First, take a gander at this article about John McCain learning how to use the internet:
[QUOTE]John McCain says in an interview published this weekend that he has begun learning the wonders of the World Wide Web, but does not yet e-mail or have a BlackBerry.
The revelation, while putting McCain far behind the majority of Americans in tech savvy, is a big change from his admission this winter that he was “illiterate” when it came to computers.
“I am learning to get online myself, and I will have that down fairly soon, getting on myself,” McCain told Adam Nagourney and Michael Cooper of The New York Times.
“I don’t expect to be a great communicator, I don’t expect to set up my own blog, but I am becoming computer literate to the point where I can get the information that I need.”[/QUOTE]
[url]http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0708/11711.html[/url] (brief interview included)
There are those that think that McCain's age should be off-limits for consideration in this election, that it would be unfair to criticize him for being old. It is unfair to [B]criticize [/B]McCain for being old, and it probably isn't really a fair avenue of [B]attack[/B]. Articles like this, however, highlight why pretending it isn't a factor or that it has nothing to do with his ability to do his job is pretty shortsighted.
Think about how your life has changed since the boom of the internet. I probably first began using email, ftp, and gopher in 1992-93 in college (speaking of old :p). The web took off in the years that followed, and now I'm at a point where I'm practically paralyzed if I go an extended period of time without an internet connection. I rarely wonder about things anymore, because we have so much information at our fingertips. I never write checks, I use online billpay. I haven't bought a CD in a decade. Well over half of my non-grocery purchases are made online. I communicate with people halfway around the world about all manner of things on site like [ms]. It has truly changed the way I live my life, and I'm sure most of us are in the same boat in that regard. We're all children of the information age.
We all know the experience of trying to assist one of our elders in getting on the series of tubes that makes up the internets. It is fucking painful. My mother-in-law isn't even all that old, and she still calls me when she needs to print something off of a website -- she has a printer and knows how to print, but printing from a web browser confuses her for some reason -- so my wife or I will print it and [I]mail it to her[/I]. Brain-bending.
There is this enormous wealth of information out there, this vibrant, dynamic community that has changed the way we all live. John McCain doesn't live in this world with us. He may be able to memorize some web addresses and might even be able to type them into the address bar, and he might learn to use email some day, but he will not be able to understand the greater purpose of the internet and the impact it has had on modern life.
When I read this interview, and things like this:
[QUOTE]Q: But do you go on line for yourself?
Mr. McCain: They go on for me. I am learning to get online myself, and I will have that down fairly soon, getting on myself [/QUOTE]
it sends a chill down my spine. They go on for you? Does that mean you stand next to someone else that is surfing the internet and tell them to get out of the chair when you see something you want to read? Actually, I wonder if he's ever visited his own website.
Translation: McCain is content without the internet, and has no real incentive to familiarize himself with it now apart from blunting the impression that he's out of touch. After the election, he will go back to not caring about the online world. I do not believe that every person needs to be well-versed in, or even use, the internet to be happy. My grandma doesn't really use the internet much (although she does use it for email and whatnot), and she's happy as a lark. God bless, go forward.
McCain is not my grandma, however -- he seeks to be my president. My president needs to understand the world I live in, including the single most revolutionary technological advance in recent memory. He can say that he "understands" the impact the internet has on life, but it rings hollow when you learn that the guy can't even send an email on his own.
Age alone might not matter, but the symptoms of age -- here, the inability to understand technology that virtually every American uses on a routine basis -- matters greatly. It reflects someone who is completely out of touch with the country as a whole.