Barack Obama lamented Sunday that “with iPads and iPods,” information has become a distraction that is putting new pressures on the U.S.A. and “democracy.”
“‘You’re coming of age in a 24/7 media environment that bombards us with all kinds of content and exposes us to all kinds of arguments, some of which don’t always rank all that high on the truth meter,’ Obama said at Hampton University, Virginia,” AFP reports. “‘With iPods and iPads and Xboxes and PlayStations, — none of which I know how to work — information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation,’ Obama said.”
MacDailyNews Note: During the 2008 election, KCAL-TV covered Candidate Obama’s advertisements placed inside eighteen of Microsoft’s Xbox video games:
Direct link via YouTube here.
AFP continues, “He bemoaned the fact that ‘some of the craziest claims can quickly claim traction,’ in the clamor of certain blogs and talk radio outlets. ‘All of this is not only putting new pressures on you, it is putting new pressures on our country and on our democracy… We can’t stop these changes… but we can adapt to them,’ Obama said, adding that US workers were in a battle with well-educated foreign workers. ‘Education… can fortify you, as it did earlier generations, to meet the tests of your own time,’ he said.”
Full article here.
Obama’s commencement address at Hampton University:
Direct link via YouTube here.
[Update: 2:08pm EDT. Pulled the Take because the point we were attempting to make seems to have been either too satirical or not satirical enough. Our fault, not yours. We blame the weekend help.]
[Update: 11:37pm EDT. Added link to 2008 report on Obama campaign’s ads in Xbox video games. Thanks to MacDailyNews readers too numerous to mention individually for the heads up.]
[Update: 11:59pm EDT. Added link to Obama’s commencement address at Hampton University. Thanks to MacDailyNews reader “Algr” for the heads up and the nice compliment.]
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “TowerTone” for the AFP article heads up.]
When I hear a sitting president talk about applying the “Truth Meter”,
my BS Meter indicates:
Man the life boats!
The President is entitled to his opinion just like the rest of us. Chill out!
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I mean, Does anybody listen to this bone-head anymore??????
With all the racist and other very mentally retarded persons’ writings one can read here, one can REALLY understand that many, many, american people REALLY dont deserve such a smart president as Obama. They are the “boneheads”…
If you evaluate you smartness on being abble to use an iPod or a game console, you’re just as doom as M$ is!
@applepi
thanks for being intelligent, even on MDN it seems too many miss the point that information is meant to actually inform, and too much illogical, biased, pseudo intellectual crap is being spread so that now the average person knows the ‘keywords’ but not what they mean. Most forums nowadays are more full of uneducated opinions than practical ideas, and the population proves this. If you put a reasonable man versus a complete idiot as a candidate, a portion of citizens would still pick the idiot. Obama asks, why in 2010, the information age, aren’t people more informed? For all that we have going for us, we have waaaaay too many clueless people around.
We desperately need to grow jobs in the United States and according to Fox News he’s touting Blackberry. CNN states “Obama can’t work an iPod. Really? He’s the tech president – the one who totes around a BlackBerry, and who gave the Queen of England an iPod as a gift.” He’s the President of the United States WTF!!!
Dvorak noted the roughly the same sentiments in one of his columns. People really do waste too much time on social sites like Facebook or Youtube. And everywhere you go you probably will notice several individuals glued to their smart phones, texting, surfing, or likely wasting time doing something meaningless (much like reading this site some days.)
I admit, I’m not immune to these effects some days either. It’s rather sad really. The society we live in today has little desire to do anything great or meaningful. We just idle hours posting ridiculous comments on blogs or watching videos of some cat standing up. So, yeah, I actually agree with Obama on this.
I see ppl attack Obamas lack of ipad savvy, but so what? The internet is full of morons who use computers, email, instant messaging, forums, and have completely illogical, biased, uninformed opinions. Having technology is different from using technology to educate oneself. The poorest countries on the planet now have informed, educated, technology users coming here, and it’s frightening the US retards, because they can’t compete. Our great country can’t survive off of idiots, if we can’t think straight, we’ll fly people in who can get the jobs done.
A 2 year old with an ipod, or a grown man with 5 PCs still doesn’t qualify them to be a manager let alone a president.
It’s a pity that someone who seems to be trying to help the country (Obama) versus loot it (George W. Bush) will probably be a one term president, and I can’t even figure out why? I thought maybe we had turned a corner on race here in America, but from some of the stupid comments and blind hatred I’ve seen here we are nowhere close. I’ve never before seen the frothing at the mouth fear and desperation that I’ve seen from the conservatives lately. It’s scary and from the lack of any real criticism (cries of socialism are bogus and don’t count) then I have to assume it is just based off racism on both a conscious and subconscious level. Some, like one idiot posted here, openly dislike him because he’s a “negro”, others just seem paralyzed with hatred but don’t seem to express any real reason. George W. did enormous damage to the country and I didn’t see you flag wavers jumping down his throat? Why don’t we just start burning witches again while we’re at it?
