In his blog Jeff Jarvis blasts Sen. Ted Stevens about the Senator’s desire to regulate cable TV the same way that broadcast television is regulated.  He then points out that the Senator lumped VOIP into the discussion and rightly argues that the "V" in VOIP stands for voice, which means the Senator is proposing to regulate phone service too.

In making his argument Jarvis writes, "But in all honesty, it’s hard to tell whether he’s targeting the
internet… or whether he’s just an ignorant, confused, old fool."  Harsh.

That got me to thinking, though, about how often I have to explain the new media landscape to relatives and friends, both yound and old.  All of them are very smart, none of them are addled, and I guarantee you that very few of them could tell you what "VOIP", "Blog", of "Wiki" means.

New media is indeed confusing and complex. 

Then I thought, "What would my grandparents make of all this?"  My paternal grandmother is still alive, but my maternal grandparents both passed away in the ’80s.  They would be blown away by all this.

Think about it.  They were born in 1909 and 1913 respectively.  In their lifetimes they experienced the birth and mainstreaming of the radio, telephone, television and even cable.  (Not to mention, automobiles, commercial aircraft and man walking on the moon).

Yet with all of that change they still had time to adjust and acclimate themselves.  They also had limited choice.  There was one option for phone service, one machine to hear radio, two choices for TV and no such thing as the web.

If they were alive today they would be pretty much stuck with one local phone service provider, but of course if they had broadband they could replace it with VOIP.  But their choice of cable or satellite directly impacts the availability of broadband that can support their VOIP needs. Oh, and they’d have to figure out how to get it to work with one of those WiFi things that their great-grandkids have at home. Then when they go out to get that new Buick they’d have to choose between standard radio or one of two satellite radio providers.

That’s just for starters.  The great-grandkids keep asking about something called TiVo, or maybe an alternative DVR.  (What is it with these whipper-snappers and their acronyms?)

And what of this web thing?  Is it the same thing as AOL, or Earthlink or that other thing the Internet?

I’m no fan of Sen. Stevens, but I can definitely understand his confusion.  Unfortunately he’s a very powerful man and as such we need guys like Jarvis keeping tabs on him.