So how do Egyptians afford access to facebook anyway?

[dkf]

Are these the elites that are actually doing the facebook and twitter organizing?

Or are we overestimating their impact and it was a more grassroots thing than that?

[eShirl]

1. facebook and twitter are free

[dkf]

4. But your own ISP isn't.

Someone was saying that Egyptian youth are connected via facebook and twitter even moreso than we are because their society doesn't allow the in person social interaction that we do when it comes to the opposite sex. I think that gave me a mistaken impression about modern Egypt, that it is wealthier than I thought when I first heard the news.

[Fuddnik]

38. Internet and phone service are much cheaper around the world.

And better to boot.

Here, we pay to service the executives instead of paying the executives to service us

[Ichingcarpenter]

52. Thank you.... said the same thing but the OP

might not know anyone out of the US

Most of his posts show that.

[Ichingcarpenter]

49. Most modern phone model plans have cheap internet

Many in the World pay much less since in the US you have so few choices
and real competition.... the US normal consumer has one or two choices even though the 320 million.

[Catherina]

54. They share connections in entire buildings. n/t

[Turborama]

36. Far out, your cat moves if you look at it long enough.

[UndertheOcean]

2. You don't have to be an elite to afford an old PC , or maybe go to an internet cafe

The middle class can do it.

[dkf]

3. I'm just thinking how much it costs me for access.

Its not cheap. Internet cafe makes sense, but you'd have to hang out there to get feedback.

[Maine_Nurse]

5. Many "third-world" countries have better and cheaper access than we do.

We still have many parts of our country that can't get broadband internet (I live in one such area). I can't even get satellite because I'd have to cut down quite a few old-growth trees on my neighbor's property.

[eleny]

8. Belated welcome to DU!

:hi:

[Maine_Nurse]

11. TY

[eleny]

6. An article about easy access to the net in Egypt...

http://www.frommers.com/destinations/egypt/0398027751.html

[dkf]

19. Nice...Thanks!

[murielm99]

12. If you don't have a job, hanging out is not a problem.

It is possible that friends watch out for each other's feedback. They may share expenses, too. I know people here who go to the library for Internet access. They would not have it without the public library.

We can wonder how they afford anything: food, cigarettes, lodging, clothes. How are Americans with no jobs doing all that?

[Posteritatis]

17. Internet prices aren't standardized based on American fees. (nt)

[dkf]

24. Yeah I do think we are getting ripped off.

But the extent of it? I'm not sure.

[Posteritatis]

45. You'd be surprised

Cellphone access in a lot of places we'd think of as hyper-undeveloped holes of squalor, for instance, isn't too far off from what people in the west have access to at times. Basic net/phone access (bearing in mind those are increasingly the same thing), along the lines of what people here had, say, a decade ago in terms of overall quality, wouldn't be that expensive at all in places with even basic infrastructure.

The US and Canada both have particularly ridiculous, through-the-roof policies for pricing net access. Canada's are actually nastier than the US' and about to get far worse this year. Between net cafes and people relying on service and infrastructure that's well below what we have but more than good enough for their own purposes, you'd be surprised at what people can get in some pretty poor parts of the world.

And bear in mind that, while Egypt has staggering inequality problems, they're still pretty well-developed by the standards of the region. The country as a whole's poor but not that poor, their dialect of Arabic is the lingua franca across a good chunk of the Muslim world, etc. And for anything close to a real insurrection or revolution to happen you need a good chunk of people who are at least a little well-off; if a country's absolutely dirt-poor enough people are too busy looking for the next meal to get political. Egypt's been past that point for awhile, and what went on last month seems to have struck some sparks.

[PassingFair]

7. Your cluelessness never ceases to amaze me.

Have you ever left the United States?

http://www.textually.org/textually/archives/images/set1/tech_bangdesh3_apr22,0.jpg

[madmom]

10. Rude much?

:eyes:

[WinkyDink]

20. Follow the posts; just follow the posts.

[dkf]

25. So if I don't have exposure or know these things then I shouldn't ask?

Yes, I don't know much about the daily living in Egypt. I'm not even sure how a homeless person living under a bridge survives or why they can't qualify for assistance. Am I just supposed to ignore that? That is why I ask. Geez.

I'm glad you know everything there is to know in this world.

[madmom]

35. Makes this thread even more relevant.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=439&topic_id=300727&mesg_id=300727

[dkf]

13. Once.

Hey I'm stuck on a rock, aka Hawaii. Its very expensive to travel from here. I have to get to the mainland first for most destinations, and I can't get a decent amount of time off.

I'm not super rich with a flexible job like you.

Jeez.

[ScreamingMeemie]

33. "Super rich with a flexible job like you"...

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

If you knew this person (my best friend) in real life...oh...ouch...it hurts.

[dkf]

40. Hey they can afford it better than I can apparently.

[ScreamingMeemie]

41. Foot, meet mouth...x2

:hi:

The things we "assume" about other posters just because we disagree with them.

Yourreason for this entire thread is disingenuous,IMO, but I think you know that. Homeless people on this very board are able to access the internet.

