Radio Sweethearts

I mentioned Net Neutrality yesterday. It was somewhat vague, somewhat inarticulate, but mostly incoherent.

I was very sleepy.

It seems that NPR’s story on the topic (from the 21st) was similarly confounding for Jack Degolia. If that’s how you spell his name. He wrote in a letter to “All Things Considered,” “I had no clue what the story was about. Computer jargon was tossed about as if we all understand it.”

I tried to track down the story, which Degolia said he listened to several times online before he realized he didn’t get it. If that’s the case, then he’s a little more savvy than I am. It took me forever to find the story. It’s buried in a related story, but one that doesn’t involve the phrase “Net Neutrality” in its title, and therefore, doesn’t show up in a search for that phrase. (SEO FAIL.)

As I said, I listened to the story. It’s Neda Ulaby reporting, and it sounds almost like Degolia decided he didn’t understand once he heard the word “computer.” Now, to be fair, I make my living from the Internet. And if you’re reading this, odds are good that you aren’t terrified of the blinking electrons that turn into the ones and zeros that make your million-color screens interesting to look at.

But still, it seems that some people are scared of technology – not in the sense of luddites – in the sense that they’re afraid to feel stupid.

Honestly, if you gain nothing else from working online, you develop a complete comfort with the fact that you can know hardly anything about the internet, a complete comfort with feeling stupid.

So, Jack Degolia: I understand your frustration, it’s normal. That’s why there are search engines. And that’s why you make Facebook friends with smart people.

But I’m not sure I hear the same jargon you hear.

Just to check: I’ve compiled a list:

Jargon mentioned in Neda Ulaby’s story:

• The Internet
• Telecommunications
• sharing information
• pages
• entrepreneurs (only included because it was said in an unintelligible, yet pretentious manner)
• preserve
• Internet
• openness
• Net Neutrality
• open architecture
• software
• device
• cell phones