So What, Who Cares (vol 1, issue 58) What Do-si-dos and the digital divide have to do with one another

Hello and welcome to December! This month, you'll see neither gift guides nor "best of 2014" lists in So What, Who Cares? I do reserve the right to round up predictive content, mostly because I want someplace to find it easily again in December 2015 when I see whether anyone managed any magnificent feats of prophecy.

Do I need to reconsider this no-gift-guides-no-best-ofs thing? Tell me via email or Twitter.

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A content heads-up: There are some interesting things being written about Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Giving Tuesday (vol 1, issue 55) but I want to finish out Cyber Monday before trying to figure out WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?

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The Girls Scouts of the U.S.A. announced Digital Cookie, a way for girls to sell Samoas and Tagalongs online. The way it works is that each Girl Scout has her own cookie-selling website -- subject to parental approval -- that's accessible only after she emails an invitation to would-be customers. There's also a mobile app for would-be cookie buyers to find girls who are selling.

The GSUSA spent three years developing the program, and it's meant to give the girls experience in mobile apps, marketing and specific skills like goal setting, decision making, money management, people skills and business ethics.

So what? It has just become a lot easier to buy Thin Mints from your adorable niece who lives a few states away. Depending on your stance toward Thin Mints or nieces, this is a good or bad thing.

Who cares? The GSUSA buy-cookies-online initiative will be adopted on a council-by-council basis -- so, it's available in some regions but not others -- and it is estimated that 1 million scouts will have access to the program. There are approximately 2 million girls enrolled in GSUSA, so that's a 50% access rate. (You can see a list of the councils where Digital Cookie is available here.)

Why is this noteworthy? Because the Girl Scouts have recently devoted a lot of time and attention to the state of girlhood in America and they have not been shy about pointing out inequalities. The organization published the report The state of Girls: Unfinished Business, and noted in a press release:

[P]overty rates among black/African American, Hispanic/Latina, and Native American girls ages 5 to 17 are more than twice that of white and Asian American girls. In the United States today, 21 percent of all girls live in poverty, and the rates are higher for black/African American girls (37 percent), Hispanic/Latina girls (33 percent), and American Indian/Alaska Native girls (34 percent), as compared to white girls (12 percent).

The GSUSA has been very public about trying to meet the shifting needs of 21st century American girls and proactively working with urban, minority and immigrant populations. They're also fighting declining membership -- something GSUSA CEO Anna Maria Chavez explains with societal factors, including increasing financial insecurity from overworked parents who don't have the time to take their kids to meetings, much less volunteer. As the AP reported recently, "If there’s a broad theme to the Girl Scouts’ current outreach efforts, it’s to depict its programs as invaluable in helping girls grow up to be leaders, particularly girls disadvantaged by poverty and racial or ethnic disparities."

Speaking of built-in disadvantages in the 21st century: the digital divide in the U.S. is still present. Although 63% households that make less than $40K annually have broadband, that's still 37% of households -- or more than one in three -- that do not. Uncouple broadband access from income and look at it by ethnicity, and it breaks down thusly: 74% of white households have broadband, 64% of black households have broadband and 53% of Hispanic households have broadband. And let's not forget rural broadband access: Only 63% of rural households have broadband.

This online cookie-selling initiative doesn't point out -- in any capacity -- how the girls disadvantaged by poverty and racial or ethnic disparities are going to be served by a technological tool that requires a lot of parental time for set-up and easy access to a computer.

It could be because the GSUSA wants to sell the story that "We're now selling cookies online! Focus on that!" But this is an organization whose CEO was saying just one year ago, "We can't afford to have separate experiences for girls based on race, ethnicity, and social class." Explaining how to prevent that from happening with the Digital Cookie initiative would be putting one's (cookie) money where one's mouth was.

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Your pop culture note of the day, holiday edition: It's early enough in the month to make book recommendations -- you still have three weekends where you can hide in a closet and read -- and one book that's had increasing resonance for me over the years is Terry Pratchett's Hogfather.

In a nutshell: the perso

nification of Death has to step in and act as a world's Santa Claus analogue, Death's granddaughter Susan Sto Helit has to deal with a minor pantheon as she sets the world to rights, and lessons about the power of imagination as a force for bettering civilization are learned. Or, as the book puts it:

Humans need fantasy to be human. To be the place where the falling angel meets the rising ape.

Anyway, there is a setpiece where Death is endeavoring to understand why he, as the Santa-analogue, cannot give the children what they really want and must instead give them what their parents can afford, and it's both humorous and painful. (Which, in a way, sums up the holidays as a whole sometimes, yes?)

For those of you who don't have the luxury of a closet in which to hide and read, there is a movie adaptation of Hogfather. I can't vouch for it personally but it does feature Michelle Dockery as Susan Sto Helit, and that is a perfect casting choice. If you've seen Hogfather, tell me how it was.

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Your pop culture note of the day, non-holiday edition: As you all may or may not know, I am fortunate enough to participate in podcasts on The Incomparable on the regular. And although I missed the bat signal for the regular podcast dissecting the teaser for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, I was able to ruin it nonethless with my partner in life and crime. There is also some discussion of Twilight and 50 Shades of Gray, so consider yourself duly warned.

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Did you miss an issue of So What, Who Cares? The archive is here.

Also, there is now a topic index that tells you what was in each issue. If you're like, "When did she send out a picture of Brandon Routh snuggling a kitty cat?" -- well, now you can find it. (It was November 11, 2014, btw.)

As always, I welcome your feedback and suggestions via email or Twitter. Always let me know what you think about So What, Who Cares? If you really like it, tell a friend to subscribe.