We're #46! Part MLMXVII: NM Internet Usage

You might have noticed that several news outlets picked up an AP story entitled "Internet Use Up, but so is User Concern" which combines a number of different surveys into a mishmash of things you already knew. In fact, reading the headline for the article is like reading an a story entitled "Seventy Percent of World Covered in Water", hence you probably quickly moved on to another wave in the 'net surf.

Still, one advantage of the increasingly popular, but scary 'Net is that you get links to the actual figures (just like ATMs, it's hard to remember a world before such links..you mean we just believed the crap that came out of such lame stories?) One site/study on Computer/'Net usage is from the U.S. Census Bureau. Always a sucker for social science data, I went to the Census page and checked out the State by State 'Net usage figures for 2003.

Sure enough, one Excel spreadsheet later we find out that New Mexico is 46th in prevalence of home 'Net access. We're right between Louisiana and Alabama. Only Mississippi, Arkansas and the aforementioned Louisiana have a lower percentage. The most illuminating thing about this obvious, unnecessary story is the author's point that computers are most prevalent in the West and least prevalent in the South (they break down Computer figures from 'Net access figures).

Well, New Mexico may be geographically in the West, but right now we're hanging out in downtown Petticoat Junction, computer/'Net-wise. Our actual neighbors like Colorado are wired big-time , while virtual neighbors like Alabama have the overall access equivalent of a 2400 baud modem and CompuServe on a Kaypro "luggable". To my virtual neighbors in Tuscaloosa and environs I say let's play Pong! I just got it for my Commodore 64 and the graphics are incredible.