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posted by chromas on Wednesday July 25 2018, @01:12AM   Printer-friendly
from the a-matter-of-choice dept.

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

For most of us, it’s hard to imagine life without the internet.

For better or worse, we’ve become hyper-dependent on the digital universe housed in our screens. We use it on a daily basis to communicate with friends, book flights, shop, skim the news, watch movies and television shows, and stay up-to-date on Kim Kardashian’s derrière.

As access to the internet has improved in the past two decades, the offline population has steeply declined: today, only 11% of Americans don’t use the internet, down from 48% in 2000.

[...] The stories here represent only a small sample of Americans who don’t use the internet, and the reasons why.

Data tells us that the majority of non-users are elderly, but this shouldn’t endorse the trope that old people are technologically challenged. There is certainly no dearth of octogenarian techies, like my grandfather, who was the first in line to buy a PalmPilot in 1997 and has been at least 3 steps ahead of me on the gadget front ever since.

In fact, 51% of of 65+ citizens have broadband internet at home, and 34% are active on social media. In case you need an uplifting anecdotal addition to this, two of the world’s oldest men — Walter Breuning (114), and Alexander Imich (111) — were reportedly frequent and adept internet users until they died.

And though some of the rationales the folks we interviewed seem a bit like stubborn rants, they do have merit: the internet has negatively effects on face-to-face communication, creativity, attention span, social anxiety, and depression — and in light of recent scandals like Cambridge Analytica, data and privacy concerns are certainly valid.

Source: https://thehustle.co/meet-the-11-of-americans-who-dont-use-the-internet/


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  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday July 25 2018, @02:45AM (1 child)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Wednesday July 25 2018, @02:45AM (#712125) Journal

    Yup.

    Omageerdd the news is all fake propaganda!!!11 I can't take it anymore!!!!

    And if you think you are spending too much for bandwidth/cap you don't use because omagerd, all Hollywood/streaming video is boring/derivative, just wire $20 of Ethereum to the xfinity anon so he can teach you the secrets for how to steal free internetz.

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    [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
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  • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 25 2018, @02:58AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 25 2018, @02:58AM (#712132)

    Naah, I get all my free internetz tips from AC here on Soylent.

    I'm certain I have no reason to question his credibility....