1 in 5 Americans Are "Internet Innocents" - CIO

Who are these Internet holdouts? According to Pew, they’re senior citizens, Spanish speakers, adults with less than a high school education, and folks in households with annual incomes of less than $30,000.

Of the adults who don’t use the Internet, almost half of them said the Net is irrelevant to them, finds the survey, which is based on interviews with more than 2200 adults 18 years old and older.

Most non-users have never used the Net before and don’t have anybody in their household who uses it either, Pew’s researchers discovered.

About 20 percent of Internet innocents say they don’t know enough about technology to use the Net, surveyors find; and about one in ten non-users say they won’t be interested in using the Internet or e-mail in the future.

Speedy?

Hey all, I upgraded to FiOS Internet 35/35 Mbps. What kind of results should I see when I check the speed. So far I’m showing 22.83 Mbps Download speed & 18.78 Mbps Upload speed. (Wireless)

Sound right?

The dark web: Guns and drugs for sale on the internet's secret black market - BBC

Out of reach of regular internet searches is the secretive online world known as the ‘dark web’ - anonymous, virtually untraceable global networks used by political activists and criminals alike.

“You have the availability of multiple dealers so you can compare products - and customers can review the dealer’s product, too.”

American student, David - not his real name - explains why he chooses to buy illegal drugs on the so-called ‘dark web’.

“You don’t have to go in front of a street dealer, where there might be a risk of violence,” he adds.

And it is not just drugs which are available on this online black market. Fake passports, guns - even child pornography.

(See above link for more)

newyorker: The Story of a Suicide He talked about Tyler’s senior year in high school. “I would characterize him as a child growing up,” he said. “He was getting more into being fashion-conscious. Now, this kid, he had to dress for orchestra—since he was seven, he was wearing suits and ties. But he was getting more trendy, in the last year or so.” Jane Clementi recalled that, not long before his death, Tyler had bought a spectacular new pair of glasses—bright green on the inside of the stems. His father said, “He was definitely trying to express himself.” They never saw any sign of depression, and can’t even see it retrospectively. “As a parent, what it says to me is that what you think you know, you don’t know,” Joseph Clementi said. “And that’s a hard thing, because we all think, I know what my kid’s up to. You don’t.” On the night Jane Clementi learned that Tyler was gay, she said, “I told him not to hurt himself.” Not long before, a girl from his school had committed suicide. “We had talked about it briefly that summer, and for some reason that thought came to mind. And all I said was ‘Don’t hurt yourself,’ and he looked me right in the eye and he laughed, and said, ‘I would never do anything like that.’ ” - In this week’s issue, Ian Parker gives the first in-depth assessment of the Tyler Clementi case, told through a series of exclusive interviews & IM conversations: http://nyr.kr/AeSgrV

newyorker:

The Story of a Suicide

He talked about Tyler’s senior year in high school. “I would characterize him as a child growing up,” he said. “He was getting more into being fashion-conscious. Now, this kid, he had to dress for orchestra—since he was seven, he was wearing suits and ties. But he was getting more trendy, in the last year or so.” Jane Clementi recalled that, not long before his death, Tyler had bought a spectacular new pair of glasses—bright green on the inside of the stems. His father said, “He was definitely trying to express himself.”

They never saw any sign of depression, and can’t even see it retrospectively. “As a parent, what it says to me is that what you think you know, you don’t know,” Joseph Clementi said. “And that’s a hard thing, because we all think, I know what my kid’s up to. You don’t.”

