Obama bemoans 'diversions' of iPod XBOX era

(AFP) –  4 hours ago

HAMPTON, Virginia — US President Barack Obama lamented Sunday that in the iPad and Xbox era, information had become a diversion that was imposing new strains on democracy, in his latest critique of modern media.

Obama, who often chides journalists and cable news outlets for obsessing with political horse race coverage rather than serious issues, told a class of graduating university students that education was the key to progress.

"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.

"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.

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."

Obama, who uses the handful of Commencement addresses that he delivers each year to meditate on societal developments broader than the minutiae of everyday politics, warned the world was at a moment of "breathtaking change."

"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.

Hampton University is a historically black college, and Obama noted the huge disparity in educational achievement between African Americans and other racial groups in the United States and the world.

But he urged the graduates to take inspiration from the example of Dorothy Height, a civil and women's rights icon who died, aged 98, last month, who fought racial prejudice to secure a college education.

"A black woman, in 1929, refusing to be denied her dream of a college education," Obama said, reprising Height's life story.

"Refusing to be denied her rights, refusing to be denied her dignity, refusing to be denied... her piece of America's promise."

Obama argued that from the days of the pioneer politicians who founded the United States, until the modern day, education and knowledge had been the key to progress and US democracy.

He drew a line between Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, and today's challenges.

"What Jefferson recognized... that in the long run, their improbable experiment -- called America -- wouldn't work if its citizens were uninformed, if its citizens were apathetic, if its citizens checked out, and left democracy to those who didn't have the best interests of all the people at heart.

"It could only work if each of us stayed informed and engaged, if we held our government accountable, if we fulfilled the obligations of citizenship."

Breaking news: education is still important.

is this the same president that once said he could not live without this Blackberry?... 
i smell political tomfoolery 

"exposes us to all kinds of arguments, some of which don't always rank all that high on the truth meter...With iPods and iPads and Xboxes and PlayStations, -- none of which I know how to work"

" is this the same president that once said he could not live without this Blackberry?"

Eh, even I can't defend him on this one. I'm just hoping it was something he said to please older people too ignorant to understand how technology has helped more than hurt this past decade.

" @TwoOneFive said:

"exposes us to all kinds of arguments, some of which don't always rank all that high on the truth meter...With iPods and iPads and Xboxes and PlayStations, -- none of which I know how to work"

That's when I stopped reading. "

You darned kids and your Nintendos! Get off my lawn.

Hes obviously a nazi communist who wants to sell out our freedoms to the space aliens so they can implant their seeds in us and make us live as their slaves!

I agree with him. People are becoming too indulged in their own pleasures, to be wary of what happens all around them, and with society. Unfotunately enough society depends of how we can integrate these changes and adapt to them as a whole.

He's not wrong about the 24 hour news cycle spinning things out of proportion, though. It's an unfortunate side effect of a media society. For an example in our own sphere, look no further than Kotaku.

Says the guy with the Blackberry in his reach at all times. Honestly, what he said is a load of shit. End of story.

I think what he is trying to say is what is being proven right now.  Instead of worrying about the environment, economy and global affairs we are worried about whether he knows how to use an Ipod or whether he is going to regulate the internet.

The funny thing here is that he ran under the promise that there would be transparency in government policies, all of them would be posted on the internet, explained, nothing would be kept hidden from the voters.
And now he's saying that we have "too much" information and that it's become a diversion and needs to be regulated.
That is quite an about face from what you promised when you ran for office, Obama-san.

I don't think this is the "change" we all wanted. . .but maybe that is just me.

Now that you guys mentioned the Blackberry, makes me wonder if my assertion on how Presidents, Ministers and High-ranking officials get their stories pre-written for them by some other nutbars in their deep bench of talent.

" I think what he is trying to say is what is being proven right now.  Instead of worrying about the environment, economy and global affairs we are worried about whether he knows how to use an Ipod or whether he is going to regulate the internet. "

All he's saying is that you have to be dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. He is saying nothing about taking this information away from people, His speech was simply to encourage people to not sit on their asses doing next to nothing instead of advancing their understanding of the world around them.  
 
ie:
Put down the controller and read a book you moron.
 
And with the intelligence level that is found in most of the "randoms" you run into playing games online, His point is well proven.

