Media Meditation #02: “Pass the driver's license test” or “Another app for my Ipod”

Stupid drivers around the world:

I'm from Germany and have a German driver's license. Now I have to get a Vermont driver's license to drive in the USA legally. So I started to look for practice tests on the Internet... nothing. I asked my organization... nothing, they asked the DMV... nothing. Nowhere were practice tests for me.

(My German driver's license)

Then I finally found something. A few weeks ago I bought my first Ipod Touch and downloaded some apps. By chance I found an application from the DMV with test-questions. This app cost me about 2 or 3 dollars. The aesthetic shift, from discrete to convergence, is accomplished. This shows us again how powerful and important technology has become. I think it's an impudence that I have to have an Ipod or an Iphone to practice for a test. That means that this information isn't accessible to everybody and this is the opposite of what the Internet and technology wanted to build. But unfortunately “Even as the Internet matures and becomes more accessible, wealthy users are still able to buy higher levels of privacy, specialty access, and capability than other users” (MEDIA & CULTURE, p. 66). Richer and more educated people have more opportunities than less educated and not so wealthy people. It has always been like that and it won't change ever; until everyone has the same chance of education and equality.