Let me begin this article by saying that I do not consider myself a “hacker”, nor do I purport to speak for any group or community. I am writing this based on my own observations and experiences.
In the last several years of following technology news and events, and the emergence of "new media" I've made some observations about the people involved in the movement. I know that these are very much generalizations, and that not everyone fits this mold, but by and large, most people interested in emerging technology and the web seem to be of the upper middle class, usually college educated, and have a certain amount of disposable income to put towards their passion. The people I have met who are not in this category, and save for a very few, tend to be more users of the technology rather than contributors in any way.
There is of course, a number of logical reasons for this.
Those of us with little or no disposable income are less likely to be early adopters of new tech. New technologies tend to have an investment requirement, either in time, resources, or, most commonly, money. I have, myself, been eager to learn about new web services and mobile platforms, but reluctant to invest in them. My time is valuable, and signing up for the newest and greatest social media platform is so often disappointing, since often by the time I've sat down and registered for the service, figured out the interface and seriously begun to use it, the platform is often no longer the 'in' thing. everyone has moved on to something else. In the few cases in which this does not happen, it seems as the platform itself is so time-consuming to use that I soon give up.
Case in point- I've maintained (in the loosest sense of the word) a couple of twitter accounts as well as a Facebook page, and I find that the task of keeping up with so many people shouting their tiniest thoughts out into the Internet to be far too taxing. I can just about manage to follow just a few of my closer friends occasionally, and I don't really find that they have an incredible amount of interest in what I am up to most of the time.
I feel that many of the people I interact with on a daily basis feel the same way.
I do not own a smart phone. Up until recently, I made due with an old Motorola flip-phone on a pre-paid plan. The thing is, I can't afford the expense of a $500 telephone, coupled with a $100/month bill. I'm fascinated by what Google is doing with the open source android platform, but I have yet to justify the expense of getting even one of the cheapest devices. I'm just so much more concerned with being able to pay my electric bill this month. thanks to this, I am stuck with the role of being an outside observer to the mobile revolution in computing.
To the contrary, I was one of the first adopters of Skype in the days when it first launched, and was a free service, as well as Google Voice. I am currently conducting an experiment wherein I am using a dsl connection (gratuitously provided by my landlord and included in my rent) as my sole means of communication. I stopped renewing my cell phone about a month ago. I was pleased to learn that my cell phone provider, who serves up free incoming texts, still forwards text messaages to my otherwise dead cell. I have been able to use my Google voice number as a sort of pager (remember those?) so that any call I receive while afk gets forwarded as a slightly garbled text message to me wherever I am. I use a cheap pre-paid cell to make calls when I travel.
I also do not have cable, which is not a new experiment really. I watch tv online at hulu.com, and occasionally on netflix, when I feel like renewing my account, which is sporadically.
My computers, aside from a 3 year old netbook, are all hand-me-downs, with parts and pieces taken from dumpsters and thrift stores . So far, the Google voice experiment is going well, and at $0 per month falls well within my budget.
I am eager to know if there are others out there in my position- perhaps there is a whole community of working-class hackers I have yet to learn about.
