
America's emobyte deficit - terpua
http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10201521&fsrc=RSS
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davidw
> And not just friends: 32% of the Chinese said that the internet broadens
> their sex life, compared with 11% of Americans.

Maybe Americans are doing ok at getting laid without the assistance of a
computer.

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greendestiny
"China's soaring online population is now estimated at 137m, second only to
America's 165m-210m."

When you consider the differences in total populations, thats very
significant. Maybe with more actual experience Americans are less likely to
over state the importance of the internet in meaningless polls.

~~~
dood
Yes, I would think this poll is significantly tainted by the differing amounts
of net penetration [<http://www.internetworldstats.com/top20.htm>]:

    
    
        United States  69.7 % 
        China          12.3 %
    

If, "80% of young Chinese people believe that 'digital technology is an
essential part of how I live'", they must have surveyed a fairly specific
subset of young Chinese people, presumably of the wealthy urban kind. As we
know nothing about the demographics of either poll, the whole comparison is
fairly useless.

China's phenomenal recent growth is also significant: the sudden rise of this
technology would presumably have a very immediate psychological impact to
tech-using Chinese youth. Americans have had much longer to get used to it,
and may even be more dependent, but less aware of the dependency.

