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posted by chromas on Thursday April 05 2018, @10:24AM   Printer-friendly
from the less-is-more,-more-or-less dept.

Submitted via IRC for fyngyrz

When people hear "Appalachia," stereotypes and even slurs often immediately jump to mind, words like "backwards," "ignorant," "hillbilly" or "yokel." But Appalachian attitudes about technology's role in daily life are extremely sophisticated—and turn out to be both insightful and useful in a technology-centric society.

[...] In a recent study, my colleagues and I used focus groups and interviews to explore how people use technology in rural Appalachia. These open-ended methods allow participants to discuss their experiences and opinions in their own terms. For instance, most technology surveys don't ask people why they don't own the latest phone or computer—they just assume people would if they could.

Those studies miss key insights our research was able to identify and explore. When we gave people a chance to tell their own stories about technology, we most often heard about two themes.

The first, which we called "resistance," appeared in people's doubts about the concept that more technology is always better. They also carefully considered whether the potential usefulness of new technologies was worth the privacy sacrifices inherently required to use them.

People also described their intentional choices about how much technology to use and for what purposes—as well as intentional choices not to use technology in some situations. We called this theme "navigation."

Source: https://theconversation.com/resisting-technology-appalachian-style-94245


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by bob_super on Thursday April 05 2018, @04:15PM (3 children)

    by bob_super (1357) on Thursday April 05 2018, @04:15PM (#662991)

    Why bother to "upgrade", when a computer from five years ago is perfectly capable at playing all the porn ?

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  • (Score: 2) by Hartree on Thursday April 05 2018, @06:46PM (2 children)

    by Hartree (195) on Thursday April 05 2018, @06:46PM (#663045)

    Gay midget porn from 2007 is just a stimulating as gay midget porn from today. ;)

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 05 2018, @08:32PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 05 2018, @08:32PM (#663089)

      Don't have much experience with that.

      But if you are into straight, little people / average height people porn... I highly recommend Bridget the Midget. Sexy.

      • (Score: 2) by Hartree on Thursday April 05 2018, @10:02PM

        by Hartree (195) on Thursday April 05 2018, @10:02PM (#663128)

        Bridget the Midget. Never run into that one.

        In truth, I have a fondness for Asian ladies. (My first girlfriend was one and so I think I'm imprinted. ;) )