Slashdot Mirror
America's View of the Internet
Alien54 writes "It won't make you dinner or rub your feet, but nearly one in four Americans say that the Internet can serve as a substitute for a significant other for some period of time, according to a new poll released today by 463 Communications and Zogby International. The poll examined views of what role the Internet plays in people's lives and whether government should play a greater role in regulating it. The online survey was conducted Oct. 4-8, 2007, included 9,743 adult respondents nationwide, and carries a margin of error of +/- 1.0 percentage point. From the results blog post: 'More than half of Americans believe that Internet content such as video should be controlled in some way by the government. Only 33% of 18 to 24 year-olds supported government stepping in on content, while 72% of those over 70 years of age support government regulation and ratings. More than one in four Americans has a social networking profile such as MySpace or Facebook. Among 18-24 year-olds, it's almost mandatory - 78% of them report having a social networking profile. Americans may love the Internet, but most are not prepared to implant it into their brain, even if it was safe. Only 11% of respondents said they be willing to safely implant a device that enabled them to use their mind to access the Internet.'"
I'm still waiting for the fucking images to load.
Eloi are stupid, throw morlocks at them!
I don't like the idea of anyone sticking tubes in my head. Imagine if they overflowed!
Define "safely".
Why was implanting a device in your brain to control the internet even a question in this survey? Scarier, %11 said they would?!?!
I had absolutely no idea that so many people lived in their basements.
Insert self-referential sig here.
Sure, you can keep in touch with lots of other people online, but when the (typical) user's entire social interaction is reduced to impassioned debates, downloading pr0n, FPS games, pissing off people on the other side of the planet with sophomoric trolling, and the whole time bullshitting about who you are and what you do in RL?
Gah - almost makes one fear for Humanity's future.
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
The masses are largely idiots. Story at 11.
Gamertag: WyleType
The Internet and a TOWEL perhaps!
-- I really need to bleed off some of this
Now, ask the same question, but instead substitute "TV programs" for "Internet content". I'll bet you the percentage breakdown doesn't change much.
This isn't about "internet content", it's about what standards a work of art is judged by.
Don't tell me to get a life. I'm a gamer; I have LOTS of lives!
Those 11% are all Slashdot readers.
I'm waiting for a "-1 somepeoplejustshouldn'tgetmodprivileges" meta-moderation.
I'm not to concerned with the margin of error of a poll asking people if they want the internet in their brains. Even if it is safe, what does that even mean? Safe as in security (no one hacking your brain), health (implant doesn't actually damage your brain), or content (Think about a farm and get bombarded with animal sex pictures)?
More than half of Americans believe that Internet content such as video should be controlled in some way by the government? That can only come from a group of people where more than a tenth of them seem to think that internet directly into their brain is a good idea.
i\hbar\dot{\psi}=\hat{H}\psi
Thank you, America for a quick reply.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Luckily, Father Time will do his best to lessen their impact over the next few years.
The new MMORPG from the creators of the smashing hit "IRL"
FEATURES:
Get Outside NOW!!!
That's okay, neither does my wife. *Rimshot*
(Actually, she does and she would. I'm a lucky guy.)
!#@%*)anks for hanging up the phone, dear.
50%+ want the internet regulated?
Let me guess.. "for the children"?
I mean it has to be, otherwise they would be condoning censorship of political speech or complete corporate takeover of the internet.
I want to know what happened to parents actually, you know, parenting?!
apparently that only happens in my family.
VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
Why is the always the old guys that are about to die off that enact or get crap passed so that all the rest of us living have to do what they want! If anything, I'd like the vote to be removed from those that retire or above 70 as they are too old and out of date to make decisions for the future. Heck, those under 12 are more likely to make valid decisions for the future since they'll have to live in it.
I can't wait for brain hacking. Imagine the possibilities! It could give a whole new meaning to zombies. "Need more brains to hack..."
LOAD "SIG"
RUN "SIG"
Internet doesn't nag, doesn't care what you do, when you do it, how you do it, won't complain about whatever unusual habits you posses, won't get mad at you over something stupid, won't stop you from living however you please, gives you access to an entire world of information, news, and culture, and can be shut off at the flick of a switch. If you can, ahem, transcend 'fleshy wants,' you're set. If you're lonely, play some WoW for awhile. The internet has plenty of forums to figure out how to do anything you can't do, like cooking or whatever. As far as I see it, Internet-1 Spouse-0
Old people over 70 should not get a voice on just about anything dealing with technology (not at this present time at least). There always is a gap in thinking between young people and old people in most things (especially technology). Older people have a harder time to grasp concepts of all sorts. Show a 70+ year old person programming, or how to make a website, or make something in 3d and they will just look at you funny. Show a 12 year old the same things and they are intrigued. We are also talking about a generation that think porn is wrong, and considering the amount of porn on the interweb...yeah I am sure they want that to have oversight.
