Who uses the internet? (1 Viewer)

[mazzyianne]

I was reading for an essay (as usual) and I found this article.
I remember a while ago someone, could have been deafmute (?) saying that they assumed that thumped would be a good representative sample of the population with as many working class people as would be proportional and all that.
Well, I knew he was wrong but I didn't have the backup
Now I do I even forget what the context was... But i though this was interesting anyway. It's quite short too.
http://www.icr.dit.ie/ go to 2003 review and the article called 'News consumption in Ireland and the European Union: Traditional media vs the internet'

 

[Janer]

Explain the working class bit a bit better plz and surely a 3 year old report is wayyyyy to old for the progress the internet has made in the last 3 years.....

 

[mazzyianne]

Explain the working class bit a bit better plz

No, I cant speak for the person who wrote the article.

and surely a 3 year old report is wayyyyy to old for the progress the internet has made in the last 3 years.....

I dont think progress in the internet has had much impact on access to the internet. Do you think more old people use it now than in 2003? Do you think more poorer people have access? It doesn't matter how you define it, the point is that less well off people are less likely to have a computer or broadband.

Anyways, I'm not going to get into any debate over the meaning of class, I just thought that it was interesting. I had no idea more men used the internet than women.

 

[classic seanc]

I had no idea more men used the internet than women.

Its the porn, obviously.

 

[mazzyianne]

Its the porn, obviously.

Jaysus, what was I thinking... bit slow today me.

 

[classic seanc]

yeah, seriously though, I remember the post you mentioned,and I remember reading it and thinking "eh, no"

Just anecdotally its pretty obvious that the working class ain't represented on the 'net, other than people that might happen to be into music or IT or somesuch.


Still, I hate the expression "working class"

 

[Janer]

No, I cant speak for the person who wrote the article.

I dont think progress in the internet has had much impact on access to the internet. Do you think more old people use it now than in 2003? Do you think more poorer people have access? It doesn't matter how you define it, the point is that less well off people are less likely to have a computer or broadband.

Yes,Yes and probs but internet cafes are only €1 an hour everywhere in town, out in the sticks would be diff I guess.

 

[Janer]

Still, I hate the expression "working class"

Why?

 

[piratio]

I read an article ages ago highlighting the strong connection between the development of streaming video technologies and the rise in internet pornography audiences. In other words, Porn money laid the way for YouTube, Myspace, Fireant etc.


B

 

[RSJ]

Porn makes everything popular baz, just look at video tapes and DVDs. Don't see the connection between porn money and myspace though.

 

[classic seanc]

Why?

It's completely irrelavent unless your talking about the industrial revolution.

 

[Janer]

I read an article ages ago highlighting the strong connection between the development of streaming video technologies and the rise in internet pornography audiences. In other words, Porn money laid the way for YouTube, Myspace, Fireant etc.


B

I read that too, what I hate about this world is the hypocrisy.

 

[Janer]

It's completely irrelavent unless your talking about the industrial revolution.

I see whhat you are getting at but it's not just working class as in work nowadays.......it's like where ur from/education/tracksuit wearing etc etc !ninjaaaa

 

[classic seanc]

I see whhat you are getting at but it's not just working class as in work nowadays.......it's like where ur from/education/tracksuit wearing etc etc !ninjaaaa

Precisely. An electrician from the corpo flats is gonna earn a lot more money than lil old me. And a dude will be called "working class", even if he never worked a day in his life, its a stupid expression.

They have other socioeconomic/whatever you wanna call it classifications for people that take their accents and where they're from into account, as well as what they earn.
It wrecks my head that people, who otherwise know loads about social equality and economics and life in general, constantly use "working class" and "middle class" as a sweeping generalisation for a whole bunch of people, when it's totally fucking innaccurate.


Sorry about that. Rant over.......for now.

 

[The Schnapper]

No, I cant speak for the person who wrote the article.



I dont think progress in the internet has had much impact on access to the internet. Do you think more old people use it now than in 2003? Do you think more poorer people have access? It doesn't matter how you define it, the point is that less well off people are less likely to have a computer or broadband.

