Washington DC is Most Wired Region in the U.S.

There it is, at the very top of the front page of my Sunday Washington Post: a story claiming that almost 60% of all adults here in the D.C. metro area have and use Internet connections. You can read it online here. The story itself is interesting - it gives up-to-date connection stats for the whole country, by region - but what I found most fascinating about it was that a year ago this article probaby would have been buried back in the business or sci/tech sections, but now the Internet is hot-hot "general interest" news.

Comments

So what

[extrasolar]

I rarely give a "so what/who cares" attitude but this will be an exception.

For some people, getting on the internet means that you are technologically competent and up-to-date. We all know what getting-wired says but most people misinterpret what it means. Getting on the internet has nothing to do with reaching a new level of technological competence. It is, perhaps, a level higher than getting another TV.

I am pretty sure us slashdot people actually use technology to it's most. But most people I know still use the internet for chat and porn. If this is what the internet is for, then how is "getting wired" a good thing.

Chat and porn are two things I stay away from. They are addicting things that doesn't do much more than eat brain cells. Is this what the information age provides?

Come on people. Most of us have access to vast amounts of information, more information than anyone had in our past. Don't waste it.

So don't misinterpet what "getting wired" means. Only for people who exercise self-restraint, getting a connection to the internet would be an improvement. Everyone else is wasting an incredible resource.

(Sorry for ranting)

***Beginning*of*Signiture***
Linux? That's GNU/Linux to you mister!

Sigh.

[Signal 11]

Soon we'll have contests between people "oh yeah, well MY city has the most people working for hi tech companies". "That's small potatoes, MY city has over a dozen chip manufacturing plants!" "Oh yeah, well *I* have 32 computers in my basement, and MY city wants to give me financial aid because that's not enough!"

So what? The reason they're probably the most wired is because that's where all my taxes go at the end of the year!!!

I think my basement is more wired than 90% of the slashdot readership - but I'm not going to go out of my way to highlight this fact. The main reason being if anybody ever came downstairs, they'd instantly notice I probably have more old chinese containers, wrappers, empty pop cans, and cardboard pizza thingies than most of the slashdot readership! Washington DC may be the most wired, but I wouldn't want to live there for atleast two reasons - a) ever look BEHIND the whitehouse? An expansive ghetto stretching for miles and miles. It was a stagnant cesspool some 200 years ago and very little has changed. The second reason is there's nobody to have a good conversation with down there. I mean with all those politicians, all you'd get when you asked them what they did was "National security, can't tell you." or "Well, I believe in the American Way and blah blah blah... blah blah.. next question!"

Sigh. Give me good 'ol Minneapolis any day.

--

our little web ... all grown up

[Money__]

from the post story: Scarborough Research of New York, a service of the Arbitron Co., surveyed 170,000 adults in 64 major markets from February 1998 to February 1999. The researchers found it to be especially significant that five areas were at or above the halfway mark, meaning Internet use has entered the mainstream of society there.

The article quotes a study done by Scarborough Research of New York whos research markets include 64 major media markets from Albany, to Wichita ... this research apears to be pretty solid.

I can remember the first time seeing a URL in a print Add. The first time a URL was on the radio. Now, this year, the majority of the add money being spent on the Super Bowl will be done by internet related companies. It's good to see our little web all grown up. :)