The Internet? What's That?
from the digital-divide? dept
Here's a reminder for everyone who thinks that, by now, just about everyone at least knows what the internet is, even if they don't use it. A study in Bulgaria suggests that 23% of Bulgarians don't even know what the internet is. This isn't really that surprising (it's not like everyone expected Bulgaria to be teeming with internet connections), but it's still worth remembering that the internet isn't always as widespread as people think it is.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
23% of Bulgarians don't know Internet
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Spin it the other way
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Spin it the other way
From a 1997 article in Wired:
That was seven years ago.[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Spin it the other way
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I guess I've got too much time on my hands
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: I guess I've got too much time on my hands
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Terrifying Encounters
But man, a lot of techniques that work for English speakers do not work for Asians -- they have a different mentality. Mind games are taken to a whole different level. I had an angry 2-hour audio conversation via msn messenger with a Japanese woman on the other side of the planet. She's like the ghost out of The Grudge. Say one thing, then say the complete opposite the next sentence. She found me equally perplexing, because I'm not "simple" like other American men. I felt like the way chess grand masters must feel when they have their tournaments. The world is still full of mysteries, I tell ya.
For a long time, I wasn't even sure if she was Japanese or not. The way she behaved seemed way too manipulative for a white person, but then she'd stumble on Japanese vocabulary, asking me what a word meant. Sometimes she was joking, other times she really didn't know what a word meant. After having the audio conversation, it's apparently because she really is a Japanese person who deliberately speaks poor Japanese, to stay away from other Japanese. She wears shoes in her apartment, doesn't bow, has never said hi to her neighbors, rarely goes out. The way she talks is so agressive/angry, I've only known angry American feminists to talk like that. She is apparently confident of her attractiveness, having no fewer than 3 boyfriends at a time. I think she was being truthful there, I've known net players who had even more.
I did also just meet another mysterious hapa last month, who speaks English with an accent despite growing up in Canada. Two unusual women in one month. I've told both about the other, and they hate each other already... hehe... I have had voice conversations with both, and they have different voices.
But I wonder, are there equally bizarre and terrifying encounters among e.g. deaf people, who live in a different universe without sound? Sign language has completely different grammatical rules from spoken language; American Sign Language grammar is more similar to Japanese than English, for example. Deaf people are literally part of a nationwide tribe of deaf people, who have mass social meetings in various cities, and frequently exchange text messages with each other. I've seen deaf people having text conversations with their friends thousands of miles away, at shopping malls, coffee shops. They've got their own slang and everything. There are deaf-hapas, if you will, people who can hear, but have deaf family members; or people who acquired deafness, or people who are able to hear again.
Will we have a future when rejected Bulgarian lovers showing up at American front doors with guns will become an everyday event?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Terrifying Encounters
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Terrifying Encounters
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
re: The Internet? What's That?
But it is always better to pick up some small country to say see what is their rating....
But for wide public is more interesting not how many people in Amazonia know what is the Internet; most interesting is how many people in NY know what is it .
[ link to this | view in chronology ]