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Backlash Over Obama Insulting the Precious iPad
By
Jaya Saxena
Published May 11, 2010
Modified May 11, 2010
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By
Jaya Saxena
Published May 11, 2010
Modified May 11, 2010
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Bloggers and techies are booing Obama's commencement speech at Hampton University, where he took shots at the iPad and social media for being a "distraction...rather than a tool of empowerment." The notoriously Blackberry addicted president, who gives his weekly address on YouTube and has his own Facebook page, claimed he didn't know how to use most of the tech toys and warned against blogs perpetuating the "craziest claims." Now, the blogs are revolting.
Blogger Stowe Boyd thinks Obama was avoiding the real issues, writing, "Is he kidding? We have a world in chaos—ecological mess, wars, a wounded economy, unemployment—and he decides to warn college seniors about overuse of shiny mobile devices?" Finance blog The Streets saw a lot of Obama bashing on their message boards, with commenter CedricT saying, "Obama is just another out of touch middle aged man set in his ways too early in life...He needs to be mocked and pitied not used as a role model." The blog says Obama should credit these companies for turning American brands into global icons and facilitating his goal of transparency in government.
Of course, one blogger had the guts to tweet what everybody was already thinking: "Why does Obama hate iPad's and blogs and anything else U get information from? He can't control it!" That or he's just jealous he got on the Blackberry bandwagon before the iPad came out.
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Jaya Saxena
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