On the night Jane Clementi learned that Tyler was gay, she said, “I told him not to hurt himself.” Not long before, a girl from his school had committed suicide. “We had talked about it briefly that summer, and for some reason that thought came to mind. And all I said was ‘Don’t hurt yourself,’ and he looked me right in the eye and he laughed, and said, ‘I would never do anything like that.’ ”

- In this week’s issue, Ian Parker gives the first in-depth assessment of the Tyler Clementi case, told through a series of exclusive interviews & IM conversations: http://nyr.kr/AeSgrV

Internet Stats From 2011 - Buzzfeed 800+ million – Number of users on Facebook by the end of 2011. 200 million – Number of users added to Facebook during 2011. 2.4 billion – Social networking accounts worldwide. 2.6 billion – Worldwide IM accounts. 225 million – Number of Twitter accounts. 250 million – Number of tweets per day (October 2011). 18.1 million – People following Lady Gaga. Twitter’s most popular user.

Internet Stats From 2011 - Buzzfeed

800+ million – Number of users on Facebook by the end of 2011.
200 million – Number of users added to Facebook during 2011.
2.4 billion – Social networking accounts worldwide.
2.6 billion – Worldwide IM accounts.
225 million – Number of Twitter accounts.
250 million – Number of tweets per day (October 2011).
18.1 million – People following Lady Gaga. Twitter’s most popular user.

  • BuzzFeed
High-res nationalpost: Internet addiction has same effect as cocaine on brains: studyThis is your brain on the Internet: Messed up where there should be connections for making decisions and having normal emotions.Results of a new study suggest people who cannot control, cut back or stop their use of the Internet have abnormal white matter structure in the brain similar to what is seen in cocaine and crystal-meth addicts.According to the study’s authors, as the number of people logging onto cyberspace soars, “Internet addiction disorder” — which is poised to enter the official lexicon of psychiatric illnesses — “is becoming a serious mental-health issue around the world.”The disorder, as described in the study published this week in the journal PLoS One, is defined as “problematic” or pathological computer use that can cause “marked distress” and interfere with school, work, family and social relationships.For their study, led by Hao Lei of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Wuhan, researchers scanned the brains of 17 teens and young adults, aged 14 to 24, with Internet addiction and 16 healthy “controls” of similar age.People were classified as suffering from Internet addiction disorder, or IAD, based on a questionnaire that included the following: Do you feel preoccupied with the Internet? Do you stay online longer than originally intended? Do you feel restless, moody, depressed or irritable when attempting to cut down or stop Internet use?

nationalpost:

Internet addiction has same effect as cocaine on brains: study
This is your brain on the Internet: Messed up where there should be connections for making decisions and having normal emotions.

Results of a new study suggest people who cannot control, cut back or stop their use of the Internet have abnormal white matter structure in the brain similar to what is seen in cocaine and crystal-meth addicts.

According to the study’s authors, as the number of people logging onto cyberspace soars, “Internet addiction disorder” — which is poised to enter the official lexicon of psychiatric illnesses — “is becoming a serious mental-health issue around the world.”

The disorder, as described in the study published this week in the journal PLoS One, is defined as “problematic” or pathological computer use that can cause “marked distress” and interfere with school, work, family and social relationships.

For their study, led by Hao Lei of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Wuhan, researchers scanned the brains of 17 teens and young adults, aged 14 to 24, with Internet addiction and 16 healthy “controls” of similar age.

People were classified as suffering from Internet addiction disorder, or IAD, based on a questionnaire that included the following: Do you feel preoccupied with the Internet? Do you stay online longer than originally intended? Do you feel restless, moody, depressed or irritable when attempting to cut down or stop Internet use?

fastcompany:

Is technological connectivity mankind’s next evolutionary step?

“We created computers as an extension of our brains, and now we’re connecting through those computers and the Internet cloud as a way of expanding them,” - Tiffany Shlain, Filmmaker & Webby Awards founder

In her new documentary, Connected, which premiered at Sundance this year, Shlain sees digital connection as the next step in harnessing our collective brainpower—as long as we don’t lose our ability to relate to each other.

Read more…

(via fastcompany)

“As your daughter, I remember helping you send your first text message. …and my father still calls the Internet the “World Wide Web.”

CHELSEA CLINTON, on her parents, during an event for the Clinton Global Initiative, seen on The Today Show (via inothernews)