It’s the time of year for saving money!
A recent poll by Rasmussen Research about “Net Neutrality” demonstrates that if you are clever enough you can get people to reveal the true depth of their ignorance. In this case the subject was “Net Neutrality” and the answers were as useless as the questions.
According to Rassmussen, “As you would expect, there is a huge gap between the Political Class and Mainstream Voters on this topic. Most Mainstream voters see free market competition as the best way to protect Internet users, but most in the Political Class prefer more regulation.” Now just how Rassmussen divided humanity into these two categories is the kind of dark art that pollsters feel makes them worthwhile. Logic dictates otherwise.
Here’s an example of one of their more focused questions:
“Should the Federal Communications Commission regulate the Internet like it does radio and television?”
21% of those questioned answered “yes” to this, 21%! That means that 21% of the people on the Internet don’t like it when you write “XXXX” on your Facebook page and would prefer that you didn’t have access to porn by Googling “ass.”
Another recent poll with slightly more meat on its bones comes from Pew Research. This study of Internet buying content-buying habits concludes that “Of the people who use the Internet but don’t buy content, those ages 30-49 were the least likely to abstain from digital purchases–29 percent haven’t bought anything, compared to 33 percent of 18-29 year olds and 39 percent of 50-64 year olds. This indicates the 30-49 age bracket makes a good target for companies that are looking to sell online content, as it has the largest overlap between technological literacy and financial security.”
In the Internet world where free is the standard, content has to be special to warrant paying for it. Music is special. Well-written software is special. Blogs, like mine, are free.
