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Americans Annyed by Internet

Posted: 2003-01-20 06:17am
by Faram
AMERICANS ANNOYED BY "ALL THIS
INTERNATIONAL SHIT" ON INTERNET

Web's Increasingly Worldly Flavor Threatens Americans' Worldview

PULLMAN, WASH. (SatireWire.com) — The profusion of international news available on the Internet has made it increasingly difficult for the average American to ignore the rest of the world, a trend researchers say threatens Americans' long, proud history of disregarding anything not about them.

"With all the foreign newspapers and multi-cultural sites, the Internet is making it almost impossible for the average American to remain uninformed and apathetic," said Samantha Lessborn of Washington State University, which conducted the survey. "Americans can still do it. But it now takes effort, whereas before it was as easy as turning off Tom Brokaw whenever he said 'In South Korea today...'"

According to survey participant Danny Grisham, a 22-year-old from Cheyenne, Wyoming, it's not just the plethora of international news on the Web that is irritating. "Look, I can get around the news. I just turn off Reuters headlines in MyYahoo," he said. "But even some of the search sites like Yahoo and Alta Vista are available in different languages. Like everybody in the world doesn't speak English. Yeah, right."

"I can see where it's important if we're, like, beating some country in the Olympics or bombing them or, ideally, both," Grisham added. "But if some Colombian drug lord sinks a ferry full of Israeli soldiers in North Latvoania or Serbo-Malaysia, or wherever, and Americans aren't involved, what has that got to do with me?"

Other respondents said they were appalled, not just by the availability of non-U.S. news, but by the way important U.S. news is reported by some of these foreign sites. "Yesterday, for instance, the St. Louis Rams beat the Atlanta Falcons, OK, and I go to the London Times site and it's not even there," said Chip Pernadge of Kansas City, Mo. "Jesus, no wonder those guys lost the war and had to give Hong Kong back to Canada."

Sensing a market opportunity, Net Nanny, makers of Net Nanny filtering software, announced this week it will introduce NetNarrow, an English-only product that automatically filters out content that appears to be international. Specifically, the software looks for world datelines and keywords indicative of irrelevant foreign stories, including "Shiite," "post-Apartheid," and "Bob Geldof."

Survey-taker Craig Barker of Brooklyn, New York, said he will be among the first to get NetNarrow. "On the Web, there are so many ways to get news from so many different places, I could really get some fresh insights into what's going on in other countries if I wanted to," he said.. "But I don't want to."

"You'd think these Internet people would know that," Barker added. "I mean, that's why the Internet is called America Online, right? It's supposed to be about America."

http://www.satirewire.com/news/0010/international.shtml

Satire I Know

Posted: 2003-01-20 06:26am
by Stuart Mackey
Oh, bugger me, thats funny, I needed the laugh.

Posted: 2003-01-20 07:01am
by Mr Bean
That makes two of us

Posted: 2003-01-20 07:05am
by Red Knight
Heh, that was pretty funny..

Re: Americans Annyed by Internet

Posted: 2003-01-20 07:12am
by Eleas
Faram wrote:AMERICANS ANNOYED BY "ALL THIS
INTERNATIONAL SHIT" ON INTERNET
I wholeheartedly concur! Especially since Al Gore invented the damn thing in the first place.

Posted: 2003-01-20 07:12am
by Sir Sirius
Actualy pretty accurate, though slightly exaggerated.

Posted: 2003-01-20 07:14am
by XaLEv
"Hey you! Git the hell off mah intarnet!"

Posted: 2003-01-20 07:33am
by Archaic`
Editor's Note: It seems that after reading this entirely fictional story, some investors/customers of Net Nanny believed the company actually was going to produce NetNarrow software. As a result, Net Nanny asked SatireWire to please assure people that this is not the case. No, really.
Assuming that they aren't pulling a fast one with this......is anyone as disturbed by this as I am? :shock:

Posted: 2003-01-20 08:45am
by Warspite
Now this IS comedy! :lol:

Still, isn't there a little bit of truth in it? :wink:

Posted: 2003-01-20 09:11am
by Wicked Pilot
Warspite wrote:Still, isn't there a little bit of truth in it? :wink:
Yes, much more than I'd like to admit.

Posted: 2003-01-20 09:19am
by Lagmonster
One aspect of satire is that it's designed to take something suspected to be true (whether by stereotype or other), blow it out of proportion, and take it to its greatest silly extreme.

Example of truth in case, my aunt's neighbour in Cincinnati, Ohio: AOL Customer. Believes America 'manufactures' the Internet and exports it to other countries. Has a Bible in her bedroom drawer. Dyes her hair a colour not found outside of sci-fi plasma explosions. Didn't finish high school, married a rich, shallow man instead.

Posted: 2003-01-20 11:10am
by Raptor 597
this is truly golden. :lol:

Re: Americans Annyed by Internet

Posted: 2003-01-20 11:22am
by IRG CommandoJoe
Faram wrote:"But if some Colombian drug lord sinks a ferry full of Israeli soldiers in North Latvoania or Serbo-Malaysia, or wherever, and Americans aren't involved, what has that got to do with me?"Satire I Know
Actually, that's quite right. Would the world rather have the U.S. get interested in this incident and get involved with it or rather have the U.S. leave it alone because it has nothing to do with the U.S.? :P

Posted: 2003-01-20 12:08pm
by Grand Admiral Thrawn
OLD but funny.


"Yesterday, for instance, the St. Louis Rams beat the Atlanta Falcons, OK, and I go to the London Times site and it's not even there," said Chip Pernadge of Kansas City, Mo. "Jesus, no wonder those guys lost the war and had to give Hong Kong back to Canada."

Posted: 2003-01-20 01:31pm
by jaeger115
ROFL!

Even if I'm American, that's damn funny. Reminds me that we need to get off our asses.

Posted: 2003-01-20 01:52pm
by neoolong
Wait, you mean this isn't true? :shock:

Posted: 2003-01-20 02:03pm
by Faram
neoolong wrote:Wait, you mean this isn't true? :shock:
Relax it is all true!

Posted: 2003-01-20 02:36pm
by DPDarkPrimus
I'm glad I relieved myself before visiting the message board, because otherwise I would have pissed my pants laughing at this! :D

Posted: 2003-01-20 02:55pm
by Dalton
Sounds like one of Azeron's pipe dreams :D

Re: Americans Annyed by Internet

Posted: 2003-01-20 03:13pm
by Dirty Harry
Other respondents said they were appalled, not just by the availability of non-U.S. news, but by the way important U.S. news is reported by some of these foreign sites. "Yesterday, for instance, the St. Louis Rams beat the Atlanta Falcons, OK, and I go to the London Times site and it's not even there," said Chip Pernadge of Kansas City, Mo. "Jesus, no wonder those guys lost the war and had to give Hong Kong back to Canada."
good stuff! :lol: :D :lol: :D