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

pewresearch.org

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

#231

Post by LightG »

alnorth wrote: post #222
lmm wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The problem is that whoever you follow (whether they're friends, family or just interesting people) they ARE following the outrage parts. And of course there's the "trending" sidebars, and ads and other stuff that gets injected into your timeline without you asking for it. So things bleed in no matter how careful you are. The platforms are designed to drag you in and outrage you. Trying to avoid that is a constant ba…

Exactly this.

My current move is to delete Facebook completely (well, deleted that years ago). I just didn't find as much value there as elsewhere on the internet. And the psychological cost wasn't worth the little value there was there. So, complete deletion.

Twitter, I've deleted the mobile app and I follow no one. I have a separate list of profiles I find interesting. I have to physically go to that list and click on their profiles.

This keeps me out of 90% of the drama and into 90% of the worthwhile content.

It's hard to not look at "trending" but I'm trying. I wish there was a way to turn off "trending" and "timelines" completely.

End result: hugely more productive and psychologically lighter.

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

#232

Post by spicybright »

alnorth wrote: post #222
lmm wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The problem is that whoever you follow (whether they're friends, family or just interesting people) they ARE following the outrage parts. And of course there's the "trending" sidebars, and ads and other stuff that gets injected into your timeline without you asking for it. So things bleed in no matter how careful you are. The platforms are designed to drag you in and outrage you. Trying to avoid that is a constant ba…

That's why I don't do social media or follow other people's social media. If I want to connect with them texting, phone calls, zoom is much better instead of trying to get the same from online outrage machines.

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

#233

Post by fulafel »

hooande wrote: post #153

It's surprising how many people here equate "the Internet" with "social media". It's like having access to 1,000,000 x the Library of Alexandria every day and only being interested in keeping up with what people are talking about in the lobby

Yep, shifting the terms reframes the issues. Even library of alexandria sounds a bit biased toward the web and similar things. The fundamental thing is the decentralized packet switched network that lets any node talk to any other node where anyone can build new applications on it.

(But sadly a lot of people aren't directly on the internet anymore, and have only indirect access via a IPv4 NAPT gateway).

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

#234

Post by simias »

bloak wrote: post #224

I don't know what definition of "use the internet" Pew Research used, but I suggest that a useful thing to ask would be whether people can easily access a typical web site, or at least one that has been designed to be accessible. That's probably what the authorities are most interested in: it tells them roughly how many people can pay their taxes, fill in the census or book a vaccine appointment online, and it tells…

Do you think it's really that common? I'd expect most Facebookers to at least be able to find third party websites through Google search.

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

#235

Post by ClumsyPilot »

varjag wrote: post #145
watwut wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There is a story (probably made up - please fill in correct details) that a group "conquered" one of the islands (maybe Saba?). They took over whatever building, raised whatever flag. And everyone just ignored them. They eventually left. I would guess it made up, because when people conquer stuff, they tend to have actual material goals and need. Starting from basic - their army needs to eat. The way you get that f…

Do you really think all wars are rational, resource-driven pursuits? How about Falklands, what Argentina planned to extract there? Steal the rocks and tax the 300 sheep? Or Russia with Crimea, whose ownership value is enormously negative? All it takes is one moron with delusion of grandeur.

Indeed, countless wars were started for the most idiotic reasons imaginable, see 'war of the bycket'

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_Bucket

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

#236

Post by tome »

alnorth wrote: post #222
lmm wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The problem is that whoever you follow (whether they're friends, family or just interesting people) they ARE following the outrage parts. And of course there's the "trending" sidebars, and ads and other stuff that gets injected into your timeline without you asking for it. So things bleed in no matter how careful you are. The platforms are designed to drag you in and outrage you. Trying to avoid that is a constant ba…

This doesn't address all the issues you raise, but my hack to deal with the Twitter sidebar is to set it to a language and region I don't understand.

1. Click "Show more" at the bottom of "What's happening"

2. Click the "settings cog" at the top of the page

3. Uncheck "Show content in this location"

4. Click "Explore locations" and choose a location whose language you can't read and you know nothing about.

And to avoid outrage leaking to me via people who end up in my main feed I simply aggressively mute pretty much anyone who talks about politics or similar. Sure, I therefore lack their signal but avoiding their noise more than makes up for that.

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

#237

Post by lmm »

alnorth wrote: post #222
lmm wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The problem is that whoever you follow (whether they're friends, family or just interesting people) they ARE following the outrage parts. And of course there's the "trending" sidebars, and ads and other stuff that gets injected into your timeline without you asking for it. So things bleed in no matter how careful you are. The platforms are designed to drag you in and outrage you. Trying to avoid that is a constant ba…

The platforms are designed to show you more of what you engage with. I can understand that for people who are addicted to outrage-bait, blocking might be the only way to break out of that, but if you engage with the parts you want to see more of and not with the parts you don't, facebook learns pretty quickly, IME.

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

#238

Post by [deleted] »

lostandbored wrote: post #178
Stupulous wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Financial journalism really outperforms most media sources in terms of picking important stories and telling them in an unbiased way. Maybe their wealthier audience means that they're not racing to the bottom for clicks. Maybe the people in charge know to run a business that gives people what they want without alienating half of potential customers. Maybe something else entirely. Whatever it is, it's working, and I h…

Agreed. Even Reuters News is high quality in comparison to CNN and Fox News.

[deleted]

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

#239

Post by ClumsyPilot »

amelius wrote: post #181
ornornor wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Otoh 99% (exaggeration for emphasis but not that far off if you think about it) of what happens in the “news” is totally irrelevant to you and your life beyond the initial outrage it provokes. You have virtually no impact on preventing or influencing the event and it has no impact on you whatsoever. War in Africa again? It’s sad to think about and outrageous how some scummy warlords terrorize the local population, bu…

> 99% (...) of what happens in the “news” is totally irrelevant to you and your life beyond the initial outrage it provokes. Just like voting has almost zero effect. However, is not voting wise? In what direction would society move if nobody watched the news?

The society would be mich better off. I find your equation of "news is like voting" appauling. News has almost no informational value like covering Russel Brand when he was running around telling people not to vote.

We need more people voting and speaking to their representatives, and fewer people outraged about something some random brainless celebtrity said.

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