How important are the interwebs? How much do you need to understand them if you're gonna be president of this country?
This story from Salon exposed McCain for the old fogey it turns out he officially is. He's never "felt the particular need" to send an email. He relies on his wife for help. His e-campaign director insisted back in June that though he doesn't use the internet, he "understands it." I'm gonna go ahead and contend that notion.
There are ideas, jokes, and tragedies our parents just don't understand (thanks, Will Smith) because of the internet. (Check out http://www.postcardsfromyomomma.com/ for a priceless and heartworming trove documenting, basically, a generation gap.) There are yet-to-be-revealed psychological and social implications of our ceaseless communication and self-broadcasting, and I'd like to have our commander-in-chief in touch with them, at least to the point that he can. send. an. email.
I'm horrified at how plugged in, blogged out, and short-attention-spanned I am now. I can only imagine what will happen when we (us young, Gawker-cruising Facebook addicts, that is) have babies and are in various positions of power in say, 10, 20 years.
One of my work tasks today, one of the things I'm being paid to do, is explain a Blackberry to my boss. He has one, and has had one for a year, but until now has stubbornly stayed put in the last century. He regularly places news stories about Blackberry and cell phone addiction on my desk, particularly "helpful" sections highlighted in his deep yellow Sharpie. When we first tried to do this a few weeks ago, he literally did not understand that a Blackberry was an email device and a telephone too. He did not know which end of the cell phone to speak into. Now, we are headed to a national convention, where he might need to use it, and it is my task to explain it all to him from square one.
The funny thing is, despite my best efforts, it undermines his crediblity. It makes him seem slightly provincial and irrelevant. And I thought, after feeling guilty about giggling at his indeptitude, about the less-than-warm reception of a tech-illiterate president by a nation full of gigglers. Could be rough out there for him.
This story from Salon exposed McCain for the old fogey it turns out he officially is. He's never "felt the particular need" to send an email. He relies on his wife for help. His e-campaign director insisted back in June that though he doesn't use the internet, he "understands it." I'm gonna go ahead and contend that notion.
There are ideas, jokes, and tragedies our parents just don't understand (thanks, Will Smith) because of the internet. (Check out http://www.postcardsfromyomomma.com/ for a priceless and heartworming trove documenting, basically, a generation gap.) There are yet-to-be-revealed psychological and social implications of our ceaseless communication and self-broadcasting, and I'd like to have our commander-in-chief in touch with them, at least to the point that he can. send. an. email.
I'm horrified at how plugged in, blogged out, and short-attention-spanned I am now. I can only imagine what will happen when we (us young, Gawker-cruising Facebook addicts, that is) have babies and are in various positions of power in say, 10, 20 years.
One of my work tasks today, one of the things I'm being paid to do, is explain a Blackberry to my boss. He has one, and has had one for a year, but until now has stubbornly stayed put in the last century. He regularly places news stories about Blackberry and cell phone addiction on my desk, particularly "helpful" sections highlighted in his deep yellow Sharpie. When we first tried to do this a few weeks ago, he literally did not understand that a Blackberry was an email device and a telephone too. He did not know which end of the cell phone to speak into. Now, we are headed to a national convention, where he might need to use it, and it is my task to explain it all to him from square one.
The funny thing is, despite my best efforts, it undermines his crediblity. It makes him seem slightly provincial and irrelevant. And I thought, after feeling guilty about giggling at his indeptitude, about the less-than-warm reception of a tech-illiterate president by a nation full of gigglers. Could be rough out there for him.
