People Who've Never Been Online Explain the Internet

"OMG! You've never seen the Internet?"

How would you explain the Internet if you've never been online? Justine Sharrock of Buzzfeed asked a handful of inmates from California's San Quentin State Prison who began serving long sentences in prison without ever having been on the 'Net before. Here's what they said:

I have seen the advertisements of both the internet and the apps on the television, but I never paid close attention about their usage. I did not consider their significance.
I was completely in the blind about the purpose. I thought they were just sites for people to socialize and spend their idle time.

- Jorge Heredia, 37; entered prison in 1998

"Sites for people to socialize and spend their idle time" Nailed it! Read the rest over at Buzzfeed.

Hey! They're AWESOME sites for people to socialize and spend their idle time!

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Worked briefly (8 months) as a prison guard in Texas. The younger inmates have a Facebook page that's updated by their friends/family. The older inmates have...really no idea what the internet is or how it works. Both are going to be at at major disadvantage when they're released and expected to find jobs in the real world.

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My mother-in-law has never owned or used a computer, and has only seen them in my kids showing her pictures on their iPods and smart phones. She wouldn't be able to give you an answer as good as any of those prisoners; she's just say "I don't know," and leave it at that.

Actually, I have two MILs, and the one who is liable to see this is NOT the one I'm referring to.

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