Here’s a thought, just because his skin color is different, he’s not evil. If your white friend gets a dark tan do you suddenly dislike him and distrust him? Jeez, pull your head out of your backside and think for yourself for once in your lives!
MDN: Please explain you take on this more clearly. I saw nothing offensive. If you objected to his use of Apple products in the speech then state that, but if you have a beef with something else in the speech then be specific about it and update the page. While I can stand some disagreement between people I can’t stand blind hatred and right now that seems like the only thing that could have caused your current take? I’m just trying to get some clarification here.
Anything is a distraction when we use it badly. Television, sex, cars, food… What is there that we Americans are NOT using to distraction? We take EVERYTHING to fanatical extreme. They can also be used to superb benefit if we don’t lose ourself to them. It’s up to us. We call it freedom.
@TT:
“”You don’t think so, though, because you can’t accept that someone can be open-minded and tolerant and still hold opinions different than yours.”
I have no idea where you get your info about me. Sounds like you are prejudiced against anyone with a differing point of view.”
No, but so far every response you’ve tossed out to me is a mirror of some I’ve heard many, many times on the Intarwebz. It’s kind of like when someone finally resorts to the “I’m not angry at you, I pity you” tactic. You know their gun is empty and they’re trying to assail your credibility, not your arguments or facts.
I’ve gone much farther right over my years than I ever would have suspected in my youth. I give full consideration to reasonable positions. But by this time, I’ve gathered enough information about political positions to make a decision about which I hold, and I disagree with most rightist positions . That doesn’t make me closed-minded. The standard you give is that one must either hang in rhetorical limbo, or accept your opinion, to be considered open-minded.
What you don’t seem to accept is that one can be open-minded and yet oppose your opinion. That’s the flaw of all ideologues: they simply can’t accept why anyone would hold beliefs contrary to theirs.
“”This is why we still have birthers, people who think the President is a Communist who wants to destroy America, racists, and conspiracy theorists.”
Creationism is not the foundation for conservatism but rather a crutch that weak minded leftist use to discredit any argument the right may have.”
Point out to me some liberal Creationists and I might agree with you. I used that as an example of the sort of closed thinking the current right engages in. I could, somewhat easily, find a counterpart on the left, but this was an example that had the virtue of being on-target and fresh in my mind, having occurred last night. I didn’t make it up or hold on to it for just this occasion. Its illustrative arrival was just luck.
“Odd that the last two in your pathetic list are actually more descriptive of the left than right. How ironic….”
Yes, yes. I understand. You are rubber, and I am glue.
The candidate who had his own cable channel with 24/7 campaign infomercials is now warning college graduates of the dangers of information overload. Yes, please get an education folks, so you can identify a snake oil salesman when approached by one.
The libs have sooo easy. In their little world, there is evil Bush, Halliburton and… yeah Bush and aah.. Fox.. and yeah man
Yup, information a distraction and pressure on democracy. Now people are better informed and that puts the presidency and the gov at risk of being found out: the presidential seat has been bought and paid for, for years.
TowerTone,
My bad for not attending this thread and seeing your comment until now. By fact-free, I was referring to “My take on it is the same information network that helped destroy any chance for G.W. to succeed from day one and helped, actually guaranteed, President Obama’s election, is now noticing how unqualified, no matter the intentions (good or bad) his administration is.
My reasoning is I think GWB did himself in. I don’t think you can blame it on the media. I especially detested the DOJ under Pres. Bush suggesting the First and Fourth Amendments could be “relaxed.” In fact, I found that frightening.
I also recall the “information network” eating then candidate Obama alive during the spring of 2008, with endless clips on Rev. Wright and the so-called “Bittergate.”
I would argue that John McCain’s campaign self-destructed by lurching from one political stunt to the next (the fake “suspension” of his campaign, choosing Sarah Palin, publicly announcing ahead of time they were going to attack Obama), etc. Now, McCain doesn’t even recall being a “maverick!” My God, that was practically the man’s brand before he had a Tea Party opponent. What happened to the real McCain?
But, back to what you said. Yes, I’ve gotten the “Andy Rooney” email and I sent it back to the person who forwarded it to me with exactly the same message you did. They didn’t like that either.
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My point about the emails relates to what Obama said about the “clamor of certain blogs and talk radio outlets.” In other words, to discern truth you have to look at what is being said, written or forwarded to you and filter out spin from fact.
You asked, “Did you think the left was immune from the BS factories?” No, if you can find where I said that please show me.
