dabnagit

dabnagit t1_jdi7lb5 wrote

I'm finding this data...doubtful. At least for some questions, but therefore doubtful for all questions. Which is what you get with opt-in YouGov surveys like this. Others here have mentioned the telegram question: an actual telegram vs the app Telegram? (Fun fact: the former Western Union network since 2006 has been operated by a company called "International Telegram." To send a 24-hr-delivery telegram in the US is $34 + 75¢/word. Which would make for an expensive birthday card, but could be worth it for the right occasion.)

Beyond that question, I find it interesting at least, if not dubious, that:

  • under 30s are the most likely to still be renting videos from a video store (are they perhaps including online stores, since it didn't specify physical store?)...and also the most likely to have never done so
  • under 30s are also the most likely to still be using dial-up modems (really?)
  • a fifth of under 30 year olds are still using overhead projectors? (could this have been a confusion between the old classroom "overhead projectors" vs a ceiling-mounted projector a laptop display can be ported to for PowerPoint, etc., presentations?)
  • nearly a quarter of people are still sending postcards? Maybe. (I mean, I do -- rarely -- but I'm very retro in my tastes.)
  • over a fifth of people in the U.S. are currently writing with fountain pens? (Again, I do -- often -- but...c'mon.)
  • And, finally, which for me really throws all of this survey into doubt (including the fact that Trump voters are more likely to have quit buying newspapers and less likely to own a dictionary, both of which I can believe, but I now know I can't rely on this data to prove it): 44% of 30-44 year olds have stored data on a punch card?? I've worked on a computer for the last 36 years and I have never done this. I've know some people who, early in their careers in technology (which started even before mine), have done so. But this is only because for a while I worked for the company that invented the damn punch card. And even there, finding such people around still was a rarity. And yet, according to this: 14% of under 30s are still using punch cards? I do not think so.
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