OA
7% of Americans don’t use the internet. Who are they?
241–250 of 405 posts
Re: 7% of Americans don’t use the internet. Who are they?
#242Earlier 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.
I know this is frowned upon here but: Nice try Mark
First rule of HN: don't astroturf.
Second rule of HN: don't call out people who you think are astroturfing.
Third rule: astroturf.
Re: 7% of Americans don’t use the internet. Who are they?
#243A significant portion of the US is illiterate [1]. One might assume that being illiterate affects internet usage. Not quite as romantic as neo-Luddism, or even making a conscious choice not to expose oneself to potentially problematic patterns of communication. [1] https://nces.ed.gov/datapoints/2019179.asp
How is it so high? Are these people immigrants from developing nations or something?
I don't think its any more likely for an illiterate person to pass through the immigration system than it is for same person to get AWS certification.
Re: 7% of Americans don’t use the internet. Who are they?
#244Earlier 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…
Those platforms want your attention so they will show you more of what you “engage” (tricky buzzword) with, occasionally injecting a bit of noise to try to keep you from getting bored. This is in fact what many critics complain about yet like.
I just tuned FB to show me stuff I wanted by scrolling past stuff I didn’t, “liking” stuff I did/do, and clicking through to read/respond to comments. It’s mostly friend&family updates, apolitical jokes, animal pics and other anodyne stuff fun to see.
And I block ppl who are on the outrage train, typically just for the 30-day automatic cool down and FB gets the message.
It’s my attention and I don’t have to give it to people.
Re: 7% of Americans don’t use the internet. Who are they?
#245jIwaXJPDSnIG
Re: 7% of Americans don’t use the internet. Who are they?
#246I 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.
I've heard it's common in India for people to get a mobile phone contract that gives them the Facebook app and Wikipedia but not universal web access.
I would guess that there are a lot of people in the UK who use Facebook from a smartphone but for various reasons (old phone, poor eyesight, dementia, ...) can't in practice access a web site.
OK, I admit the article is about "Americans", but some of the comments refer to other countries!
Anyway, it would be good to know more precisely what Internet services people can and do use, rather than just "use the internet" with no definition given. For example, how many people use e-mail? How many people have an Android or iOS phone? (How many of those are able to install an app? Some can't because the phone belongs to an employer ...)
Re: 7% of Americans don’t use the internet. Who are they?
#247Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I realize that I enjoy life (not work) better when there is no Internet On the other hand, life becomes utterly miserable with a little internet. It's an all-or-nothing kind of deal.
By "a little internet", do you mean a low-bandwidth connection, a connection that is often / usually unavailable when you want to use it, or something else?
By that I mean shitty, unstable internet. It grinds my gears, yet I can't accept it and do something else.
If the internet is entirely gone, I'll read a book or do something else.
Re: 7% of Americans don’t use the internet. Who are they?
#248Earlier quoted context omitted.
Getting rid of “newstainment” and 24-hour news programs significantly improved the quality and breadth of the news I consume. By just reading a quality daily newspaper and a couple of newsmagazines, I’m better informed than when I was a news junkie with cable news on in the background and news websites refreshing on my phone. “Breaking news” is broken. Print media, especially weekly newsmagazines, have the luxury of…
(This is not addressed directly at you, parent commenter, these are just general thoughts.) I studied journalism in undergrad, and I have never understood why people are so drawn to watch these national 24hr 'news' channels. During a major crisis, sure, but day in and day out? I just don't get it. There just isn't that much that happens at a non-personal level (personal meaning self-, family-, friend-, work-oriented)…
I've also done some journalism but, for many years, my primary news source was getting Time Magazine delivered to my mailbox plus the evening news every now and then along with one of the Sunday morning news programs. That was pretty much it.
Today I don't get live TV but I do pretty much get real-time news through Twitter, etc.
Re: 7% of Americans don’t use the internet. Who are they?
#249Earlier 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…
Twitter provides some pretty decent tools for curating your feed
Re: 7% of Americans don’t use the internet. Who are they?
#250Earlier quoted context omitted.
Getting rid of “newstainment” and 24-hour news programs significantly improved the quality and breadth of the news I consume. By just reading a quality daily newspaper and a couple of newsmagazines, I’m better informed than when I was a news junkie with cable news on in the background and news websites refreshing on my phone. “Breaking news” is broken. Print media, especially weekly newsmagazines, have the luxury of…
(This is not addressed directly at you, parent commenter, these are just general thoughts.) I studied journalism in undergrad, and I have never understood why people are so drawn to watch these national 24hr 'news' channels. During a major crisis, sure, but day in and day out? I just don't get it. There just isn't that much that happens at a non-personal level (personal meaning self-, family-, friend-, work-oriented)…
Guessing, but it would make a lot of sense if there was a fair number of humans that are just primed to constantly look out for threats. If such people exist, they would love 24-7 news coverage of bad news even though it makes their lives worse.
Following news makes little sense for keeping a person informed. There are too many completely conflicting sources of news. All the news informs of is what other people who watch the news will have opinions on.