I can see John McCain saying the same bull if he were president. 

We should care why?

" @sopranosfan said:

" I think what he is trying to say is what is being proven right now.  Instead of worrying about the environment, economy and global affairs we are worried about whether he knows how to use an Ipod or whether he is going to regulate the internet. "

So, everyone who uses the internet must, at all times, be researching global affairs and ways to make the economy more stable? If that is the case, I'm out. It doesn't make any sense. The internet and the tools we use to access it have given us all this information right at our fingertips, and because we want to have a little fun with it every once in a while, we don't deserve it? That would be like saying "All these people who go to the library and check out sci-fi novels are wrong, they need to get only books that will inform them on global relations." "

" All he's saying is that you have to be dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. He is saying nothing about taking this information away from people, His speech was simply to encourage people to not sit on their asses doing next to nothing instead of advancing their understanding of the world around them.    ie: Put down the controller and read a book you moron.  And with the intelligence level that is found in most of the "randoms" you run into playing games online, His point is well proven. "

" All he's saying is that you have to be dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. He is saying nothing about taking this information away from people, His speech was simply to encourage people to not sit on their asses doing next to nothing instead of advancing their understanding of the world around them.    ie: Put down the controller and read a book you moron.  And with the intelligence level that is found in most of the "randoms" you run into playing games online, His point is well proven. "

God OP is so fucken fake. "I do not like this guy anymore" lol.

" @sopranosfan said:

" I think what he is trying to say is what is being proven right now.  Instead of worrying about the environment, economy and global affairs we are worried about whether he knows how to use an Ipod or whether he is going to regulate the internet. "

So, everyone who uses the internet must, at all times, be researching global affairs and ways to make the economy more stable? If that is the case, I'm out. It doesn't make any sense. The internet and the tools we use to access it have given us all this information right at our fingertips, and because we want to have a little fun with it every once in a while, we don't deserve it? That would be like saying "All these people who go to the library and check out sci-fi novels are wrong, they need to get only books that will inform them on global relations." "

" @Coombs said:

" All he's saying is that you have to be dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. He is saying nothing about taking this information away from people, His speech was simply to encourage people to not sit on their asses doing next to nothing instead of advancing their understanding of the world around them.    ie: Put down the controller and read a book you moron.  And with the intelligence level that is found in most of the "randoms" you run into playing games online, His point is well proven. "

This. "

" @Coombs said:

" All he's saying is that you have to be dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. He is saying nothing about taking this information away from people, His speech was simply to encourage people to not sit on their asses doing next to nothing instead of advancing their understanding of the world around them.    ie: Put down the controller and read a book you moron.  And with the intelligence level that is found in most of the "randoms" you run into playing games online, His point is well proven. "

This. "

" All he's saying is that you have to be dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. He is saying nothing about taking this information away from people, His speech was simply to encourage people to not sit on their asses doing next to nothing instead of advancing their understanding of the world around them.    ie: Put down the controller and read a book you moron.  And with the intelligence level that is found in most of the "randoms" you run into playing games online, His point is well proven. "

" @TwoOneFive:  I am kinda taking this a different way than most of you. What I got out of this is that he is saying a lot of people here in the U.S. focus on one thing and one thing only and that they don't get the whole story and technology even though its a good thing pushes these things that are lies even further. I live in a red state and it pisses me off when someone who is always watching fox news, on facebook and visiting fringe websites try to have a political debate with me. They are always calling Obama a socialist or a Hitler type. I am sorry but these people need to pick up a history book and see what Hitler actually did and I will bet money they won't find anything about Hitler trying to give health care to everyone. It doesn't sound like regulation to me it sounds to me like trying to clamp down on the BS that comes out of Fox News, Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaughs mouth. How is it in this day and age with the technology that we have people still believe all the lies that come out of politicians and AM radio host mouth when all information points in the other direction. I was watching tv one day and a lady for some reason believed that Obama was going to try and take away fishing from people. "

He's got a point on the news stuff. Seems like all they do these days is play dramatic music, say sensationalist stuff, and put up flashing fancy graphics to excite your senses rather than your thinking.

Well... he is aware of the existance of and difference between iPod, iPad, Xbox and PlayStation. I guess that's something!