Old people in general should not be in high up places (ie. congress, supreme court, company execs.) Just because you are old doesn't make you wiser....it just makes you old with old ways of thinking.
He dreams of wands.
Obligatory xkcd: http://xkcd.com/256/
I like to think of the Internet as a series of tubes.
Scarier, %11 said they would?!?!
Check out Ghost in the shell for some thoughtful fiction on what a direct mind-machine link to the Internet might be like.
Also check out Transhumanism and the Singularity.
Here are some of my own thoughts, though:
A "thought" can be defined as the firing of neurons within the brain. As such, the depth and complexity of any given thought has a very finite upper cap: one's current neural capacity. However, by directly linking our brains to exterior computational devices, we will be able to raise that limit.
A mind-machine interface will empower humanity to achieve a level of cognition unlike anything this planet has ever seen. The kinds of devices we will be able to create, and the kinds of lives we will be able to live, are beyond our wildest dreams.
When presented with this kind of power, you would rather cling to your comfortable old limitations, as a zoo animal clings to its cage?
Cowards don't evolve.
TELEDILDONICS
next survey: 110% of americans say the internet replaces their significant other
and i'm sure we can build a foot massaging internet enabled appliance or microwave-refrigerator internet protocol for the dinners if you really think you still need FOOD when you've got the INTERTUBES man!
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
I'm not so sure about the Internet being a reasonable substitute for a significant other. Every time I open my email, the Internet tells me that my penis is too small.
Tired of FB/Google censorship? Visit UNCENSORED!
It's very interesting that only 36% think government regulation of video over the internet into someones private home would be unconstitutional. (But I bet you'd get a VERY different answer about print media).
For the most part, people are willing to accept what they've always accepted and expect what they've always expected. Broadcast television is regulated.. so therefore the government must have some way of regulating moving pictures.
Of course, this is not the case, and I'd be very surprised if it was legal for the US government to regulate anything short of child porn or snuff videos coming across the internet. The only reason broadcast television was ruled constitutional to regulate was because television is a broadcast media, that's sent into everyones home. The other reason was that television had a limited amount of channels available (as with any radio medium), so the FCC was created to regulate the spectrum.
Neither of these conditions are of course true with the internet. There's essentially an infinite amount of choices, and internet service is a subscription based service. It's FAR more like newspapers and magazines than television. Of course, that doesn't mean we won't need another internet equivalent of Larry Flynt to fight any legislation that crops up.
The fear of course is that we've had government regulation of video for 50 some years now, and people have grown up with the idea that it's OK. That's why the current moves towards more and more surveillance, and all the crazy helicopter parents scare the crap out of me. When generations of kids grow up with every moment planned for them, and watched, they'll just expect this is the normal way of life.
AccountKiller
Neither would my ex-wife.
Well, the internet and Rosie Palm.
More than half of Americans believe that Internet content such as video should be controlled in some way by the government.
Well, I'll agree that government should have web sites and portals. They should control their own sites, as I control my own site. So yeah, that's reasonable (depending on how the question was phrased).
Only 33% of 18 to 24 year-olds supported government stepping in on content
Which supports my previous observation, although again they should control their OWN content
while 72% of those over 70 years of age support government regulation and ratings.
That's not unreasonable, either. My dad doesn't even have a computer, has never been on the internet, and considering that, it would not be unreasonable of him to think it reasonable. Even a lot of younger people think the internet is like a TV set, and even the twentysomethings forget that most of the internet is beyond their government's reach.
More than one in four Americans has a social networking profile such as MySpace or Facebook.
Hell, I have a myspace page (that I haven't logged into in a year or two), a web site (that I haven't updated oin almost two years), a K5 account (that I haven't logged into for over 2 years), and a slashdot account and I'm 55. But I don't look my age. Or act it.
