Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Bruce Sterling: Poor folk love their cellphones

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–39 of 39 posts

Re: Bruce Sterling: Poor folk love their cellphones

#31

Post by _pius »

abrahamsen wrote: post #30
_pius wrote: post #3

The article was thought-provoking for me, as I hadn't heard the Sterling talk, but she lost me here: I myself mostly post links to this column, hoping that the self-promotion is transparent enough that people can easily ignore a link or click it if they’re curious .... I can’t help wondering if I’ve turned into some banged-up street kid, stuck in a cruel and crowded neighborhood, trying to convince everyone that regu…

>> in big, beautiful houses, with precious, irreplaceable objects. > And what is stopping her from doing that? Lack of money, perhaps? Even the non-material first part >> among family and friends can be difficult if everyone are busy making ends meet.

She was speaking metaphorically.

Re: Bruce Sterling: Poor folk love their cellphones

#32

Post by rarestnews »

Adam503 wrote: post #22
rarestnews wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My friend told me the other day he was in a bus, and there he saw a very poor immigrant who was talking on his cell whole trip. I thought this was weird and unusual, but he told me he saw similar thing lots of times. Many of my friends who earn little, spend ALL of their money on unnecessary purchases, like newest cellphones, newest clothing, etc, they're deep in debt and continue spending this way.

There's some really incredible things people say "a friend of theirs saw." Here's a regularly updated page with 25 of those things people swear their friends were eyewitness to... http://www.snopes.com/info/top25uls.asp

Kudos for bringing it up. Now we have a conspiracy to find the elusive poor guy with a cellphone. Maybe next decade we'll develop a cryptomobilanthropology hunting for the unbelieveable miracle of elusive poor guy talking on a cell phone hiding in foggy woods and out-of-focus areas.

Kudos, Adam503, keep up the good work debunking the greatest mysteries of our time!

Re: Bruce Sterling: Poor folk love their cellphones

#33

Post by [deleted] »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #25
rarestnews wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My friend told me the other day he was in a bus, and there he saw a very poor immigrant who was talking on his cell whole trip. I thought this was weird and unusual, but he told me he saw similar thing lots of times. Many of my friends who earn little, spend ALL of their money on unnecessary purchases, like newest cellphones, newest clothing, etc, they're deep in debt and continue spending this way.

Ain't that the American dream?

[deleted]

Re: Bruce Sterling: Poor folk love their cellphones

#34

Post by Agathos »

maigret wrote: post #29
Adam503 wrote: post #10

Bruce Sterling "Poor folk love their cellphones." "Poor folk" don't have cellphones. They can't afford them.

Sure they do afford. Most people in Africa have a cell phone. They just don't have computers.

I don't know about "most." But yeah, the story of the poor African who uses a microloan to buy a cellphone that he/she rents to the rest of the village has been told so many times, it's a cliche.

Also there's the one about the fishers and farmers who check on market prices before making the long trek to sell their goods.

Re: Bruce Sterling: Poor folk love their cellphones

#35

Post by _pius »

_pius wrote: post #31
abrahamsen wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> in big, beautiful houses, with precious, irreplaceable objects. > And what is stopping her from doing that? Lack of money, perhaps? Even the non-material first part >> among family and friends can be difficult if everyone are busy making ends meet.

She was speaking metaphorically.

Surprised someone downmodded me for this one. If you actually read the article, she wasn't literally talking about living in an overcrowded neighborhood and wanting to move to a big, secluded house; she was talking about feeling bombarded with tweets and wanting to get out of the Twittersphere, where she's not really well accepted.

You know, writers sometimes use these things called "metaphors" to make their points more interesting ... :P

Re: Bruce Sterling: Poor folk love their cellphones

#37

Post by abrahamsen »

_pius wrote: post #35
_pius wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

She was speaking metaphorically.

Surprised someone downmodded me for this one. If you actually read the article, she wasn't literally talking about living in an overcrowded neighborhood and wanting to move to a big, secluded house; she was talking about feeling bombarded with tweets and wanting to get out of the Twittersphere, where she's not really well accepted. You know, writers sometimes use these things called "metaphors" to make their points m…

Context is everything, in this case the context is Sterling's assertion that connections is for poor people. So the context is rich versus poor. "A big, secluded house" is correctly a metaphor, but a shallow one, namely for living the style of life of rich people. Something that really is a whole lot easier if you have a lot of money.

This makes your original question seem weird, you are basically asking "What prevents her from living like a rich person?". The answer to that one is obviously "Lack of money".

Post reply on HN