Divide by Zero

Mac-a-ronies does a good roundup on the dig­i­tal divide ques­tions raised by the recent Pew Inter­net Trust study.

I sus­pect those of us who have been online for a long time can hardly fathom why peo­ple would get online and then even­tu­ally leave. After all, what’s not to love about the Inter­net? I could go on an rehash the pop­u­lar argu­ments as to why being online is impor­tant but some­how, I sus­pect that I don’t need to do this as peo­ple read­ing this site are obvi­ously not part of the online dropout crowd (if you are, then could you please explain to me why you came back?)

Based on my own infor­mal study (mean­ing, I talked to 1–2 peo­ple about this), here are some counter-arguments you can make to peo­ple who poo-poo the value of being on the Internet:

Untrust­wor­thy

Many peo­ple still feel that the Inter­net can­not be trusted. This is some­how due to the fact that many opin­ions are avail­able on the Inter­net, some com­ing from large cor­po­ra­tions, oth­ers com­ing from indi­vid­u­als. With each opin­ion comes an agenda (my own being how do we keep increas­ing the spread of the Inter­net so I can keep get­ting cool jobs inno­vat­ing with this tech­nol­ogy). How­ever, indi­vid­u­als do not trust fel­low indi­vid­u­als and have been lulled into believ­ing the old story of the press being impar­tial. It’s an inter­est­ing one to try to break through. If some­one raises that argu­ment, don’t deny the exis­tence of a diver­sity of opin­ions on the Inter­net. Point out that blog­gers are actu­ally link­ing a lot, allow­ing you to see what data they use to make their points. Explain how jour­nal­ists in tra­di­tional media get the same data and fil­ter it using their view­point (a good way to exem­plify this is by show­ing how dif­fer­ent out­lets (Fox News, CNN, MSNBC) cover the same story.

Com­pli­cated

This comes from the fact that most peo­ple find it dif­fi­cult to get online. Ask them what the issue is. In a lot of cases, it will be some­thing like a modem cord not being attached prop­erly, or some soft­ware prob­lem. Offer to trou­bleshoot it. Then show them how the Inter­net can sim­plify their lives. Ask them about some of the things they hate doing but have to (in the United States, that could have been fill­ing out taxes last week). Show them how the Inter­net can actu­ally sim­plify their lives (online bill pay­ing, for exam­ple, gets rid of the stamps, the envelopes, and, once set up, can save you a few extra min­utes every months). Show them tools like Google to help them search and do a side by side com­par­i­son to explain how much time can be saved by using the Internet.

No access in my area

Show that there is access in the local library (most do nowa­days but few peo­ple actu­ally go there). In some cases, there may be other ways to access. Inves­ti­gate and have that info ready as a counter to the argument.

No aded value

Show­case a dig­i­tal hub (but don’t use the word dig­i­tal hub, just focus on how easy it is to use, not on the under­ly­ing tech­nol­ogy): how one can pass on pic­tures of friends and fam­ily on the Inter­net. How one can exchange email with friends and fam­ily near and far (this is a big one for older peo­ple as it allows them to talk with their kids or grand-kids). Show how one can get more infor­ma­tion about a favorite TV show or about another topic of inter­est. Explain how the Inter­net is not about tech­nol­ogy but that it’s really more like a giant library with infor­ma­tion about any­thing you want and that it’s all there to make your life easier.

Too slow

True, the Inter­net on a reg­u­lar modem can be slow. How­ever, many sites are work­ing on opti­miz­ing and there are some speed improve­ments on many of them. For exam­ple, the recent redesign of ESPN is dra­mat­i­cally faster. Also, explain how some new things (don’t men­tion tech­no­log­i­cal words like DSL or cable modems, which usu­ally turn peo­ple off, but focus on things like “Faster way to get info”) can bring you faster information.

Focus on the applications

The most impor­tant thing is to make sure you don’t talk about the tech­nol­ogy (most peo­ple don’t care about it). Focus on the appli­ca­tions and how those make one’s life eas­ier. Often, tech­nol­o­gists like myself get stuck on the gee-whiz fac­tor of new tech­nolo­gies, but when talk­ing to peo­ple who don’t see any value in the Inter­net, those new fea­tures are use­less. Lis­ten to what’s a point of pain in their lives and show how the Inter­net can help ease it. That’s what really gets to peo­ple and what will get them back online.