The Web-Deprived Study at McDonalds

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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Would you like fries with your Internet access? That isn’t as absurd as it sounds since many rural and disadvantaged students are turning to the free broadband access in McDonalds restaurants to reach the Internet for study purposes and completing reports.

The children and teenagers huddled over their devices at McDonald's Corp. restaurants and Starbucks Corp. coffee shops across the country underscore the persistence of the Internet gap in education. McDonald's has 12,000 Wi-Fi-equipped locations in the U.S., and Starbucks has another 7,000. Together, that is more than the roughly 15,000 Wi-Fi-enabled public libraries in the country.
 
Guess what? My local McDonald's (I think all of them) has a limit on sit-down time now. 30 minutes or so of eating. I believe this is to limit the excessive use of the wifi at their restaurant locations. I'm up in Alaska.
 
Was anyone else kinda ticked by the examples in the article cite they have smartphones and satellite tv, but say that they can't afford internet access at home?
 
Internet access is definitely cheaper than TV. I have internet, but the only TV I have is whatever comes in on the antenna because I can't justify the expense.
 
Was anyone else kinda ticked by the examples in the article cite they have smartphones and satellite tv, but say that they can't afford internet access at home?

Absolutely.

Joshua Edwards made multiple visits to the same McDonald's to work on papers this school year. His mother, Linda Edwards, says she already pays a large portion of her monthly budget for telecommunications: more than $150 for cellphones for herself and an older son, and $55 for satellite television, out of a $1,200 Social Security check. She said she couldn't afford the $250 deposit she would need to get satellite Internet for her trailer home off a dirt road about 15 minutes outside Citronelle.

I would love to know more information about the situation before making a judgement here, but I'm an asshole and I'm going to judge her anyway.

What the jesus-on-a-stick she doing with $150 in cell phone bills a month (that OBVIOUSLY includes data plans) and satellite TV while drawing social security? See kids, poor financial planning on your mother's part is why you don't have internet.
 
Whenever I am out and about and need quick internet I just goto my nearest McDonalds and just sit in my car works outside fine also.
 
Absolutely.



I would love to know more information about the situation before making a judgement here, but I'm an asshole and I'm going to judge her anyway.

What the jesus-on-a-stick she doing with $150 in cell phone bills a month (that OBVIOUSLY includes data plans) and satellite TV while drawing social security? See kids, poor financial planning on your mother's part is why you don't have internet.

In many areas you can only get television programming through satellite. Because of distances and topography, some people can't receive OTA broadcasts, and if they live far enough out in the sticks, they probably can't get cable. I know, they should probably go without, right? :rolleyes:

I would be willing to bet that the $150 cell phone bill (with data for internet use) is a hell of a lot cheaper than Satellite internet! At least when I used to install them, it was a huge rip-off. But I know, once again, they should go without, right? :rolleyes:

They do have internet and it's expensive, that's the problem here. You gotta love corporate greed.
 
I have used the internet at McDonalds and all I can say is that you are better off using wifi else where because with McD's internet you cannot stream a youtube video, even after waiting an hour to let it buffer. Wendy's has much faster internet.
 
In many areas you can only get television programming through satellite. Because of distances and topography, some people can't receive OTA broadcasts, and if they live far enough out in the sticks, they probably can't get cable. I know, they should probably go without, right? :rolleyes:

I would be willing to bet that the $150 cell phone bill (with data for internet use) is a hell of a lot cheaper than Satellite internet! At least when I used to install them, it was a huge rip-off. But I know, once again, they should go without, right? :rolleyes:

They do have internet and it's expensive, that's the problem here. You gotta love corporate greed.

"corporate greed" has nothing to do with it. It's between those people not coming together in great enough numbers to justify the costs associated with building the infrastructure and those people being willing to pay higher bills to bypass that process. It's not about greed at all. It's about poor decision making skills, lack of team work, and a complete misunderstanding of how things are done in this world. All this results in people going to places like McDonalds, Starbucks, etc. and setting themselves up to get infected or hacked and those same people will be the first ones to complain about it.
 
