Digital Divide Still a ProblemSince the much ballyhooed second phase of the Internet has been foisted on both those who love and those who despise it, one thing seems sure, the real benefit is for those who make the big bucks.
Oh sure, any idiot can sign up for a MysPage account and fill it up with lots of flashing, moving text or maybe a Blooger account is more their style since it makes it really easy to dump a string of 50+ 29 Meg photos in a single page -- a page which never actually loads, even on computers with a decent Internet connection.
But hey, if you just change everything around every other month, no one will notice that they aren't really getting anything from the "new and improved" Internet. And in the era of 140 character text-bites, string together a series of soundbites and you have a modern conversation. But don't u 4get ur stupid abs or ur in ds & while were at it forget punc 2 just type and if u spel a wurd wrong it just means that ur reader is 2 stupid 2 understand right its kinda lyk entertaining babys or kats -- bright flashing colors keep interst 4 5 sex & then they move on2 da next viral craze & aitn dat wut da Net is allabuot2dayanywayheyicansayevenmoreifileaveouttheyspacesfuckyouifyoucantreaditright -- IT'S WEB2.0, All Style and No Substance! Oh wait, to be really Web2.0, I need to make a video of myself saying this while flashing all sorts of hand gestures...
It seems like every few months I get this message that I need to upgrade either my version of PDF or Flash or Shockwave. But what makes it really fun is to do that, I first have to upgrade to a "supported" operating system and of course THAT requires the purchase of a new machine. So, in other words, to take advantage of all the 'interactivity' that makes Web2.0 so 'wonderful', one has to buy in to the endless cycle of consumerism. Not only do you have to pay $30+ to access the Internet, but you also have to buy a new computer and operating system every 3 years or so.
And what really happens to your last computer, I mean, if you can't use it any longer? You are responsible and give it the appropriate agency for recycling right? Then it's dumped into a container and shipped overseas where industrious people will first find a way to access everything stored on your hard drive. Don't worry, just because you can't pay someone to make your hard drive work doesn't mean that they won't figure out a way.
After that, everything gets partitioned out. What can be sold on the streets of the 3rd World is. The rest is sold for scrap were some child will lose the rest of his or her life by melting off the plastic in a fire or submerging other parts into acid baths for pennies a day. All they are trying to get is the base metals which can be sold by their employers for currency. Who knows, maybe the gold in your wedding band came out of someone else's computer and a 10 year old girl in India is dying today because she was trying to earn money for food.
So why isn't your 10-year-old piece of junk being donated to a school or used by a local charity? For exactly the same reason you got rid of it in the first place! If it didn't do what you needed -- surf the Net, send text messages, and display uToob videos -- why do you think it will suddenly do it for someone else?
But the same people who drive huge SUVs, pickups and mini-vans and start whining when gas goes over $3/gallon are often the same people who can't live without their uToob videos and MysPage account. Yes, many are also young, and unable to think for themselves -- "all my friends have it and if I don't I won't have a social life." Gee, that's what I said when I was 10 and we didn't have a TV or when I was 15 and didn't have the money for whatever clothing was 'must have' that day.
As long as people keep purchasing, the beast continues to be fed. What if people in the developed world just refused to upgrade any more? What if they just continued to make what they have work? Well, the most obvious thing is developers would start to wonder why so few people were buying or downloading their latest 50 Meg Upgrade which actually does less worse than before. They know a lot about their users hardware and software and if enough people don't upgrade, they'll get the picture. And even if they don't, I promise you enterprising programmers will come right along and will write BETTER software, software that will continue to work on all computers out there.
Also, I encourage people to let webmasters know that they would like to visit the webmaster's website, but they can't because the webmaster has set the bar way to high. While some won't give a rat's ass, others, like your local government website, will notice. If they hear from enough people who can't use the website because they don't have a fancy enough computer, they will have to change how business is done.
After all, an April 2009 Pew Internet & American Life Project study suggest only 63% of Americans have broadband at home. And while many see local libraries as filling the gap for the remaining 37%, just how much can one do at a computer terminal without speakers and where one is limited to an hour or two at the most each day?
It's time for Nancy's daughter to launch a War on Needless Upgrades!
Labels: Digitial Divide, Internet
