Is the internet the worst thing to happen ever?

[Charlie_Wayne]

I took a city bus into the downtown area yesterday.

It was 8 a.m. and as I looked around, almost every single person (ages 16 to 70) seemed to be fiddling with a smart phone. As I walked towards the back of the bus, I tried to look at several of these phones to see what people were doing.

Care to make a guess what most of them seemed to be doing?

They were playing solitaire.

That just blew my mind. I currently pay close to $50 per month for my phone and for the use of the network. I have never ever used my phone to play solitaire. I couldn’t imagine using my phone to do that. What a waste of a valuable resource. It just blew my mind to see that.

I thought about what someone who was “transported” from the 1970s to the present date would think about everyone on the bus fussing with a smart phone. I wonder what they would have thought these things were.

Finally, I decided that smart phones may well be the worst thing that ever happened. But I just read a recent article about some executive who refuses to own a smart phone and claims to be much happier as a result.

[Gatopescado]

@Living_Well_Is_Best_Revenge

Whoever said it’s the best of times and the worst of times is pretty much spot on.

You can Google that, ya know…

[sunstone]

The value of the Internet depends on how you use it.

When I was teaching, and introduced web research into my classes, the first thing that I did was have a unit that showed students how to evaluate the veracity of the site that they were visiting. Not all sites are equal.

As a research tool, the internet is great. As a social tool it can be useful, but has some drawbacks - especially as it relates to how face to face interactions are downgraded. I expect that some day we may have classes on how to interact with each other face to face.

As a way to keep in contact with others it is great. I can send photo files to my brother on the other side of the world instead of the little blue fold up air mail messages that we sent 40 year ago.

Unfortunately, the depth of thinking (I am thinking of politics) has been greatly diminished by both TV and the internet blogs. However, if a person is willing, fact check can be of great benefit. Of course we all know that it doesn’t make any difference to give “true believers” actual facts.

So, like much in life, it is what you make of it.

[Tibby]

I gave this whole Internet thing a shot once. I found it vile and digusting and have never been back.

I’m a guy who likes to bake, see, and I collect all kinds of baked good recipes (my rude friends call me Freddie Cocker. Personally, I find that name rather offensive). Anyway, there was this one recipe for fudge brownies developed by a couple of girls that I heard mention of, but I didn’t have all the details on. All I remembered was that the ingredients included lots of sugar and a cup of chocolate.

I desperately wanted this recipe. I asked everyone I knew if they if they ever heard of it.

Anyhoo, one day, this woman who does my weekly organic honey-mustard mani-pedi and facial says, “hey, Mr. Tibbs, why not you go on the Internets to find your brownie recipe?”

“The Internets you say, woman? Do tell?”

“Oh, yeah, Master Tibby, you find everyting on da Internets…you just type in key words, and poof, you got your answer!”

I was intrigued. I went home, jury-rigged my Atari 2600 to beam in the Internets, and set about thinking of keywords I could type in to zero in on my desperately wanted brownie recipe. Ok, let’s see…2 girls developed the recipe (were they from South America? I do believe they were), there was one cup of chocolate…frosting the brownies while they were still warm…Okey dokey, I’ve got my key words. Let’s try those and see what squirts out.

Well, let me tell you, what squirted out of the Internets was NOT the recipe I was anticipating, and most certainly not the type of thing I would serve to my kids, or my nanna…or even the Queen of England!

You barbarians can keep your Internet. I’m remaining analog from here on out.

[John_Mace]

Writing. That was the worst thing. Used to be you had to talk to people to exchange information. Then writing came along, and all human contact ceased. People could write things down instead of talking to people. Or you just read stuff in books. Writing was the beginning of the end.

[Shagnasty]

@Tibby or Not Tibby

Anyhoo, one day, this woman who does my weekly organic honey-mustard mani-pedi and facial says, “hey, Mr. Tibbs, why not you go on the Internets to find your brownie recipe?”

“The Internets you say, woman? Do tell?”

“Oh, yeah, Master Tibby, you find everyting on da Internets…you just type in key words, and poof, you got your answer!”

I hear you. I once saw an interview with a coal miner on TV that was quite captivating but I couldn’t remember many of the specific details except that he was Mexican American and had a last name that started with ‘S’ (Sanchez IIRC). He was also wearing his work clothes and looked just as unkempt as an coal miner would. I went to the library and asked the librarian to show me how to type in a search for videos of people named Sanchez that were very dirty or filthy. We were appalled at the results. I left immediately and never used the internet again and don’t intend to.

[swampspruce]

Shocking! I cannot bring myself to tell you what happened when I tried to find a variation of a Earl Grey tea drink with steamed milk that was supposedly invented in a large town in Ohio…

[Siam_Sam]

@msmith537

Ok, obviously not the “worst” thing ever. But still not that great.

Here’s what I mean.

Growing up in the 70s and 80s, we obviously didn’t have email or the internet in any meaningful way. It wasn’t until the mid 90s did I start using the internet for home and work. At first it seemed kind of cool. But 20 years later, I’m not so sure.
Looking for a job/hiring someone is a mind-numbingly tedious process of weeding through mountains of spam and bullshit.

While convenient for consumers, industry disrupting apps have further exacerbated wealth inequality by turning millions of employees into contractors.

There is little distinction between actual news, advertising and some idiot posting horse shit in his parents basement as they all target the same demographic.

It has turned dating into a series of algorithms and “swipes”.

You can’t just see a movie. You have to endure months of trying to ignore spoiler-ridden articles dissecting every frame of every trailer.

It has blurred the lines between work and home such that work can now always intrude on your personal life.

