Life in the Network

I believe that access means to be able to not only have a physical means to get information from a source, but to also be able to sustain that mean over a period of time. An example of this would be like my laptop or my pc at home. I can get access to the internet any time I want at home and it's always there and always on. If someone just goes to a library and gains access to the interenet and wants to shop or buy things or whatever I don't think that's having full access. This is because the library closes, you can't be there all day and you don't have full access to that source. I think in talking about access you have to think about having that access readily available to you any time you need it.

I think that all adults should be online and atleast experience it. From the reading, truly disconnected 24% offline (Madden, 1). That seems like a really small percentage of adults that are not online. I net penetration has now reached 73% for all American adults (madden, 1). Seventy three percent of all adults online is amazing, and that number will just keep going up. I think this goal of all adults being online can be useful, I think it shouldn't be a requirement or a necessity however. I think it would be useful so people can stay connected, stay up on current events, be able to shop and buy there goods online, and also be able to connect with new people and meet knew people and just basically keep the public informed of things that are going on in the world. As far as all children being online, I think kids these days need to spend more time on the jungle gym that at home on the computer. I think that face to face interaction would benefit them more and the internet for kids should primarily be just used as a learning tool.

A lack of access to lower income families does cause a barrier to advancement to them. As a learning tool, you can learn a lot from credible sources on the internet. Being able to communicate with people and also to integrade this into your work would be a barrier if you couldn't get a hold of someone. Advancing in technology and staying up on current events and learning new things would hinder there advancement as well without the ability to go online.

It would be wise to integrade internet use in elementary education because chances are they will have to use some form of internet use in there adults lives. Well not only there adult lives, even in high school and college it's a necessity to have internet access and if kids learn how to utilize it properly and efficently at a young age, it will help them better use it in the future.

The merits are that all children will have access to the internet and be able to use it properly when the get older. The draw backs could be the cost, and also just having the person to person communication, and also all the other junk that's out there on the internet, bad sites for children, identity thieves, etc.

I think food and other necessities would greatly improve developing countries better than handing them a lap top. I think we need to spend more time getting on the same page, ie, helping them from common diseases with vaccines, and also helping them out with shelter and food over technological issues.