Anyways, I'm not going to get into any debate over the meaning of class, I just thought that it was interesting. I had no idea more men used the internet than women.

I can assure you people using the internet, even the elderly has risen a considerable amount in that last three years.

 

[mazzyianne]

It's a fuckin interesting read whingebags and it's as recent as you're going to find for a study on who uses the internet in Ireland.
Please prove me wrong and find a more recent one, I'd be interested
Even if the numbers have changed, more people in general are using the internet, I doubt it's all equal and lovely seeing as the income gap has, if anything, widened and generally Irish society is getting less equal as time goes on.
There's still going to be less old people, women, less well off.

I agree with seanc on the working class thing, I guess it's just the term has been around so long. It's meaning has changed. No one identifies as working class anymore, people who work reckon it's people on the dole who are working class.
I dont think it should be up to academics to decide what people are. i hate reading stuff where they go in and go, right, you've got this income, your taste in furniture and food reflects your class, you must be working class. It's shitty.
A friend of mine is doing his thesis on whether or not the term applies to Ireland at all seeing as we never had an industrial revolution and how rural Ireland doesn't fit the boxes.

 

[classic seanc]

So we all agree with each other then?


I move to lock the thread.

 

[jane]

I agree with seanc on the working class thing, I guess it's just the term has been around so long. It's meaning has changed. No one identifies as working class anymore, people who work reckon it's people on the dole who are working class.
I dont think it should be up to academics to decide what people are. i hate reading stuff where they go in and go, right, you've got this income, your taste in furniture and food reflects your class, you must be working class. It's shitty.
A friend of mine is doing his thesis on whether or not the term applies to Ireland at all seeing as we never had an industrial revolution and how rural Ireland doesn't fit the boxes.

Yes, yes, and double-yes. And hi, I want to read this thesis! Something I've often wondered, having arrived as an outsider, and dealing with the fairly recent past in Ireland (as in 19th-20th centuries). Sounds really interesting.

 

[nofunchee]

i still think that class is important. it has political connotations that terms like 'socio-economic group' just don't have. definitions for things like class are dynamic and open to constant change, it's not an entirely fixed idea. by rejecting the term you reject with it so many of the theories regarding class heirarchies and so on. class divisions have never been clear-cut and intersect with all sorts of other factors of inequality (gender, ethnicity, religion, etc.).

i think that the the basic class structure of the capitalist system as outlined by marx is still useful, it's just the fleshing out of the catagories that cause problems. for example, i think the classical marxist approach is far too focused on material wealth. in terms of seanc's example of an electrician from the corpo flats: s/he may earn a decent wage but their social status differentiates them from say a doctor. the doctor will be listened to and respected a lot more due to their educational background, the dr. prefix to their name, how they dress, their accent, where they live, and 'cos they play golf with doctors and lawyers. these are all characteristics of class for me. there exist a group of assumptions surrounding all of what makes the doctor middle-class. the doctor is different because of all these ideas we have in our heads of what is worthy of mention and what isn't. the electrician may work 70 hours a week and be involved in loads of stuff that help people or whatever, but they are still 'just' an electrician. his/her status and worth in society is still tied to their accent, job, where they live, their educational achievement, the way they dress and so on.

some people think that the reason people don't identify with a class identity is because it's been taken out of so much academic research and of mainstream politics. what this implies is that the elites (intellectual, political, etc.) have started naming the unequal power relations in a different way so that it's still some academics catagorising people because they have the authority to do so. so it's still not people defining themselves in their own terms, they're just being called 'lower socio-economic group' rather than 'working-class'.

'working-class' used to be a term that was taken ownership of by people and created solidarity, like in the miner strikes in england. i can't see anyone saying "i belong to the lower socio-economic group, and i'm proud of it". would be good if they did though. so a possible reason for people not identifying with class identities might be that being working-class isn't considered desirible anymore. the question is why shouldn't it be?

dunno if any of this makes sense. still trying to formulate my own thoughts on the matter. bleedin' interesting though wha?

 

[pete]

No one identifies as working class anymore

I do. I was born working class and i'll die working class. I'm sure people who know me personally will find this highly amusing, but it's true.