This topic has come up in a couple of posts lately and about a week ago I ran across this article. I'm guessing accessibility is more of an issue in rural areas, but our assumption that only those who are educated and gainfully employed have access to the web.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124363359881267523.html

SAN FRANCISCO -- Like most San Franciscans, Charles Pitts is wired. Mr. Pitts, who is 37 years old, has accounts on Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. He runs an Internet forum on Yahoo, reads news online and keeps in touch with friends via email. The tough part is managing this digital lifestyle from his residence under a highway bridge.

I worked in a homeless outreach type environment in the recent past.

I was amazed by the number of guys whose priorities were as follows 1. shower 2 dinner 3. mich', can I check my email?

My response was "yeah, I need a smoke break anyways."

I lived in real rural Iowa for years, they are light years ahead of you Mister.  Poor, yeah, access problems.  Sitting on a 1/4 million John Deer tractor, GPS, wireless internet and all that, long before internet cafes in SF and GPS in every car.

Quote from: tekla on June 06, 2009, 01:31:45 AM
I lived in real rural Iowa for years, they are light years ahead of you Mister. 

Really?  Did they already send you that link?

First wireless internet I ever saw was on a tractor, circa 1998, rural Iowa. First GPS too.

Quote from: tekla on June 06, 2009, 01:37:38 AM
First wireless internet I ever saw was on a tractor, circa 1998, rural Iowa. First GPS too.

Good for you.  What does that have to do with me?  My point wasn't that wifi exists, it was that the low income and/or lesser educated folks have surely figured out how to stay connected, unlike our discussions about it in a couple threads recently.

You said 'in rural areas' and I just assumed you didn't know anything about rural America, as your subsequent remarks have proved.  Iowa and Minn had fiber optic nets down long before Northern Cali, which still doesn't have them in place like they are in farm country.

Of course, that's because (unlike you and me) what they do is important to a lot of people.  If farming doesn't work, people starve.  So it was worth the upfront investment there so that the farmers could have access to the high tech needed for successful farming,  long before it became useful for people to post in facebook here.

As for poor people, glad you care, I sure don't. And they always have the library once they finish bathing in the bathroom.  And as your quote proved, even living under a bridge with no job is no reason not to Twitter.

P.S.  Poor people also don't have access to fancy dinners, limos, airplane tickets or opera seats either.  That does not bother me either by the way.

Hm, I meant rural as in tiny ass little towns that don't have internet access at libraries, cafes with wifi, etc.  And your farmer pal may have been able to afford such things, but people camping in tents in the ozarks are typically SOL when it comes to internet.

I'm not asking you to care, nor would I expect you to.

'My town' had a population of 125.  Not exactly urban.

And people camping in tents in the Ozarks are most likely trying to get away from all that, not connect to it.  If that's what they wanted, they would go to Branson.  But the local library, most likely their church, and the schools would all have access.  But lots of small towns have wireless setups now, in fact, it tends to be easier to do in a small town around the square than it is for a small city.

And your right of couse, like the country song goes, my give a damn is busted.

I really wanna care
I wanna feel something
Let me dig a little deeper
No, sorry, nothing

You can say you've got issues
You can say you're a victim
It's all your parents' fault, I mean after all you didn't pick em
Maybe somebody else has got time to listen
My give a damn's busted

Well your therapist says it was all a mistake
A product of the Prozac and your codependent ways
So who's your enabler these days
My give a damn's busted

Just took a trip back to a place I lived for about a year, pop. 450 or so.  No cable, houses w/o electricity (and not those look-at-me-i'm-off-the-grid types) library with one computer, no CD drive, let alone internet.