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

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

#151

Post by Gene_Parmesan »

marlor wrote: post #106
_delirium wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I found I had to get rid of a decent portion of the news too, and news-adjacent comedy shows like Colbert. It's not enough to personally not read FB/Twitter, since they have gotten so integrated into mainstream media. Maybe 10 years ago you could just ignore social media, but by 2018 (when I started making an effort to avoid it), you could end up seeing thousands of tweets without ever using twitter yourself, if you…

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) each day. In terms of staying "up to date," I still am not clear on why this is important to do daily at a national-focused level, but if it's important to you, it can be done in a few minutes by reading a brief recap. If you do want a more traditional news cast, PBS News Hour is a good one.

But with these 24 hr networks, given how little of import happens on an average day, most of the time what you are being shown are not facts, but opinions. And these networks are all owned by massive, massive megacorps. Not sure why anyone is interested in getting drip fed opinions that originate, however loosely, from these conglomerates.

They try to get you to buy into them by convincing you it's important to "stay informed," but never really explain why. They play on your desires to be a good citizen, to be seen as intelligent, to feel 'serious.' If staying informed is important, it's most important at a local level, where your real connections can help you have a real impact. People are so focused on what all the senators tweeted yesterday that they are missing the real problems, issues, etc. that they could help address in their local communities. In this sense, news might not come from media at all -- and here is where social media could actually have real value.

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

#152

Post by nicbou »

Lammy wrote: post #34
xkeysc0re wrote: post #20

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…

> In-person and online interactions with the same person would vary wildly in tone and emotional intensity

I suspect that even without anonymity, arguing when there's an audience has that effect on people.

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

#154

Post by donpott »

justapassenger wrote: post #90
random5634 wrote: post #76

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…

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,…

And politicians/powerful people doing and saying outrageous things predates the Internet by far. The fact that now we can be informed about it if we so choose is nothing but a blessing from my perspective.

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

#155

Post by sandworm101 »

Does this include the roughly 1% of the US who are in prison/jail? They generally do not have ready access to the internet. Then there is a unknown percentage of convicted felons who, while "free", are barred from internet use.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_incarceration_ra...

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

#156

Post by watwut »

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.

Wars are expensive, that is first thing. Second, soldiers need to eat right now and where do you think food used to come from? Army "living off the land" was a thing, because supplying them was difficult and who cares. The land armies passed through used to be pretty destroyed after.

> Russia with Crimea, whose ownership value is enormously negative?

Russia does not see expansion of own territory as negative value. Also, Russians are very much making changes in Crimea.

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

#157

Post by Proziam »

gspr wrote: post #146
thaumasiotes wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You drank after work with the folks you worked with (in west this is a no no for many good reasons) In the West, this is a conventional thing that many people expect.

Probably an American equating "the west" with the US and Canada.

I never experienced this in the US. I did experience this in Germany, Sweden, and the UK.

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

#158

Post by hollerith »

nicbou wrote: post #149
deepstack wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Local social life was fantastic- I missed nothing about the internet. In general after decades of working with Internet and technology, I realize that I enjoy life (not work) better when there is no Internet. Of course, it is nice to have Internet to have occasional communication with friends and family not in the surrounding area.

> 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?

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

#160

Post by Groxx »

Gene_Parmesan wrote: post #151
marlor wrote: post #106

Earlier 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)…

Honestly, I think it's addiction by design (intentionally, or merely A/B tested into existence, end result is similar). Emotional swings are impactful, even if repeated ones are not very individually memorable, and the endless rollercoaster is one way to keep you looking at the rollercoaster rather than at e.g. boredom elsewhere. Eventually you're habituated, and looking away looks less interesting than this fire that just erupted in you-wouldn't-guess-where / it-could-happen-to-you.
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