That said, I think you are swell, I just had to point out a silly comment.

[ipaint]

22. +1 All you have to be is poor here in the good old USA to know

exactly how other poor folks get online in other countries. It seems to be the comfortable classes here that "just can't imagine" much of anything regarding those less well off.

[blondeatlast]

9. Why do you care? You seem preoccupied with the standard of living of the protestors--

I hardly think they are the elites in SA.

[dkf]

15. Just trying to understand what its all about.

[blondeatlast]

16. Of course you are... nt

[Turborama]

14. 34,319,040 users in Indonesia. The second largest group of users after the USA

http://www.checkfacebook.com/

How?

Laptops, cell phones, work PCs, internet cafes. Pretty much the same as how everyone else gets online.

[dkf]

18. 5.1 million users in Egypt out of 83 million in population.

Looks about 63% male

2.2 million users, 43% 18-24
1.5 million users, 30% 25-34

[Turborama]

27. Right, so you're getting into the demographics now. Any particular reason? n/t

[dkf]

30. Again, trying to understand who and why.

And what we are getting ourselves into...the US I mean.

[suffragette]

37. When I met up with other DU'ers in DC back in Jan 6, 2005

at one point, we went to a cafe with internet and posted together from the computer there.

People who share connection may also share connections.

[QC]

21. With their welfare checks and food stamps. n/t

[dkf]

23. They wish.

[CreekDog]

26. for all the time you spend posting about news-related topics

you seem to be pretty isolated from the world.

don't you live in Hawaii? how do you not know that poor people all over the world use the internet, Facebook, Twitter and so forth?

[blondeatlast]

29. Interesting. When I honeymooned in Hawaii back in '96, internet cafes

were everywhere.

I didn't know the OP lived there but the OP I know all too well.

[CreekDog]

31. they regularly state a stubbornly simplistic view of the world

that's my impression and frustration.

:hi:

[dkf]

39. I tackle the subject as it comes up.

And then I post and learn. So I do ask "stupid" questions, but I learn a lot.

And I do post when what I'm curious about hasn't been addressed.

I do understand that use of the internet and facebook and twitter are exploding, but I'm not aware of what is happening in those countries to drive the change. Is it because access is better or is that a growing middle class? I've taken it to be the growth of the middle class, but it seems I'm wrong.

And I have researched international access from the point of view of traveling, but more on my own cell phone costs, which would be exhorbitant, and is not recommended.

I'm not sure I will ever get enough time off to do an international trip. If it takes 2 days to get there and 2 days to come back there isn't much point in using 5 days of vacation.

[CreekDog]

42. it doesn't take 2 days to get to Asia from Hawaii

there's other stuff in your post but that one leaves me confused.

[hlthe2b]

28. I think there is an impression that there is not a spectrum

of Egyptians on the street. I've seen countless posts that make it seem like all of Egypt is uneducated... Not at all the case. Many of those on the street protesting are highly educated and would be middle class in previous decades. Since the time of Nasser, the government provided jobs to these individuals-- part of the problem, surely, since it built an unwieldy and often corrupt bureaucracy. However, with economic downturns over recent decades, many many highly educated Egyptians could find no work. It was not unusual to find someone trained as a physician or with a PHD in engineering, driving a taxi in Cairo.

Coptic Christians are heavily represented among those formerly middle class educated, but can find no work.

Since it has been ingrained in Egyptian culture that marriage must wait until a certain level of financial security has been achieved, this has wide ranging implications for a young population, who have little chance of achieving what their parents and grandparents had been able to do.

Yes, there is and has long been a significant level of poverty in Egypt and illiteracy rates among the most poor. But, there is dissatisfaction across a very very wide spectrum of Egyptians, both poor and "quasi-" Middle Class, Muslim and Christian, highly educated and illiterate.

[dkf]

32. This is exactly what I was wondering about.

Thanks!

[Odin2005]

34. Internet cafes.

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

44. AKA Starbucks

[Posteritatis]

46. Yeah no. (nt)

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

53. I was joking, but Egypt has 20 Starbucks Stores.

How Many Starbucks Stores are in your Country? http://quezi.com/5940



Just an FYI

[entanglement]

43. They use RFC 2549 - IP over Avian Carriers with Quality of Service

Really cheap and effective
;)

http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2549.txt

[nadinbrzezinski]

47. The same way poor Mexicans do

ISP is nor as expensive as here nd at times four people buy one account and share.

This is why net books are big round the world...five people can afford to share one.

[Cleita]

50. Hey, you and I posted about the same thing at the

same time. Are we mind melding? :rofl:

[nadinbrzezinski]

51. Yep...I've seen it too

[Cleita]

48. I don't know about internet but I have observed

in other third world countries that poor people share. Like one home in a building or neighborhood has a TV but the whole neighborhood will share that one TV. I think perhaps one person or family might have internet access but they share with their all their neighbors. I know sharing facilities is an alien concept to most Americans, but in other countries it's a daily fact of life.