Article fifty tells the tale of how two political scientists at Stanford gathered the most perfect sample of Americans in the history of polling and persuaded Americans to answer survey after survey each week for many years in order to get a true idea of American opinions. .
The author follows an eighty-year-old woman named Marion Frost who is helping to answer the pollsters questions each week. The readers get to see how each week, an elderly woman with a free web TV answers surveys regarding simple subjects like juice and more complex surveys regarding a political debate between Bush and Gore. However, intriguing this might appear or ingenious, it becomes quite apparent that the future of America may lie in the Internet. .
The question arises if the Internet will take the power away from politicians and give it to the people. With Americans given the ability to voice their wants and needs, things might be changing not only when it comes to democracy, but the relationship between producers and consumers too. There is only one problem to this consumer dream and that is that only half of the U.S. population is using the Internet. Unfortunately, that means that half of the United States is unaccounted for. .
Overall, I felt that this article was interesting and showed how technology is on the rise in our country. However, it reminded me a great deal of the movie Batman Forever. In that movie, people had a special box in their home that sucked out their brain waves. Although that is very unrealistic and will never happen in real life, the idea of having a web TV in your home does have its parallels because consumers are getting to take a look in your mind and know what you are thinking.
