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

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311–320 of 405 posts

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

#311

I can imagine not using it much after I retire. Honestly it doesn't offer a whole lot IMO. I'll likely keep email and use maps/navigation though, as they are useful.

Hades, my internet usage jumped to 250 GB a month since covid. (My Comcast account allows 1200 GB) I am a FIRE'd former college professor and now have endless access to academic zoominars and professional conferences. I'll be somewhat disappointed when much of that returns to lower capacity in-person in 2022.

For commercial conferences at least, there's a general belief that events will continue in a hybrid way. That said, I expect that conferences that just went free when they went virtual will start charging again; many have tacked on at least nominal fees already. (Some are even more.)

While, I haven't been wild about online conferences in general, it has let me dip into events I couldn't normally justify attending.

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

#312
post #34

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 lost a few very good friends due to this. In-person and online interactions with the same person would vary wildly in tone and emotional intensity, like speaking to two entirely different people. The online interactions always pushed us apart, and the in-person interactions never failed to mend things, but of course those stopped happening over the previous year. I have to assume it's the same way with me toward…

Search up the "Dead Internet Theory" - you're not the only one who thinks that...

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

#313

Roughly speaking: it's the old, the poor, the uneducated, and the rural. That's not terribly surprising.

But the 50-year-old high-school educated homeless man I talk to several times a week is totally plugged in. Youtube for camping and workout videos; current on movies and music. Knows all the hotspots around town. If he isn't exercising or foraging, he's watching something on his phone or pad.

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

#315

I used to work in the Caribbean when internet there was ridiculously expensive. Local social life was fantastic - I missed nothing about the internet. Also - I missed nothing about not keeping up to date on latest news - locals just didn't care what was going on for the most part - the latest "outrages" were 100% irrelevant. If you went to bar at night, and IF they had a TV on, it was sports. So you'd come back to th…

I was walking around my neighborhood and saw that someone posted a printed sign making a snarky remark about the Matt Gaetz news. I could not believe someone would care enough about a random politician's demise. Please get off Twitter.

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

#316
post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use twitter.com##section div[aria-label="Timeline: Trending now"] In Ublock - origin rules to hide the trending sidebar

Better: https://github.com/insin/tweak-new-twitter This will benefit from updates from the author whenever Twitter tries to foil blocking. It comes with a variety of tweaks like a separate timeline for retweets and forcing the latest timeline.

> Move retweets to a separate Retweets timeline, or hide them entirely

This alone completely changes Twitter for me. Making Twitter mostly original content? Sign me up.

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

#318
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…

I actually tried facebook for a month with other windows covering up the "trending" sidebar. It was a little better but the ads in the main area still annoyed me.

Then I started unfriending people that just posted stuff that annoyed me.

Then I realized after 3 days there was literally no new posts.

Then I just deleted facebook.

I don't miss it at all.

I've got multiple group chats with friends that I like. People post funny and interesting stuff there and we talk about it without having to deal with what someone's crazy uncle thinks about the topic.

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

#319
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've lost a few very good friends due to this. In-person and online interactions with the same person would vary wildly in tone and emotional intensity, like speaking to two entirely different people. The online interactions always pushed us apart, and the in-person interactions never failed to mend things, but of course those stopped happening over the previous year. I have to assume it's the same way with me toward…

That subreddit is rather impressive. Some of the comments don’t seem to make too much sense (as in they’re grammatically correct but devoid of overall meaning) but it’s pretty convincing none the less. And if you’re not aware that it’s generated, your brain tries a bit harder to read meaning into the comments which make it quite convincing. Very impressive.

This particular thread is so good it's hard to believe it is real(ly fake)

https://old.reddit.com/r/SubSimulatorGPT2/comments/mkq2k7/i_...

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

#320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trump voters

ha! you think illiterate people are voting?

According to the first Google results for the two questions, 16% of Mississippi adults are functionally illiterate, and 60% of Mississippi adults voted in the 2020 elections. While it is possible that the 16% illiterate and the 40% non-voting populations overlap perfectly, I highly doubt it.
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