Americans may love the Internet, but most are not prepared to implant it into their brain, even if it was safe. Only 11% of respondents said they be willing to safely implant a device that enabled them to use their mind to access the Internet.
Only a total complete idiotic fuckwit moron would have ANYTHING implanted in their brain without an overriding medical reason. If you would have an internet connection implanted in your brain, WTF ARE YOU THINKING? Go ahead, dumbass, and when I crack your connection I'll control you like a meatware robot.
Holy fuck! If brains were dynamite, most people wouldn't have enough to blow their noses.
Note that a far higher percentage than 11% are mentally handicapped. Even retarded people have more sense than that!
-mcgrew
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
I read stories like this and have to, with a wry grin, shake my head and roll my eyes.
The idea that groups determine with a democratic vote how a society functions is both absurd and an essential part of the American dream. By dream I mean just that - a mythical non-reality created to give hope to people who otherwise would not accept the reality they have.
Repeat after me:
America is not a democracy!
America is not a democracy!
America is not a democracy!
America is a CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC. Learn the difference. This means the country has laws first (a Constitution), and the US has a democratic process to elect the people respnsible for upholding and execting the rules of the republic. At no time, and in no way were the opinions of the masses asked for, expected, or accepted in figuring out how the system works - and with good reason: their beliefs were/are easily swayed, grossly under-informed, and as anyone who has tried to decide anything by committee or group: group opinion taking is non-functional.
However, most American dwell in the dream that things in the US are "democratic" - that the way a group, the world, the Internet, or the USA "should" function is that we ask everyone, take a vote, and the highest count wins. Bzzzzt. WRONG. Bad Idea. I see this mentality driving the idea that Zogby should do some poll of the population for what "the people" think the government should do about Internet content. This mentality is extremely wrong, and will get people into a lot of trouble. In America, the answer you get from the masses is directly proportional to what rich, powerful white men craft as messages for the masses to believe.
Strangly, increased capacity for communication will and has made such polling much easier than ever before. It does not make it more valid or more useful in creating policy or a smoothly functioning, successful society.
Aside from the bonehead mentality that we should all vote to determine policy - there is an even simpler issue here. Once one understands how and why this country was formed, and the principles behind it - it becomes obvious that regulating content on huge ditributed computer networks is NOT EVEN CLOSE, not even in the ballpark to what the original intention of the US government was. It is off beyond the outfield, over the green monter, and somewhere off in the bay. It is, in fact, criminal, by all definitions of the term, to distort the function of government so far outside the legal bounds of it's creation.
'More than half of Americans believe that Internet content such as video should be controlled in some way by the government' My opinion is that fools should be regulated.
Hopefully I'm in the majority.
I am so ready for the brain implant. This fits pretty well with Wednesday's XKCD cartoon. http://xkcd.com/333/ -e.g
I am always dismayed, not surprised mind you but dismayed, at the willingness of my fellow American citizens to willingly surrender ever greater powers of control and surveillance even without any clear idea of what is presumably gained by giving up those rights and powers. There are already too many laws, and too much government power, and too much government control and yet people want to give up even more of their independence to the government. The problem is exacerbated, IMHO, by the busy body nature of the religious right, liberal tax and spend left, and generally older people who want the government to run their lives for them and for their neighbor (regardless of what their neighbor wants).
In the 1800's the family dined at the dinner table.
In the 1940's the family dined around the radio.
In the 1960's the family dined around the television.
In the 2000's the family dines around the computer monitor.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
"Hi, I'm Johnny Cab!"
If they mean online games (or pr0n), then a neural interface would be absolutely awesome.
I'd rather have a female R. Jander Panell than a porn implant. "Jandra" wouldn't need a positronic brain, conventional modern robotics (heated and lubricated of course) would do, controlled by a conventional computer like the one you have in front of you.
As to games, I'd rather have a dedicated building with holographs. You have the advantage of getting a little exersise, too, like with the fuckbot.
However, I am a cyborg, and have been since 2006. I have an implant in my left eyeball, my friend Tom calls me "the six thousand dollar man" because of my bionic eye; click my sig for details. But again, I didn't let them stick a needle in my eye without a damned good reason.
-mcgrew
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
think of that old Star Trek TNG episode where Picard lived an alt life where he was an old man with grandchildren and then upon death reawoke on the bridge, with only 2-3 minutes having passed
FYI, that was the movie, Star Trek: Generations. Picard was caught in the Nexus.
In the 1800's the family dined at the dinner table.
