Forum Moderators: phranque
These resisters may have access to the Internet, but fail to use it - the study suggests that we may be reaching a peak, and that further gains as a "universal medium" may be slower.
I will be leaving the net at some point in the next year or two and I won't look back. Please hold your applause, heh. Seriously though, I don't like the way it's going - I don't like the fact that every time I turn around I see some government trying to legislate it (or some individual calling for government to legislate it). I don't like the fact that I have to double and trippe check every stinkin order I get, regardless of the country it originates in, because banks profit from Internet fraud and have no interest in protecting the merchants who pay their friggin salaries. That wasn't how it was when I jumped on board, and if I was someone new to the internet today I would say "screw it". When I sell my company, I will be eliminating my need for Internet access. I'll get rid of my computers and live the fulfilling life that my "internet-access required" business prevents me from doing. One day.
Yoda once said "That place is strong with the dark side of the force. A domain of evil it is." I think he was talking about the Internet.
The TechnoAmish
The spam, scams, viruses, scumware, and popups have made it not a friendly place. I can't even do simple research without being bombarded by popups that the toolbar won't block because somehow they're embedded in my system now.
AdAware, Spybot, and other registry cleaners haven't helped much. SO far my best defense has been opening the popups in a new window to capture the URL and banning it in my hosts file.
I can't even do simple research without being bombarded by popups that the toolbar won't block because somehow they're embedded in my system now.
These are excellent reasons to stop using IE if you haven't already. I haven't seen an [unrequested by me] popup in a while, they are blocked by default in Firefox, probably Opera too. Haven't seen a standard ad for a few years, maybe 4 or 5, except for the few minutes between setting up a new OS or browser and installing, or configuring browser for, adsubtract.
Since I never use IE for browsing, only for testing, I never get those active x type exploits, popups, invasive ads etc.
I assume you've turned off windows messenger service too (different from the chat thing). After that you shouldn't be seeing a thing that you don't want to see.
What kinds of sites do you visit that give you that much trouble, I haven't seen that kind of thing since I used to check out hacker sites out of curiousity.
Re the original topic: maybe not everyone sees the web as somehow liberating? That would be nice if true.
I'm not concerned at all about the current resistors signing on. But I really want those already on to stay.
And will those with lower incomes ever be interested in an area of technology that requires a sizable initial investment (in proportion to income), changing equiment every few years, and a monthly fee for connection? Will that group ever be connected?
... regular usage of the Internet by U.S. adults has flattened out at 63 percent of the population. Further growth will require the conversion of "unconnected" consumers and Internet "resisters," according to analysis from Mediamark Research. At the end of April this year, the firm said almost 80 percent of adults had access to the Internet at home, work or another location.
The opinion is in how you read the statistics. Given that the percentages are correct(?):
Some people (especially poor ethnic minorities) are still not connected. Some people who could connect have no compelling reason do so. Really? This is new? Since when?
I must be missing something. This is a non-story. Must have been a slow news day or the editor was off sick or ...
As to the threads title: There is no "proof" of a flattening in the story. A "flattening" requires declining numbers of connections by year and while that may well be the case is not addressed in the story.
At some point everyone who wants too will be connected ... so what? Growth of connectivity is only a business to the ISPs. Any eBusiness has such a miniscule portion of the current connected populace that adding more is meaningless.
digitalv's point of those leaving is a critical problem that is not being addressed, in print or in fact.
digitalv's point of those leaving is a critical problem that is not being addressed, in print or in fact.
If true, it's not a problem, it just shows that there exists a certain percent of people who come to recognize that they are totally wasting their time surfing, and that much of the web is a waste of time. That's a good thing, not a bad thing, staring at these monitors all the time is unhealthy, it's much nicer doing something else, something less virtual and more substantial.
