Barack Obama, “So Uncool”
Published in Le Temps
(Switzerland ) on 17 May 2010
by Anouch Seydtaghia (link to original)
What a disappointment! In three sentences, Barack Obama succeeded in destroying the image that all of America had of a president up to date with new technology. Invited to the University of Hampton (Virginia), on May 9, Barack Obama stated that “with iPods and iPads and XBoxes and PlayStations… information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment […] All of this is not only putting new pressures on you, it is putting new pressures on our country and on our democracy.”
For the technophiles, it’s a cold shower. How can Barack Obama confirm that he doesn’t know how to use an mp3 player? How can he compare a gaming console to an iPad? And above all, how dare he point his finger and accuse the information conveyed by these technologies? But coming from a BlackBerry addict who tried everything possible to keep it when he arrived at the White House, it’s astonishing. Especially since Barack Obama, not content at having appeared in a video game (“Burnout Paradise”), used social networks widely in his campaign.
Fortunately, these unbelievable contradictions aren’t found in practice. The Obama administration is fighting for the neutrality of the Internet and wants to make high speed internet access a "fundamental right" for all American citizens.
For the technophiles, it’s a cold shower. How can Barack Obama confirm that he doesn’t know how to use an mp3 player? How can he compare a gaming console to an iPad? And above all, how dare he point his finger and accuse the information conveyed by these technologies? But coming from a BlackBerry addict who tried everything possible to keep it when he arrived at the White House, it’s astonishing. Especially since Barack Obama, not content at having appeared in a video game (“Burnout Paradise”), used social networks widely in his campaign.
Fortunately, these unbelievable contradictions aren’t found in practice. The Obama administration is fighting for the neutrality of the Internet and wants to make high speed internet access a "fundamental right" for all American citizens.