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| -Signs, Portents, and the Weather- |
| Rich kids use the Internet to get ahead, and poor kids use it 'mindlessly' |
| 2015-06-01 |
| [MARKETWATCH] “Compared to their poorer counterparts, young people from upper-class backgrounds (and their parents) are more likely to use the Internet for jobs, education, political and social engagement, health and newsgathering, and less for entertainment and recreation,” Putnam writes. Interesting concept. I'm surprised no one's looked into it before. “Affluent Americans use the Internet in ways that are mobility-enhancing, whereas poorer, less educated Americans typically use it in ways that are not.” The same raw material is there for everyone. The internet doesn't care if you're rich or poor. If you're smart you can drink deep at the well. If you're a dumbass you'll never do more than splash around in the shallow end of the pool. This is not to say the wealthier kids are using their iPhones to watch lectures on thermodynamics. They also send spend much of their Internet time sending off Snapchats, playing games and watching YouTube videos. But since social networks online tend to reflect social networks in real life, the wealthier kids have more people to draw on digitally to help advance their education and careers. (Parents in the top fifth of the economic hierarchy have 20% to 25% more friends than parents in the bottom fifth, and they know people in a far wider range of occupations, studies show.) There's nothing to stop anyone from making those acquaintances on social media. In fact, the social connections common to the wealthy may be even more important in an age where everyone can freely download all the world’s information, Putnam says. “Just because teens can get access to a technology that can connect them to anyone anywhere does not mean that they have equal access to knowledge and opportunity.” But that's precisely what it means. Just because horses can get access to water does not mean that they'll drink. A technology that reduces all the world’s information to ones and zeroes may exacerbate our division into haves and have-nots, Putnam says. “At least at this point in its evolution, the Internet seems more likely to widen the opportunity gap than to close it.” A tool is a tool. Give me a chisel and a chunk of rock and I won't carve it into Perseus or Zeus or David. I don't have that talent. Give some kids the internet and they'll drink deep of human knowledge. Give it to others--maybe even most of them--and they'll email selfies. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #13 #3 Hupomolet Thomosing6528, many of us may not be able to justify our existence but the 2nd Amendment insures it. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2015-06-01 18:27 |
| #12 Candidate to most stupid declaration of the year. Hey, JFM don't be too harsh---what'd you do if you had under average IQ + a burning desire to be considered an intellectual |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2015-06-01 15:21 |
| #11 geez...don't Obama phones have a browser? Poor is a relative term. It's all about what drives you as a person...relative wealth is irrelevant for this discussion. |
| Posted by: Warthog 2015-06-01 15:14 |
| #10 A technology that reduces all the world’s information to ones and zeroes may exacerbate our division into haves and have-nots, Candidate to most stupid declaration of the year. |
| Posted by: JFM 2015-06-01 11:02 |
| #9 The poor are poor for a reason in this country and it ain't racism or the rich repressing them. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2015-06-01 10:18 |
| #8 Darn, just moments too late to get to see what inanities Knuckles had for us the morning. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2015-06-01 07:47 |
| #7 Giveme a chisel and a chunk of rock and I will end up with a pile of little rocks, just like most of us. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2015-06-01 07:45 |
| #6 Reducing the concept to it's basic principles, you get: There are users, and there are losers. |
| Posted by: ed in texas 2015-06-01 07:44 |
| #5 ...meanwhile the real world poor in Haiti, Honduras, Guatemala desperately want to be statistical American poor. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2015-06-01 07:38 |
| #4 Wait....how do the poor have such open access to the internet and computers and such again? Oh....cause they're only 'poor' compared to people here. Yep, our poor have flat screen TV's, computers, air conditioning, cars and smart phones. |
| Posted by: Silentbrick 2015-06-01 06:57 |
| #3 "You must all know half a dozen people at least who are no use in this world, who are more trouble than they are worth. Just put them there and say Sir, or Madam, now will you be kind enough to justify your existence? If you can't justify your existence, if you're not pulling your weight, and since you won't, if you're not producing as much as you consume or perhaps a little more, then, clearly, we can not use the organizations of our society for the purpose of keeping you alive, because your life does not benefit us and it can't be of very much use to yourself." -- George Bernard Shaw, communist |
| Posted by: Hupomolet Thomosing6528 2015-06-01 06:14 |
| #2 Circumstance, lack, and indolence blamed on computers, the internets, Bill and Melinda. I recommend a Pol Pot solution. How am I doing so far ? |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2015-06-01 05:41 |
| #1 People in the west who are poor have a poor attitude. No amount of fining the (genuinely) productive will change that, in fact it will make it worse. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2015-06-01 05:29 |