In the 1940's the family dined around the radio.
In the 1960's the family dined around the television.
In the 2000's, single members of the family eat dinner in front of individual computer monitors in seperate rooms, and communicate via MSN. Either that, or the family doesn't exist at all, and the individual simply eats in front of the computer alone.
Or that there is nobody actually representing them.
For instance, I have yet to meet a person 14-28 who does not download material off the internet.
It's functionally no different than taping tv or recording off the radio, and yet there is no party supporting legalization.
There is also no party supporting dmca reform, or dedicating a small fraction of military spending toward the many viable options for clean sustainable energy, or even possibly reqiurements for ecological responsibility (why does a 3x1x0.25 inch cell phone need a foot tall package?), or finding a proper strategy to step down from the very expensive and unsustainable position as "american empire", or perhaps even repealing any and all laws which has the government parenting kids rather than their biological progenitors.
No, instead they beat the same dead horse red herring issues which everyone knows are completely impertinent to national and global concerns and will never go anywhere.
It's very logical. If the store doesn't stock what you want, why would you waste your gas and time going there?
Our constitution needs to be tweaked to allow presidential candidates with the most rather than the majority of electoral votes. This would open the door to a multiparty system which would produce more representation for more people, and the competition would result in corruption being exposed and outed more often.
Political parties, just like any other consumed good, have a marketplace. A duopoly is not much better than a monopoly. knock down the barriers to entry and watch political parties which actually serve the people instead of megacorporations take over.
VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
I'm imagining something like BrainPal from the Old Man's War series (I'm not finished with the series, so no spoilers!). I mean, the question did explicitly state that it would be safe. If the chip were just in my occipital and posterior temporal lobes, then it could stimulate my senses of vision and hearing without having any ability to control my actions.
Sign me up.
More than half of Americans believe that Internet content such as video should be controlled in some way by the government.
This is frightening. Thank god they would have little success in this goal and the only result of regulation would be killing the United States ability to profit from video. As the freezing effect of these regulations took hold more and more foreign companies would find their user shares boosted.
Unless the US were to put in to place a Chinese style firewall they'd have little luck in keeping it's citizens from viewing "objectionable" content.
The Generation
I'd say something witty here, but I'm not that bright.
I wonder sometimes why it is that we (and by we I mean myself) don't value age or wisdom. I don't mean that like a hippie or anything. In our culture I wonder if the strongest and the smartest still survive the longest. I wonder what it is in value that we lack (as society, as elderly). When I look at old people I wonder what I'll be like when I get there. Is our culture juvenile or are our elderly simply uninterested in participation? There is something to be said for the value of lessons which really are only taught by time. Young people are good at spontaneous creativity, passion, learning, lots of things but most all the people I've known missed some fundamental understanding about life.
Quack, quack.
What's so great about Myspace and Facebook? What can they do that telephones, e-mail and instant messaging can't? If I meet someone and want to talk to them later, Myspace/Facebook doesn't strike me as the best way to do so. But it seems it's quite normal for young people in America to swap Myspace/Facebook addresses if they want to talk later (and as the research claims, 78% have a social networking profile). Social networking sites haven't really caught on in Europe, as far as I can tell.
Don't Date The Internet !
- The Spacepope
I think the GP is referring to this.
No, it was the episode with the flute... he lived 30 years in 20 seconds.
Fuck people over 70. :>
Actually I suspect the GP was referring to this episode. I know it's one of my favorites.
End of lesson. You may press the button.
Actually, I'm pretty sure he's talking about this episode:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Inner_Light_(TNG_episode)
Oh great - once the government gets involved, they're gonna ban Human-Internet marriages...
a) You have one of these implants.
b) You are able to install anything you want on it, such as a torrent client;
c) These devices are so advanced that they preemptively start downloading anything you'd think in terms of "it would be could if I had this";
d) What you just wished happens to be a MAFIAA-copyrighted work;
e) MAFIAA happened to track your IP address (or more specifically, your brain's IP address) and now you're f*cked.
Brings a whole new meaning to the "thought crime" concept, doesn't it? Worse: would someone equipped with such a device be allowed to go to the movies? Who'd be able to guarantee he isn't recording it through... *gasp*... his eyeballs!!!
For some time now I've been saying that copyright is dead. Internet implants, when they arrive, will be the nail in the coffin. Nothing more, nothing less.
