How DO the Other Half Live?

A UN report shows that half the people in the world still don’t have internet access.

That’s terrible! Where do they post their selfies?

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I have a strange feeling that my wallet will be getting a little lighter

… and yet still somehow manage to follow Hillary! on Twitter, and make online contributions to the DNC.

Question: if a third-world town of 10,000 has a library with an internet connection, do these researchers consider those people to have access to the internet or not?

From the article:

“By the end of this year, 3.2 billion people will have some form of regular access to the Internet, up from 2.9 billion in 2014.”

So, the headline isn’t “Worldwide Internet Access Increases by 10% In Past Year”?

“That is 43.4 percent of the world’s population”

To me, that is staggering! A cause for celebration (or capitalism), not lament.

“… still far short of a U.N. target of 60 percent by 2020.”

Why does the U.N. feel it needs to set targets, and how does it arrive at them?

Gee, I wonder if women and children are hurt most?

“Women in poorer countries were particularly disadvantaged, the report said.”

Bingo!

“Only about 5 percent of the world’s estimated 7,100 languages were represented on the Internet, the report [[which was printed in English] said. Many Internet users could not understand Latin script, so even reading domain names was a challenge, it added.”

Um, that kind of sounds like a “you” problem to me.

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If you live in a primitive 3rd world hellhole and you don’t have running water, electricity, …FOOD, I’m guessing having internet access is really really low on your priority list.

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