"corporate greed" has nothing to do with it. It's between those people not coming together in great enough numbers to justify the costs associated with building the infrastructure and those people being willing to pay higher bills to bypass that process. It's not about greed at all. It's about poor decision making skills, lack of team work, and a complete misunderstanding of how things are done in this world. All this results in people going to places like McDonalds, Starbucks, etc. and setting themselves up to get infected or hacked and those same people will be the first ones to complain about it.

It is greed to some extent, take WV for instance. They got like 24 million dollars from the government to use towards adding and upgrading infrastructure all over the state and they blew the money somewhere and didn't do shit. Like giving schools 20,000 dollar routers which are so advanced the school can't even use them and paying contractors like 200k a year to do nothing (which would be a sweet gig)
 
"corporate greed" has nothing to do with it. It's between those people not coming together in great enough numbers to justify the costs associated with building the infrastructure and those people being willing to pay higher bills to bypass that process. It's not about greed at all. It's about poor decision making skills, lack of team work, and a complete misunderstanding of how things are done in this world. All this results in people going to places like McDonalds, Starbucks, etc. and setting themselves up to get infected or hacked and those same people will be the first ones to complain about it.

It's because in America we can't afford to run a line a little longer to supply internet to all families. We're just too poor to do so. And not everyone is going to live in a city. Sorry but cows, chickens, pigs, corn, wheat, etc don't grow very well in cities and need someone to take care of them. I guess you could surmise that it's those idiots that choose to grow food for city dweller's problem because they chose that lifestyle.

Why satellite costs so much for the crappiest service ever I'll never know. That shit should be come with disclaimers or banned from existence.
 
It is greed to some extent, take WV for instance. They got like 24 million dollars from the government to use towards adding and upgrading infrastructure all over the state and they blew the money somewhere and didn't do shit. Like giving schools 20,000 dollar routers which are so advanced the school can't even use them and paying contractors like 200k a year to do nothing (which would be a sweet gig)

Interesting....."from government", well that says all I need to know. If you were to follow the exact trail of this, it's likely that the money was never really intended for that. What you describing is what the people will be told in order to allow it to happen without a fuss. It all sounds like yet another government money laundering scheme to me. But, that wasn't what I was talking about.
 
Absolutely.



I would love to know more information about the situation before making a judgement here, but I'm an asshole and I'm going to judge her anyway.

What the jesus-on-a-stick she doing with $150 in cell phone bills a month (that OBVIOUSLY includes data plans) and satellite TV while drawing social security? See kids, poor financial planning on your mother's part is why you don't have internet.

You know nothing about that lady's life yet are so easy to pass judgement. Do you even know what social security is? Do you understand that she paid into the program? Do you know how old she is? Is she a single mother? Are there disabilities present? Do you know why and how social security is set up? Because I don't think you do, but you sure would like to judge this lady's entire existence based on some approximate numbers because you wish to marginalize her to some lazy and worthless human being, so you don't have to think too hard.
 
You know nothing about that lady's life yet are so easy to pass judgement. Do you even know what social security is? Do you understand that she paid into the program? Do you know how old she is? Is she a single mother? Are there disabilities present? Do you know why and how social security is set up? Because I don't think you do, but you sure would like to judge this lady's entire existence based on some approximate numbers because you wish to marginalize her to some lazy and worthless human being, so you don't have to think too hard.

Well, first of all, he did admit he was an asshole before jumping to his conclusion. And since I agree with pretty much all he said, I guess I am too... Bottom line, none of your excuses matter a bit, and it comes back to one thing - that mother chooses to prioritize over 200/month on TV and cell, so she either needs to stop bitching or get new priorities! For the price she's paying for those cell phones, she could probably add a wifi hot spot to her plan for about 20/month and get faster service than public wifi, even way out at her trailer! And if she can't get good data speeds on her cell at home, then why pay for the expensive data plans and phones?! I'm tired of apologies for people that make life choices then bitch about what they don't have AND then proceed to explain why they should be entitled to it! I'm 38 and have never owned a car with less than 50k miles, but I don't bitch about it, because that's the choice I made. Also not going to bitch about how corporate greed makes new cars too expensive! If a new car was that important to me, I could dump my smartphones, Netflix, and Dish, and have over 200/month extra to use on a car payment, but I want those luxuries, and driving older cars is the price I pay...
 
