Obama tells grads Apple iPads hurt democracy

bushman4bushman4
Posted:
in iPhone edited January 2014
In an article which appeared in Mondays (4/10/2010) NY Post President OBAMA was quoted as saying



"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," Obama told graduates at historically black Hampton University in Virginia on Sunday. "All of this is not only putting new pressures on you. It is putting new pressures on our country and on our democracy."









I don't see Obama making any mention to his BlackBerry. He's only knocking APPLE, SONY, and Microsoft.

But wait a minute, how can OBAMA knock technology when thats what helped him to get elected. If it wasn't for all the networking on Facebook and Twitter would he have been as popular in the elections???

Is information a distraction??? I thought that thats what has made us so smart.

What kind of pressure does entertainment put on democracy???



OBAMAS statement is way out of line.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 4
    nvidia2008nvidia2008 Posts: 9,262member
    If that's what Obama said... That's weird.
  • Reply 2 of 4
    bergermeisterbergermeister Posts: 6,784member
    This isn't the first thread on this...



    http://forums.appleinsider.com/showthread.php?t=109388



    ---



    Obama said this after saying something else of importance (that is, B is not a stand-alone statement, but rather one that is linked to A):

    "You're coming of age in a 24/7 media environment that bombards us with all kinds of content and exposes us to all kinds of arguments, some of which don't always rank that high on the truth meter," ... "And 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. So all of this is not only putting pressure on you; it's putting new pressure on our country and on our democracy."



    From: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/0..._n_569289.html



    I don't think he's going to waste time listing every possible device that falls into the category when he is warning the students about something larger. Though we don't have the next part, what I see him saying is to be careful with the deluge of info and part-truths portraying themselves as complete.



    Notice that the articles and threads around the net commenting negatively about his comments don't usually quote the first part, and thus here we are debating the issue. This is exactly what he is talking about.



    Sure, I think his speech could have been better written, but the message was pretty clear to me.



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    Apple could do their part to take care of the "Obama doesn(t know how... he used tech..." part easily: send Obama 20 iPod touches, 20 iPads and 20 iPhones. He, his family, his staff could then see first hand what some schools around the country are adopting so quickly. His sec of education should know what some colleges are giving their students and the future of textbooks.
  • Reply 3 of 4
    tutumiles1tutumiles1 Posts: 115member
    something is wrong with this story... Obama is on record for having Jay-Z on his iPod and we know he was addicted to his blackberry.... I think this is a speech, written by others, that he simply read...
  • Reply 4 of 4
    stevegmustevegmu Posts: 539member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by tutumiles1 View Post


    something is wrong with this story... Obama is on record for having Jay-Z on his iPod and we know he was addicted to his blackberry.... I think this is a speech, written by others, that he simply read...



    Clearly he lied, again. Question is, did he lie about being too stupid to use an iPod, or that he has one at all?
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