun by SEO hack sites. If the page rank of StackOverflow weren’t so overwhelming I’d probably struggle with work related searches too. Even there, a few times a week I end up in someone’s link farm.

Re: 7% of Americans don’t use the internet. Who are they?

#216
post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Part of what you’re describing can be attributed to lack of internet. But other part is just being an outsider that doesn’t really care that much (and I mean that in totally non offensive way - it’s just a benefit of being an outsider). Outrage existed long before internet. Daily tv news, newspapers, gossips at work, coworker with totally opposite world view, etc, were all great sources of outrage. At smaller scale,…

My outrage quotient has dropped significantly in the two and a half months since I deleted facebook and twitter. Just removing those two things from my life has made a measurable improvement in my quality of life.

Did you try just... not following the outrage parts? Not getting outraged? If you want to spend more time connecting with people you care about, getting rid of facebook feels like throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Re: 7% of Americans don’t use the internet. Who are they?

#217
post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>had a long running subscription to The Economist >their Tech section ... stands out among the rest this is some hardcore Gell Mann sorcery right here

To the child sub comment. https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/65213-briefly-stated-the-ge... 867 is either implying that because something you know is good you judge the rest likely to be good. Alternatively they are being sarcastic because they think The Economist's tech section is poor.

ah, thanks for shedding light.

yes it's my own opinion and I don't consider myself to be an authority on these other subjects, so my only tools are intuition or trying to piggyback on people I think (or was told) are authorities. (but both are blunt tools since if I can't judge the subject my trust in others who I think know those things is equally questionable)

Re: 7% of Americans don’t use the internet. Who are they?

#218
post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Part of what you’re describing can be attributed to lack of internet. But other part is just being an outsider that doesn’t really care that much (and I mean that in totally non offensive way - it’s just a benefit of being an outsider). Outrage existed long before internet. Daily tv news, newspapers, gossips at work, coworker with totally opposite world view, etc, were all great sources of outrage. At smaller scale,…

My outrage quotient has dropped significantly in the two and a half months since I deleted facebook and twitter. Just removing those two things from my life has made a measurable improvement in my quality of life.

I can only second it. Deleting Facebook 3.5 years ago made me so, so much happier!

Re: 7% of Americans don’t use the internet. Who are they?

#219
post #216
post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My outrage quotient has dropped significantly in the two and a half months since I deleted facebook and twitter. Just removing those two things from my life has made a measurable improvement in my quality of life.

Did you try just... not following the outrage parts? Not getting outraged? If you want to spend more time connecting with people you care about, getting rid of facebook feels like throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

I know this is frowned upon here but:

Nice try Mark

Re: 7% of Americans don’t use the internet. Who are they?

#220
post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>had a long running subscription to The Economist >their Tech section ... stands out among the rest this is some hardcore Gell Mann sorcery right here

To the child sub comment. https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/65213-briefly-stated-the-ge... 867 is either implying that because something you know is good you judge the rest likely to be good. Alternatively they are being sarcastic because they think The Economist's tech section is poor.

on the contrary - I am applauding their following of economics AND tech, hence sorcery
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