By the way: this also lead into the end of privacy, and many other interesting unintended consequences. See more on this essay I found the other day while browsing: Shaping the future.
Conservatism: (n.) love of the existing evils. Liberalism: (n.) desire to substitute new evils for the existing ones.
I was surprised by the 11% as well. I wonder how many of that 11% are actually transhumanists and how many simply like the idea of not having to lug around a device.
Cow Cube
Only 11% of respondents said they be willing to safely implant a device that enabled them to use their mind to access the Internet.
Fortunately, this happens to match the exact % of the population whose IQ would be improved by having the Internet implanted in their brains.
== Jez ==
Do you miss Firefox? Try Pale Moon.
As I'm currently unemployed and have been underemployed, I would say the Internet has become a bit of a "trap". On the one hand I use it to reach out to employers on-line, research job opportunities, employers, e-mail applications etc. But since the Net can provide entertainment and is quite cheap, I use it for networking to find job, I find myself using it more than I would like at the moment, to my detriment as being unemployed or underemployed doesn't leave much time, money or motivation to find a relationship. Yes, I visit employers in person, but the problem is many deal only by Internet now as communication by mail is shunned.
I'd love to know what percentage of those people who say the government should censor Internet content are among the percentage who don't use the Internet. Or those who use the Internet only because someone, like their boss (or significant other) makes them use it (though that question probably wasn't asked).
I'd also like to know how many of the pro-censor people believe the government should censor printed matter. And then I'd like to ignore all those people, but preferably the much narrower fraction who can't think for themselves. And who don't clutter up the Internet.
--
make install -not war
...I know Judo!
</KeanoReeves>
This survey was conducted online. That means the average surveyee is an internet user to some extent.
Netpop.com offers reliable data about broadband-enabled consumers in the U.S. and China. Market data is available for $1 a graph. If you really want to know how Americans are shopping, playing, communicating, and essentially living online...for 5+ hours a day, visit the site. www.netpop.com Graphs, guides and reports are available.
Neo: Can you fly that thing?
Trinity: Not yet... (dials phone).
Tank: Operator.
Trinity: Tank, I need a pilot program for B212 helicopter.
Imagine if you could condense 20 years of schooling down to just 1 day, or even a single year?
Of course, the addiction possibility here would be high. Imagine how much work place productivity would suffer if every time an employee came back to work each morning they've spent a virtual 6-months away in paradise.
Actually I can see employers salivating over it. Image an employer having employees, slaves, working 12 hour days 7 days a week. All they'd need to do was "send" the employee on a vacation that though seems like 2 weeks to the employee is actually only 1/2 an hour.
FalconShould there be a Law?
Once again, I am reminded of why I will never have kids. I simply don't want to put my offspring out into a population so inscrutably stupid.
Perhaps your kids could of changed the population for the better.
FalconShould there be a Law?
Neil Degrasse Tyson made a similar observation about the statistic that 93% of members of the Academy of Sciences doubt or actively disbelieve in the existence of a personal god . The 93% isn't really all that surprising. That makes sense. What is surprising to me is that 7% do.
Perhaps that's because of Pascal's Wager. Then again it could be because whereas science seeks to answer "how" a belief in a Supreme Deity answers "why". Myself, I have a problem with Pascal's Wager, it's easy enough to decide on whether a "God" exists or not but it becomes much harder when a person has to decide which "God" to believe in. The Semitic based religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all believe in a jealous "God" and forbid the worship of idols. Well what if the "God" a person worships is nothing but an idol?
FalconShould there be a Law?
If Ron Paul is the R then D or R we can't lose in 2008. Register as a Republican and vote for him in the primaries!
That's what I plan on. I'm registered as No Party Preference but if I have to to vote for Ron Paul in the primary I'll change the party affiliation to Republican. Of course right after the primary I'll change it back to No Party Affiliation.
FalconShould there be a Law?
I'm glad "only" 33% of my peers think the internet should be regulated. That's "only" more than halfway to a majority.
Anyone else think the comments just weren't rendering right before they turned off ABP and saw ads?
What I think this study is saying, more alarmingly, is that a decent percentage of people are considering the internet a substitute for the non-sexual part of a relationship. That is terribly depressing, as there are a lot of things besides sex to be had from a SO.
