blog
Signs O’ the Times
May 9th, 2006 by EricI just delivered a presentation on "Advanced Online Organizing Techniques" presentation at a grassroots environmental conference in northern New Hampshire. Workshop participants were amazed at the charts I showed demonstrating how Americans are abandoning traditional forms of communication and news like landline phones and newspapers in favor of digital technologies like the Internet and cell phones, both of which they use with increasing proficiency.
The hotel had promised cell phone signals and solid wireless Internet connections — but disappointed on both counts. On one of the slower afternoons, I slipped away to catch up on email at the place I have learned to count on for Internet access on the road… no, not Starbucks… the local truckstop. You read that right. The truckstop.
Sure, truck drivers might not fit your stereotype of an avid Internet user, but the price of entry has fallen so much in recent years that the main barrier for blue collar workers going online is literacy, not finances.
Given their lifestyles, it’s no surprise that truck drivers have embraced the wireless high speed Internet revolution with a vengeance. Big travel plaza chains like Flying J offer nationwide wireless access plans and sell laptops right alongside CB radios in their roadside stores. For armchair road warriors like myself, you can get an hour or two online at many truckstops for about the cost of a large cup of Starbucks joe.
As I drove back up to the hotel, the two streams of thought converged and I realized this is where we are all headed: towards a future where where Americans from all walks of life are as comfortable driving their computers as they are driving their cars… and pay-per-hour hotspots are as commonplace as gas stations.
So the next time you a blue light emanating from the cab of a big rig at a truckstop, keep in mind that driver might be watching the latest Flash movie emailed out by their union or pecking out an email to their member of Congress.
Cool!
Eric
