Slashdot Mirror
US's Slow Embrace of Information Technology
mattnyc99 writes "To motivate his new column, Popular Mechanics' Glenn Derene takes research data from a discussion here of his last column. He analyzes a new study released this week — revealing that fully 49 percent of Americans 'only occasionally use modern gadgetry' — to compare the rise of the PC with that of the TV and ask a big question: What keeps the most important and powerful communication tool since the telephone from being universally embraced?"
Comparing a product that takes an IQ of 12 to understand and use to a product that honestly take above average IQ to use and wondering why the Computer and Internet is not beign adopted as fast as the item everyone calls the "idiot box"?
Tv is passive, I can sit there and drool at it watching the guy getting kicked in the crotch show all day long. The computer takes not only knowledge and mental ability, but the worst part it takes EFFORT to use.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Look, outside of work, if I really wanted to, I could live without my computer. Hell I can live without a cell phone too. It just takes discipline. I lived through the 70s and 80s without the access I have these days as did my parents and their parents before them.
Rural America has more pressing issues than the net, let alone the people with manual labor type jobs. Don't classify them as ignorant either. Many of them do a far better job at raising their families than the so called "educated elite". They don't need the net as a subsitute for life and friends. They don't need TV shows for entertainment, let alone care to see the violence in big cities portrayed in fiction and fact.
Its America stupid, we are not one giant homogenized horde. We are little tight knit groups spread out across a large area all enjoying the freedom this country affords, and that freedom can and does mean not doing what everyone thinks you should be doing. Hell there are times I wish I could live back on the farm, work 12 to 14 hour days, and never see a computer. Somethings the simpler life is actually better.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
The internet requires lots of reading. Broadband and Youtube cut down on it a little, but there's still lots and lots of reading. People don't like to read.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
Edward Burr
Having a smoking section in a restaurant is like having a peeing section in a swimming pool.
My father was an engineer at Zenith, back in 60's and 70's... We had one of the first color televisions in the neighborhood. It also just happened to be a engineering prototype. But don't worry! My father had the schematics!
So in my family, we had what we called the yearly "Fix the Television" event. This would be somewhat akin to reinstalling the OS in your computer. It involved taking the back off the television and with a combination of compressed air and a vacuum, removing most of the dust. Sometimes it involved replacing weak solder joints. But it always involved replacing worn out vacuum tubes.
Each vacuum tube, of which there were perhaps 20 total, was removed one at a time and carefully wrapped in kleenex and placed in a box. This box then was taken down to Radio Shack where each tube was placed into the tube tester to verify it's performance characteristics.
After buying the new tubes to replace the old ones, back home we came to reassemble the television.
People today lament about how there is no longer a need for television repair men. Instead people keep their televisions for 10-15 years and when they die they throw them away. Some day people will be complaining about how you don't need a help desk, and desktop support teams.
That day can't come soon enough for me.
I appreciate the fact that most posters and the article writer seem to blame the difference on the fact that TVs are so much easier to use than computers.
Those people obviously aren't looking far enough into the future.
I see a world with a mess of cords behind each and every TV; one where HDMI gets half-adapted as the "one true solution" for each component, before 3 new incompatible versions of the cord come out.
I see a world of MS Media Center. A world where it takes a day or two to set up your TV. A world which requires firmware updates to DVRs, firmware updates to DVD players, firmware updates to BluRay / HD-DVD players, HDCP updates to TVs -- without which none of the above components will work. Dare I even say that the first non-computer electronics virus will come within the next 2 years?
I see a world of TV remotes with full-sized keyboards so you can buy Pay-Per-View movies directly from the internet, and view them the next day when they download. I see a world where the bootup time for your setup is measured in minutes, not seconds.
Perhaps, some day in the future, after work we will go home to watch some TV to relax. Then we will all go outside in order to relax from watching TV.
And the answer to this problem is
Computers are still the automobile of the 1920s, or the private aircraft of today. They work, but it's hardly something the average person can really understand and use without a significant investment in both time and money.
An interesting parallel, take a look at this description of the user interface in the most popular car in the 1920s:
About half of the cars in the road in the 1920s were Ford Model T. The fact that the user interface shifted to the usual today, with the accelerator on the right, tells a lot how users can accept innovations.
We can still hope that Windows will go the way of the Model T and people will adopt less cumbersome computer systems in the future. The difference between the Windows user interface and Gnome or Kde is much less than the difference between a Model T and a 1920s Chevrolet.
I don't know who coined that term "neo-libertarian" (I'm guessing you) but we already have a word for someone who wants to entwine corporations with government: "fascist." Don't make up some grabage term just because you don't like libertarians. Libertarians are opposed to most forms of government control of corporations, positive and negative.
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
The simple solution is to provide an slightly more functional version of the internet appliance that Just Works (tm). Something like a Wii with a keyboard and AbiWord would be perfect-- an interface that is idiot-proof, comes out secure by default, uses a remote for navigation, and all you have to do is plug it into your TV and its Ethernet port. Most people already have a television set and free RCA jacks-- there's no need to buy a whole separate set of peripherals to watch YouTube and type emails to Aunt Mary.
We also have segments of the population that have no reason at all to have a computer. Just because we /.ers are so entwined with our machines, doesn't mean that everyone else wants to be or should be. Anyone over the age of 60 has only a few uses for a computer. The main use being keeping in touch with their grandkids who won't call them anymore. As people age their brains learn more slowly, new things require learning. We tried to get grandma to use email and she was terrified of the machine. Then there are people who live in the sticks. Dial up is painful to use, and getting worse since web developers are largely incompetent and are making sites more complex and larger. Our culture revere athletes above teachers and scientists and artist (not to be confused with performers). It shouldn't be a surprise. i think that the next generation of kids will see to it that everyone has a computer and broadband.
We also have a populous that hates to pay taxes. We hate being told what to do or how things should be done. In cultures like Japan, the leaders can say, "Right, we're going to IP6", and it's done. If that means raising taxes or making citizens/companies change their ways, so be it. We however comma are all cowboys alone on the range. i'm not saying either is right or wrong, just describing what i see. There are good and bad things each model. Our future might depend on adoption of technology. We face obsolescence if we don't adapt.
i think we are slow to adopt IT because the US has a strong anti-intellectual streak. We hate anyone smarter/more educated than us. Computers are for smart people, smart people think they are soooo superior to us. Again, the next generation might not think that way. My lil brother, ten years younger than i, had a PC in the house since he was 7. i had one in the home since i was (does the math) 17. Now kids are coming back from the hospital never knowing a life without a computer in the home.
Build a console that does email and chat, like WebTV. Build machines that can do only ONE thing at a time. Want to do word processing? Slap in the Word cartridge. Let's play WoW, slap in the WoW cartridge. That's what most Americans want from a computer. Anything more complex than that should be for geeks only. Whoever builds this machine will be a brazillianaire.
What is luxury today, is necessity tomorrow
- Faith and the Muse
Utilizing the synergization of benchmark e-solutions to pre-workaround action items!