For some the net is the only viable option. I am on disability and don't work so I'd have the opportunity for personal interactions those who work have. And my disability income barely covers my living expenses. If it weren't for the fact that someone else pays for my housing my income would not be enough to live on. I have to watch my budget and can't justify hanging out at the bar or cafe and I haven't been able to make friends where I live. I used to have friends but had to leave them when I moved so I could get the therapy I needed, and the people around here, while polite, aren't particularly friendly.
FalconShould there be a Law?
First I would like to cut their social security off. I mean, come on. How can we go for lower taxes and less onerous government if these old fogeys keep going to the elections and keep voting for either a tax-and-spend Democrats or borrow-and-spend Republicans?
I'd prefer to have Social Security privatized, but how much do you save and invest? If the average "old fogey" had invested the money that was deducted from their pay they would have been in better shape today, they'd have more invested than they'll ever collect from Social Security. A person could start saving $2000 a year when they turn 18 until they turn 25 then save no more and when they reached 65 they'd have almost a million dollars, ah the wonders of compound interest. Even if they go to college and don't start saving until after graduating, they would then start investing when 22, or maybe 25. But then they would be making a lot more money therefore they could invest more. Whether a person waits or not they can still keep investing 'til they near retirement. Some may say but not everyone can save and invest any amount. However with more people investing more money there would be more jobs created and pay would therefore increase.
My one concern with privatizing SS is what to do with those already retired or close to retirement. One possibility would be to allow all of those "illegal immigrants" or aliens to work legally, then have them pay into SS but without being able to collect SS. Because of the passage of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 some 8 million immigrants were able to get SS cards and pay more than $50B into SS. Double or triple that should help keep SS afloat.
FalconShould there be a Law?
So it's basically population control... Can you say, Survival of the Fittest??
Rirelobql xabjf gung EBG-13 vf gur yrnfg frpher rapelcgvba rire, ohg jbhyq lbh jnfgr lbhe gvzr npghnyyl qrpelcgvat vg???
worse, they could find a way to control your brain. What did they mean by "safe?"
Those of us who think they know everything annoy those of us who do.
Only a total complete idiotic fuckwit moron would have ANYTHING implanted in their brain without an overriding medical reason.
Being a survivor of a Traumatic Brain Injury, TBI, I would be willing to have an implant if it helped me. Not some sort of net connection, but something that would help me with my memory and improve my impulse control among other things.
FalconShould there be a Law?
I'd love to know what percentage of those people who say the government should censor Internet content are among the percentage who don't use the Internet.
Seeing as how it was an online survey I bet all of the people used the internet.
FalconShould there be a Law?
I'm using my mind to access the Internet right now, and I don't even have anything implanted.
In fact, I can't think of many substantial uses of the Internet that don't require you to use your mind, even the ones that are specifically targeted at your gonads.
Personally, I'd be more worried about implanting something in my brain that allowed my mind to directly access Microsoft Windows. There are some things the mind is not meant to understand.
Someone obviously doesn't know the /. crowd. Take about $1000 for expenses on custom parts , an expert small-circuit hacker, and a week of professional labor and we'll have an Internet Controlled Auto-Loading Microwave. The Internet Controlled Massager is already on sale.
The Captcha is Tasting.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
No one knows how to make an online survey statistically representative. To call any of those percentages "of Americans" is a foul lie. Zogby has turned into the kind of "research" into their own preconceived conclusions that we get from, say, Jupiter Research on Microsoft.
The survey, being only online does distort the stats. Limiting it to those who use the net does not reflect the general population's perceptions, only those who participated online.
FalconShould there be a Law?
Age eligible to vote?
Age eligible to drink?
Age eligible to join the military?
This brings up something I think is BS in the US. A person can vote and go into the military where their life is on the line at 18, yet they can't drink. When I first turned 18 I was legally able to drink for 1 month, but then a new state law went into effect that raised the legal drinking age to 19. Once it went into effect I was no longer legally able to drink. A couple of years later I was in Germany, stationed there while in the Army, and I became accustomed to seeing parents ordering a glass of wine for their children in restaurants, it was perfectly legal.
I think you sister rather makes my case for me. By being on her own she was forced to survive. At 17 I was working full time and sort of living between my parents and my girlfriends.
The difference was that she was not forced out of our mother's house, she wanted to live on her own. There was no force involved. Myself, I worked part time while in high school. Then planning on going to college, my sisters and I were the first in our family to go, I went into the army in part to save money to go to college.
FalconShould there be a Law?