iPad and Twitter are bad for democracy, warns Barack Obama

[Sonnabend]

Open mouth and jam both feet in it

BARACK Obama has declared war on technology and has singled out Apples iPods and iPads for criticism.

The President - who is addicted to checking his Blackberry and whose election was credited in part to his skillful use of modern media, from smartphones to Twitter to Flickr - told graduates at Hampton University in Virginia that high-tech gadgets and apps were straining American democracy, the New York Post reported.

Translation: he cant control it and that nags at him

"With iPods and iPads and Xboxes and PlayStations - none of which I know how to work - information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation," he said.

If you dont know what it is or how to work it, then you're a bigger idiot than I'd considered you to be.

Mr Obama described the most popular offerings of companies like Apple, Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo as distractions that were putting unnecessary pressure on the country.

As opposed to the massive tax hikes and nationalisation of companies? Telling CEO's of private organisations to step down?

He also lamented the spread of social media and blogs, through which "some of the craziest claims can quickly claim traction".

Like the ones that accuse you of foreign fundraising?That expose your lies and connections to some very corrupt individuals?

"All of this is not only putting new pressures on you," he said. "It is putting new pressures on our country and on our democracy."

Wait till November...then you'll REALLY feel some pressure...

"We can't stop these changes," he said, "but we can adapt to them. And education is what can allow us to do so. It can fortify you, as it did earlier generations, to meet the tests of your own time."

Especially educating you on the word "humility" followed by "abject defeat" and the phrase "being thrown out of office on your ass". Start packing, Barry...

[marv]

Does this mean it's time for him to turn in his Barackberry?

[PoliCon]

Once again the left reveals their plan to us. They want US to all be Luddites while they bask in every luxury and convenience. Control . . . Control . . . Control . . . . Control . . . . . and . . . . Control.

[asdf2231]

Once again the left reveals their plan to us. They want US to all be Luddites while they bask in every luxury and convenience. Control . . . Control . . . Control . . . . Control . . . . . and . . . . Control.

Quiet You! Back into steerage with you, prole! :D

[Speedy]

Pretty soon he will come out against dancing and kite flying.

[PoliCon]

Quiet You! Back into steerage with you, prole! :D

I don't understand why more people don't see it. They want us to use less energy while they use more. They want us to use less gas while they use more. They want us to travel less while they travel more. They want us to have less information while they have more.

[wilbur]

Hey, he stole those lines from the Pope!

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/...gital-age.html

"The times in which we living knows a huge widening of the frontiers of communication," he said (according to our Italian fixer/producer) and the new media of this new age points to a more "egalitarian and pluralistic" forum. But, he went on to say, it also opens a new hole, the "digital divide" between haves and have-nots. Even more ominous, he said, it exacerbates tensions between nations and within nations themselves. And it increases the "dangers of ... intellectual and moral relativism," which can lead to "multiple forms of degradation and humiliation" of the essence of a person, and to the "pollution of the spirit." All in all, it seemed a pretty grim view of the wide open communication parameters being demanded by the Internet age.

[fettpett]

and both of them are morons


Guess Steve Jobs wont be very happy with his liberal buttbuddy

[Gingersnap]

I think he's right in that social networking, 24/7 employer access, and a hyperactive news cycle impede more beneficial forms of communication and mental peacefulness. There's no doubt about that in my mind. I know too many people who interact more with their devices than they ever do with the people right in front of them. The easy and private access to porn certainly hasn't done any favors for women and girls, either.

But blogs, news aggregators, opinion sites, and discussion boards are all good for democracy. The MSM are no longer gatekeepers for information and this is good since they haven't proven to be good stewards. There are now counterpoints to information dispensed by politicians and CEOs and that's good. Large, formerly respected professional organizations like the AMA are being challenged and they can no longer exclusively frame debates - and that's good.

[linda22003]

If you dont know what it is or how to work it, then you're a bigger idiot than I'd considered you to be.

I know what they are, but I have no idea how to "work" them nor do I have the slightest interest in them.