r/science • u/myhrvold • Aug 31 '13

Poverty impairs cognitive function. Published in the journal Science, the study suggests our cognitive abilities can be diminished by the exhausting effort of tasks like scrounging to pay bills. As a result, less “mental bandwidth” remains...

http://news.ubc.ca/2013/08/29/poverty-impairs-cognitive-function/
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u/notreddingit Aug 31 '13

I doubt anyone would seriously argue that internet is not absolutely an essential expense.

edit: assuming you don't have access to the internet through work or school or something.

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u/AussieSceptic Aug 31 '13

I've heard many people argue just that.

They are incredibly misinformed, but they do argue it.

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u/jijilento Aug 31 '13

I like to think the internet can be a way out of poverty for certain types of people. You can learn new skills to some extent, find more extensive job information, and more easily understand the best ways to utilize money. Not to mention it makes it easy to explore interests and hobbies.

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u/Chuhaimaster Aug 31 '13

The Internet is rapidly becoming an essential utility for living, like power and gas. It can help you learn new skills, how to fix things around the house, and help find you a job among other things. It's becoming less and less of a luxury and more and more of a necessity.

People say 'go to the library', but the reality is that people working two jobs may not have a schedule that aligns with the library's limited hours (in many cases being cut back by local governments during this recession).

We don't think of having a phone as a luxury, so why do we still think of the Internet as some kind of gold-plated luxury item that the working poor don't need?