Netiquette Demographic Usage - Two Contrasting Views - Via Netiquette IQ

One of my primary causes as an author, blogger, speaker and radio host has and will continue to be presenting the Internet as the quickest way of providing equality to all demographic groups throughout the globe. Although the article below suggests that the more privileged and affluent netizens use the Internet usefully and that the less well to do use it almost exclusively for entertainment may have some validity. However, this dismisses the fact that Internet access is taken advantage of by third world countries and brings value to those otherwise completely isolated.

We cannot dismiss the value to millions to have opportunities to better education, information and access to resources they could never hope to have in a status quo. 

I would put forward that, just like any resource there does need to be complimentary services to maximize the optimal use. I plan a book on Netiquette for education later this year so please follow this blog!
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Rich kids use the Internet to get ahead, and poor kids use it ‘mindlessly’

By Jeremy Olshan

Published: Mar 18, 2015 5:24 p.m. ET

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Knowledge is cheap. A few taps on a smartphone and anyone can dive into the works of Plato and Einstein, watch a lecture at Harvard or Princeton, or look up a recipe for cauliflower pizza crust, without spending a penny.

Yet for all these wonders, for all the wealth generated in the name by making information free, the Internet has done little to improve the prospects of poor kids growing up in America, Robert Putnam says in his new book, “Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis.”

Advances in technology have ‘not leveled the playing field at all in terms of the difference between rich kids and poor kids.’ Robert Putnam

Social and mobile technologies, he says, do almost nothing to improve social mobility.

“It has not leveled the playing field at all in terms of the difference between rich kids and poor kids,” Putnam told MarketWatch. Though it’s not the fault of the technology — or the kids, he adds.

Putnam’s research explores why the divide between the prospects of rich and poor kids in the U.S. has grown so much since the 1950s, and how changes in family structure, geographical and social-class segregation exacerbated the problem.

As for technology, most of the kids Putnam profiles in the book had smartphones, but the poorest ones tended to use the devices “in completely different, mindless ways,” he said. “Not that this is their fault.”

Also see: Why the American Dream is unraveling, in four charts

“Compared to their poorer counterparts, young people from upper-class backgrounds (and their parents) are more likely to use the Internet for jobs, education, political and social engagement, health and newsgathering, and less for entertainment and recreation,” Putnam writes. “Affluent Americans use the Internet in ways that are mobility-enhancing, whereas poorer, less educated Americans typically use it in ways that are not.”

This is not to say the wealthier kids are using their iPhones to watch lectures on thermodynamics. They also send spend much of their Internet time sending off Snapchats, playing games and watching YouTube videos. But since social networks online tend to reflect social networks in real life, the wealthier kids have more people to draw on digitally to help advance their education and careers. (Parents in the top fifth of the economic hierarchy have 20% to 25% more friends than parents in the bottom fifth, and they know people in a far wider range of occupations, studies show.)

In fact, the social connections common to the wealthy may be even more important in an age where everyone can freely download all the world’s information, Putnam says. “Just because teens can get access to a technology that can connect them to anyone anywhere does not mean that they have equal access to knowledge and opportunity.”

A technology that reduces all the world’s information to ones and zeroes may exacerbate our division into haves and have-nots, Putnam says. “At least at this point in its evolution, the Internet seems more likely to widen the opportunity gap than to close it.”

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In addition to this blog, Netiquette IQ has a website with great assets which are being added to on a regular basis. I have authored the premiere book on Netiquette, “Netiquette IQ - A Comprehensive Guide to Improve, Enhance and Add Power to Your Email". My new book, “You’re Hired! Super Charge Your Email Skills in 60 Minutes. . . And Get That Job!” will be published soon follow by a trilogy of books on Netiquette for young people. You can view my profile, reviews of the book and content excerpts at:

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 If you would like to listen to experts in all aspects of Netiquette and communication, try my radio show on BlogtalkRadio  Additionally, I provide content for an online newsletter via paper.li. I have also established Netiquette discussion groups with Linkedin and Yahoo.  I am also a member of the International Business Etiquette and Protocol Group and Minding Manners among others. Further, I regularly consult for the Gerson Lehrman Group, a worldwide network of subject matter experts and have been a contributor to numerous blogs and publications. 

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