Let the Poor Have Fun
By MANU JOSEPH, NYT
NEW DELHI — THEY can’t do without the farmer story. When people who wish to transform India through the Internet talk about their plans, they tend to tell a story that goes something like this: A poor farmer is about to sell his crop very cheap when someone, often a smart adolescent granddaughter, checks the market price online, and the farmer makes a more informed decision.
It appears that technology executives feel they must treat the Internet as something deeply noble and serious in order to substantiate its importance in an impoverished nation.
Even Facebook, that great time suck of FarmVille, not farmers, seems to have suffered a head injury and is now imagining itself as Mother Teresa. Internet.org, the company’s recent push along with other companies to bring affordable access to the more than two-thirds of the world that is not yet online, has the grave tone of social reformation. Facebook’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg, said last month that the goal was to “create a backbone for many things, including access to information, access to information about health care, education, jobs and just so many good things.”
Too many people presume that what the poor want from the Internet are the crucial necessities of life. In reality, the enchantment of the Internet is that it’s a lot of fun. And fun, even in poor countries, is a profound human need. Quality of life is as much an assortment of happy frivolities as it is the bare essentials of survival. And India is a perpetual reminder that a lot of good — even the somber sociological stuff — can come from people setting out in pursuit of joy.
(More here.)
NEW DELHI — THEY can’t do without the farmer story. When people who wish to transform India through the Internet talk about their plans, they tend to tell a story that goes something like this: A poor farmer is about to sell his crop very cheap when someone, often a smart adolescent granddaughter, checks the market price online, and the farmer makes a more informed decision.
It appears that technology executives feel they must treat the Internet as something deeply noble and serious in order to substantiate its importance in an impoverished nation.
Even Facebook, that great time suck of FarmVille, not farmers, seems to have suffered a head injury and is now imagining itself as Mother Teresa. Internet.org, the company’s recent push along with other companies to bring affordable access to the more than two-thirds of the world that is not yet online, has the grave tone of social reformation. Facebook’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg, said last month that the goal was to “create a backbone for many things, including access to information, access to information about health care, education, jobs and just so many good things.”
Too many people presume that what the poor want from the Internet are the crucial necessities of life. In reality, the enchantment of the Internet is that it’s a lot of fun. And fun, even in poor countries, is a profound human need. Quality of life is as much an assortment of happy frivolities as it is the bare essentials of survival. And India is a perpetual reminder that a lot of good — even the somber sociological stuff — can come from people setting out in pursuit of joy.
(More here.)
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