Monday, May 10, 2010

Obama 'disses the iPad' in college commencement speech

The President's address focused on the disparity in academic achievement between white students and black students



President Barack Obama gave the commencement speech at Hampton University on Sunday. In doing so, he talked extensively on how the African American students can contribute to efforts to close the historical racial gap within academic results.
In the main, this talk was fairly mundane and did not initially receive much attention.

One remark, however, was not so ordinary or unnoticed: the President 'dissed' the iPad.

In the words of Gawker:

But who cares about all that, besides people invested in making the world a more just and equal place (losers)? Barack Obama mentioned the iPad. The only way Google's top search terms could get closer together would be if Justin Beiber went on American Idol with Naked Pictures of Lady Gaga.

But more importantly, in the words of the President, himself:

"Meanwhile, you're coming of age in a 24/7 media environment that bombards us with all kinds of content and exposes us to all kinds of arguments, some of which don't rank all that high on the truth meter. With iPods and iPads; Xboxes and PlayStations; information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment. All of this is not only putting new pressures on you; it is putting new pressures on our country and on our democracy."

Although you may look at this and question the validity of the claim that Obama was 'dissing the iPad' as Gawker did in this report, you cannot deny that he may very well have a point.
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