Well, first of all, he did admit he was an asshole before jumping to his conclusion. And since I agree with pretty much all he said, I guess I am too... Bottom line, none of your excuses matter a bit, and it comes back to one thing - that mother chooses to prioritize over 200/month on TV and cell, so she either needs to stop bitching or get new priorities! For the price she's paying for those cell phones, she could probably add a wifi hot spot to her plan for about 20/month and get faster service than public wifi, even way out at her trailer! And if she can't get good data speeds on her cell at home, then why pay for the expensive data plans and phones?! I'm tired of apologies for people that make life choices then bitch about what they don't have AND then proceed to explain why they should be entitled to it! I'm 38 and have never owned a car with less than 50k miles, but I don't bitch about it, because that's the choice I made. Also not going to bitch about how corporate greed makes new cars too expensive! If a new car was that important to me, I could dump my smartphones, Netflix, and Dish, and have over 200/month extra to use on a car payment, but I want those luxuries, and driving older cars is the price I pay...

Except that, straight from the article itself, it would cost her more money for Satellite internet than it does for internet through her cell phone. And she's looking to move closer to town to cut expenses, so she is trying to improve her situation but whatever. You haven't read the piece and already have such strong opinions on the situation, so I don't think anything anyone could say would change your view.

The internet sounds mostly for her children who need it if they are going to get out of the slums they live. I'm sorry that you are somehow deprived because you haven't owned a car with less than 50k miles, but she's doing the best she can to get her kids out of the craphole she lives in, and an internet connection (through phone or otherwise) is a requirement for any kind of advancement in today's world.

But go ahead and preach on about how terrible it must be that you can pay off your smartphone, netflix, dish, and car payments.
 
Except that, straight from the article itself, it would cost her more money for Satellite internet than it does for internet through her cell phone. And she's looking to move closer to town to cut expenses, so she is trying to improve her situation but whatever. You haven't read the piece and already have such strong opinions on the situation, so I don't think anything anyone could say would change your view.

The internet sounds mostly for her children who need it if they are going to get out of the slums they live. I'm sorry that you are somehow deprived because you haven't owned a car with less than 50k miles, but she's doing the best she can to get her kids out of the craphole she lives in, and an internet connection (through phone or otherwise) is a requirement for any kind of advancement in today's world.

But go ahead and preach on about how terrible it must be that you can pay off your smartphone, netflix, dish, and car payments.

I actually did RTFA, asshat, thanks for jumping to conclusions. But since you seem to love preaching at others without reading yourself, here's the cliffs from my previous comments:

1) DiabloRojo is an asshole: "I would love to know more information about the situation before making a judgement here, but I'm an asshole and I'm going to judge her anyway."

2) So am I: "since I agree with pretty much all he said, I guess I am too"

3) I never said shit about Satellite, as I agree that it sucks for the price. You're the one fixated on Satellite internet...

4) She's likely already got data (probably 3G): "more than $150 for cellphones for herself and an older son" - from the article.

5) She's been doing it wrong: "she could probably add a wifi hot spot to her plan for about 20/month and get faster service than public wifi" AND from the article: "for an extra $10 per month, she was able to use an AT&T feature that lets her use her smartphone as a Wi-Fi hot spot."

6) I was simply pointing out that some people make choices, and enjoy what they have without bitching to the news and everyone about what they don't have. I'm sure once you crawl out of your parent's basement into the real world, you'll (hopefully) figure that out too.

FWIW, on top of that, if it's too slow, she's probably STILL doing it wrong - per AT&T, the entire area is 4G (http://www.wireless.att.com/coverag...31.048433069009206&lon=-88.219632992561&sci=6), and they have a 4G portable hotspot for the oh-so affordable price of 99 fucking cents (http://www.att.com/shop/wireless/de...e-4g-aircard-754s-black.html#fbid=BIDymEbpMCl), which should be more than fast enough for educational purposes.
 
Was anyone else kinda ticked by the examples in the article cite they have smartphones and satellite tv, but say that they can't afford internet access at home?

Because there parents said why would we buy internet access, you can just go to McDonalds.
 
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