There is no longer “in the past”. While you are not required to maintain an online personal or professional presence, more and more it’s becoming a bit weird if you don’t have one.

It’s difficult to not be subjected to a constant barrage of racist, homophobic, xenophobic and otherwise crazy tirades.

100 years ago, similar remarks were being made about the telephone. A few years later, it was radio. Then TV. There’s always something screwing up the world and preventing younger people from having as rich a youth as we had.

[Tibby]

@Siam_Sam

100 years ago, similar remarks were being made about the telephone. A few years later, it was radio. Then TV. There’s always something screwing up the world and preventing younger people from having as rich a youth as we had.

Oh, the problem goes back a bit further than that.

Fire

Life was good before we dicovered fire. We ate our meat tartare, as nature intended. We kept warm with friction, lots of friction…or sometimes by peeing on eachother.

Sure, there was the occasional frozen corpse to contend with…but, I’d rather raise one of those stiffs than a mollycoddled brat with an iPhone.

[RickJay]

@msmith537

Looking for a job/hiring someone is a mind-numbingly tedious process of weeding through mountains of spam and bullshit.

How was this process at all wonderful prior to the Internet when you had to wade through paper applications?

While convenient for consumers, industry disrupting apps have further exacerbated wealth inequality by turning millions of employees into contractors.

Cite that apps have turned “millions” of employees into contractors?

It has turned dating into a series of algorithms and “swipes”.

I gave up at this point. This is Grandpa Simpson stuff. “You kids and your swipes! In my day we got drunk at the bar and woke up with crabs, the way God wanted it!”

[MichaelEmouse]

@RickJay

How was this process at all wonderful prior to the Internet when you had to wade through paper applications?
Cite that apps have turned “millions” of employees into contractors?
I gave up at this point. This is Grandpa Simpson stuff. “You kids and your swipes! In my day we got drunk at the bar and woke up with crabs, the way God wanted it!”

Yeah, OP sounds like someone who is disappointed in his own life and projecting that onto the present period.
msmith, you’re getting middle-aged, right? Have you been having thoughts of getting a sportscar or a mistress lately?

[Siam_Sam]

@MichaelEmouse

msmith, you’re getting middle-aged, right? Have you been having thoughts of getting a sportscar or a mistress lately?

Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

[msmith537]

@RickJay

I gave up at this point. This is Grandpa Simpson stuff. “You kids and your swipes! In my day we got drunk at the bar and woke up with crabs, the way God wanted it!”

@MichaelEmouse

Yeah, OP sounds like someone who is disappointed in his own life and projecting that onto the present period.

Guess I was wrong about the internet. No jerks here.

[Drunky_Smurf]

The internet is the worstest ever because it turns nice polite people into jerks. Like Jerkyl and Hyde. See the cruelness being shown to friend msmith537. I wish the sysadmin would just turn off the internet. We’d all be better off.

[WordMan]

Apropos to this thread, I just heard a bit on NPR about the power of Virtual Reality as part of pain management. I suspect we have all heard this: by putting a burn patient in an immersive VR projection into an icy situation, with a game aspect to it, they can be refocused away from the pain of their burn treatments. An amazing approach with huge value.

To me, this summarizes the Benefits and the Risks of the online experience. It can be so helpful and immersive, with obvious near-term value, that we want embrace it. And at the same time it offers the risk of being so immersive you can disappear into it.

[Lukeinva]

The internet is awesome, case in point: IN the 80’s there wasn’t a forum like we have here.

However, ads, pop-ups, unasked for videos, spam, etc etc… all that sucks out loud.

[swampspruce]

Helpful link for those of you in the doldrums of internetdom.

[Sam_Lowry]

@sunstone

Unfortunately, the depth of thinking (I am thinking of politics) has been greatly diminished by both TV and the internet blogs. However, if a person is willing, fact check can be of great benefit. Of course we all know that it doesn’t make any difference to give “true believers” actual facts.

Honest question, was the depth of thinking greater before the internet regarding politics? I would think that there are possibly more misinformed people now, and those people can be louder with their misinformation, but I don’t know if everyone back then was much more informed about politics and gave it more thinking. People did get newspapers and read full articles about political races, but a lot of people back then would get those newspapers and just read the sports and comics and whatever else instead.

I would be interested to see this compared through the years, but I wouldn’t know how exactly you would measure it.

[Siam_Sam]

@Sam_Lowry

Honest question, was the depth of thinking greater before the internet regarding politics? I would think that there are possibly more misinformed people now, and those people can be louder with their misinformation, but I don’t know if everyone back then was much more informed about politics and gave it more thinking. People did get newspapers and read full articles about political races, but a lot of people back then would get those newspapers and just read the sports and comics and whatever else instead.

I would be interested to see this compared through the years, but I wouldn’t know how exactly you would measure it.

I recall reading a comparison between the 19th century and modern day. Modern day did not come off in a good light. For example, accounts of the Lincoln-Douglas debates were followed religiously by many, many voters.

[TonySinclair]

@Sam_Lowry

Honest question, was the depth of thinking greater before the internet regarding politics? I would think that there are possibly more misinformed people now, and those people can be louder with their misinformation

Yeah, that’s one of the bad things about the internet – it makes crazy people think they’re normal.

50 years ago, a left/right wingnut would spout stupid opinions at work, and everybody else would tell him he’s crazy, and with any luck, he’d start wondering if he was crazy, and at least tone it down.

Today, no matter how crazy you are, you can find a chatroom or website that caters to your views, and makes you feel like it’s the sheeple at work who are too dumb to see what’s going on.