(WSJ) Like most San Franciscans, Charles Pitts is wired. Mr. Pitts, who is 37 years old, has accounts on Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. He runs an Internet forum on Yahoo, reads news online and keeps in touch with friends via email. The tough part is managing this digital lifestyle from his residence under a highway bridge.
“You don’t need a TV. You don’t need a radio. You don’t even need a newspaper,” says Mr. Pitts, an aspiring poet in a purple cap and yellow fleece jacket, who says he has been homeless for two years. “But you need the Internet.”
Mr. Pitts’s experience shows how deeply computers and the Internet have permeated society. A few years ago, some people were worrying that a “digital divide” would separate technology haves and have-nots. The poorest lack the means to buy computers and Web access. Still, in America today, even people without street addresses feel compelled to have Internet addresses.
New York City has put 42 computers in five of the nine shelters it operates and plans to wire the other four this year. Roughly half of another 190 shelters in the city offer computer access. Cheap computers and free Internet access fuel the phenomenon. So does an increasingly computer-savvy population. Many job and housing applications must be submitted online. Some homeless advocates say the economic downturn is pushing more of the wired middle class on to the streets.
(source)
Homeless people across America are now utilizing the Internet and social networking to stay connected to society. Many are using social networking sites such as Facebook, Myspace and Twitter to keep in contact with family, friends and even former co-workers.
Many are also using it for job searches, to network with individuals on possible leads for job opportunities and to to fill out applications to find housing. Many people believe that because they are now homeless their life is over especially socially, being homeless is very embarrassing to most but in this economy it is an everyday occurrence, Mr. Pitts says, “I thought: My existence and my life don’t stop because I don’t have a place to live.”
I couldn’t have said it any better, Mr. Pitts statement speaks volumes just because your homeless doesn’t mean that you cannot continue your everyday rituals and I social networking via online social networks gives individuals the opportunity who may be embarrassed by their situation the ability to continue to network with individuals they may not want to know they are homeless.
If this example doesn’t show businesses or anyone that they should be utilizing the internet for its unlimited resources I don’t know what will. Social Networking is the wave of the future and is evolving everyday into something bigger and better than ever.
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