As far as the Florida recount, Factcheck.org says:
According to a massive months-long study commissioned by eight news organizations in 2001, George W. Bush probably still would have won even if the U.S. Supreme Court had allowed a limited statewide recount to go forward as ordered by Florida’s highest court.
Bush also probably would have won had the state conducted the limited recount of only four heavily Democratic counties that Al Gore asked for, the study found.
On the other hand, the study also found that Gore probably would have won, by a range of 42 to 171 votes out of 6 million cast, had there been a broad recount of all disputed ballots statewide. However, Gore never asked for such a recount. The Florida Supreme Court ordered only a recount of so-called “undervotes,” about 62,000 ballots where voting machines didn’t detect any vote for a presidential candidate.
None of these findings are certain. (My emphasis)
Not sure what you meant about the Plame case and Haliburton.
I also haven’t read or watched anyone who said “the unemployment rate going up to 9.9% is a good sign.” Historically, employment is usually the last indicator to rally when the economy begins to recover from a recession or depression. So, it doesn’t surprise me that unemployment still is higher than normal. I don’t recall hearing anyone from the Dem or GOP side suggest it was supposed to bounce right back after such a severe downturn.
Glad you and the grandson enjoyed Iron Man II. I haven’t seen it but it sounds like fun.
@InTheShelter
You need to come out and take a look around!
When you have to write nonsense like, “… just because his skin color is different, he’s not evil” … you are just exposing your racism.
Such drivel is unworthy of any blog.
This is what happens when you send a boy to do a man’s job!!
Islandgirl
We’ll just have to disagree on the interpretation of President Obama’s intentions. I think he tries to undermine the oppositions viewpoint every chance he gets, subtle or outright.
I don’t really hold that against him…it is politics, just the type that I don’t like to see presidents lower themselves to.
I don’t think the media ever let up on GW, except for a short while after 9-11. Some of it was deserved, some of it was just partisan BS launched by Uncle Teddy.
McCain never really stood a chance with Conservative. I was ready to vote for Obama to send a message to Republicans, but the only reason I didn’t, and the ONLY thing John had going for him in the latter part of the run was Sarah Palin. Say what you will about her, but she was the only thing that got any enthusiasm from the far right. And please don’t misunderstand that as a desire to see her as VP, let alone President. It was simply an outcry from the Conservatives that we liked her message and the Republican Party needed to find someone closer to her next time. (what up, Mitt?)
http://www.usnews.com/money/blogs/flowchart/2010/5/7/why-a-rising-unemployment-rate-is-good-news.html
Thanks for having a good conversation.
I went back and re-read all the post between me and Scot Murphy, and realized I had done nothing but waste time with him.
Nothing there but an ego looking to score some points without even studying what was written.
Don’t forget to wait for the teaser at the end of Iron Man II.
My grandson kept saying, “But everyone else is leaving….”
Yes, for o’bama and that ilk, freedom of speech is a direct threat to their reign. As it should be. They do believe in freedom of THEIR speech (they are, after all, the brightest and best of any generation… why can’t you common fools see that?) but any other challenging speech is merely “hate speech” or “nazism” (by the way, what is the deal with the lefts fascination with hitler and nazis?). Anyway, I love the new technology… it completely bypasses the filters and gatekeepers o’bama would call the New York Times, CNN, ABCNBCCBS, NPR, PBS, and your local failing newspaper.
My take is that if he doesn’t have an iPad or an iPhone he would of course say he doesn’t know how to use one. It is a humble thing to say and an easy laugh line (if you watch when he says the comment you might notice the audience laughing after). And I would hope that he is keeping busy enough to not have much time for X boxes or play stations.
My guess is that since he learned how to use the blackberry, and they will only let him have a crippled one even now, he is finding himself so busy he doesn’t think learning how to use a new device makes it very high on his priority list, and it probably shouldn’t.
To: Mr. President Obama, don’t make irrational comments about iPods, iPads, X-Boxes if you don’t know how to operate one. I agree that iPads, iPods, etc. can be distractions, but so is golf, and I understand you play more golf than previous Presidents.
Just a couple of quick questions to all you folks.
After all this ranting…
a) do you feel better or more agitated?
b) do you feel that you have changed anyone’s opinion one iota?
JH:
I wouldn’t be so critical if you can’t even spell Xbox.
Let’s reserve your bullshit talking point for ends of terms (e,g, Reagan, G. W. Bush).
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/hardware/
Wings2Sky:
It’s all good to me. I just stay high all the time. I get a great salary. And people are so much more attractive.
Barak ought to talk to David Hockey, the 73 year old painter, about technology…
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23832611-david-hockney-swaps-a-sketch-pad-for-ipad.do