It depends on what universe you occupy.


With each new PEW report that's released, we seem to learn that more and more people, from increasingly diverse walks of life, are going online. What's more, the extent to which they're not only using the internet as a source of information but also as a platform of expression, is continually growing. Even so, it's hard not to get the feeling that the web is some sort of parallel universe that sits alongside "real life" (whatever that is) but doesn't really intersect with it. For each high school kid who's uploaded a video to YouTube, there are probably tens who don't know how, or wouldn't even think of doing so. Does that mean that the PEW reports aren't accurate? I have no idea. But it's hard not to get the impression that some of these reports don't really mesh with the day-to-day reality most of us know.



Go to: The plain brown paper envelope column.