Topic: Technology & Interpersonal Communication
Statically, in the United States, if your income is over $75,000USD, you are white and college educated your household will be wired (Walker, 1997). Internet usage, which is only ten years old, is growing from the high end of the socioeconomic scale and slowly filtering down to the low end. (Walker-Barnes, 2001). Is America wired for everyone? What about the 79% of the population who are making less than this amount, how are they connected?
What does wired mean? For the purposes of this paper, 'wired' and technology will refer to using a computer connected to the Internet.
This image was selected as a picture of the week o...
English: Availability of 4 Mbps-Capable Broadband ...
FMWRC to provide pay-as-you-go internet access Arm...There are, however, many devices that can be linked to the Internet, PDA's, cell phones, kitchen appliances, etc.
In America, technology related activities are classified in society as two distinct groups - individuals who have access to computer and those who do not (Walker, 1997). Children who were eligible for subsided lunches in 88 percent of our nation's schools had an extremely low rate of access to the Internet. Approximately 11 percent of these children were able to access the net. (Hecht, 2001). There is also a difference among racial categories Caucasians, African-Americans, Hispanics and Pacific Islanders. With minority groups, access and use of the Internet is proven to be related to one's income and education (Cronin, 2002).
Hamilton (1998) reported that 82 percent of public schools were wired to the...
US and the Net
If the US wants to wire the country they also need to start getting better tecnology and stay current within the private and goverment sectors. This cannot be done though because the cost would be too great, but until this is implimented we won't be able to do anything for the lower-income groups. In order to do what this artical wants Computer prices would have to be dramaticly lowered. Other countries such as England, Japan, and Germany have better access to tecnology because the prices are cheaper and this allows for more people to be able to use and stay "wired" to the net.
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