# Ron Jeremy hates the net **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 13, 2010, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ron-jeremy-hates-the-net/524786 "2010-01-13T15:34:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ron-jeremy-hates-the-net/524786/21 "2010-01-14T06:31:21Z")
The Internet didn’t _make_ people stupid; they were already stupid. The Internet just brings it out more. ---
**Author:** ![ZebraShaSha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/eada6e/32.png) [@ZebraShaSha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZebraShaSha)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ron-jeremy-hates-the-net/524786/22 "2010-01-14T06:32:52Z")
I’ve always been partial to this article: [Is Google Making Us Stupid?](http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/google) It lays the claim that, as has happened throughout humanity with every great transformation of how we access information (writing, the printing press, the internet) the way we view intelligence shifts with the new innovation. With writing, > [@](#): > > In Plato’s Phaedrus, Socrates bemoaned the development of writing. He feared that, as people came to rely on the written word as a substitute for the knowledge they used to carry inside their heads, they would, in the words of one of the dialogue’s characters, “cease to exercise their memory and become forgetful.” And because they would be able to “receive a quantity of information without proper instruction,” they would “be thought very knowledgeable when they are for the most part quite ignorant.” With the printing press, > [@](#): > > The Italian humanist Hieronimo Squarciafico worried that the easy availability of books would lead to intellectual laziness, making men “less studious” and weakening their minds. Others argued that cheaply printed books and broadsheets would undermine religious authority, demean the work of scholars and scribes, and spread sedition and debauchery. Which leads us to now and the complaints of Ron Jeremy. What’s funny is that this article is something I read over a year ago and, although I forgot most of the content, I remembered the general thesis and how to access it online - which proves _somebodies_ point. ---
**Author:** ![My\_Darn\_Snake\_Legs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f14d63/32.png) [@My\_Darn\_Snake\_Legs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/My_Darn_Snake_Legs)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ron-jeremy-hates-the-net/524786/23 "2010-01-14T07:46:12Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > You know, I saw Ron Jeremy once suck himself off in some video. So, he must be right. QED. ---
**Author:** ![dnooman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/839c29/32.png) [@dnooman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dnooman)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 8:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ron-jeremy-hates-the-net/524786/24 "2010-01-14T08:36:30Z")
The internet creates adept users, and provides information. Teaching, should, teach people how to think, not how to Google. Give an 8 year old a calculator, and another a lesson is math, and which one ends up with better cognitive skills? Reading information, from any source, and putting it to memory, has a least some value. A c/p from an online source is devoid of meaning, if no information is retained. A generation of web searchers will not be a generation of “thinkers” because all of the thought is put into the search itself, not the actual content. What happens when and if the “Internet” goes down? A transcontinental cable left parts of India (IIRC) without internet for days. I’ve read that if the “Internet” went down completely, that thousands of people would die, and people would die on a daily basis, due to our need for online data. A massive scale DOS attack could do more damage than a hundred well placed bombs. I’ve learned a LOT from online sources, but I also have a collection of knowledge that I learned first hand, not though a monitor. Data is great, but without the real world knowledge of its application, can be useless. ---
**Author:** ![Walker\_in\_Eternity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/46a35a/32.png) [@Walker\_in\_Eternity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walker_in_Eternity)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ron-jeremy-hates-the-net/524786/25 "2010-01-14T10:11:30Z")
> [@Mindfield](#): > > T… > Many teachers are taking the easy way out of doing actual teaching by telling students to go find X on the 'net and write about it, or learn about it preparatory to a test that will follow. That’s all fine and well, but it leaves the students the option to take the unsupervised path of least resistance by finding the most condensed, bottom-lined version of it and hoping it’s enough to get them by. > > That isn’t to say all teachers do this, nor that all students try and Cliff Notes their way through it, but that it happens at all without a fairly well regimented lesson plan with specific methods the student can use to carry out their assignment, it makes for some pretty sloppy education. > > I suppose the bottom line is that it isn’t so much that the Internet is making people stupid, but that it’s making many teachers forget how to teach. Very true, your description is exactly what my daughter does, she writes the bare minimum to satisfy the requirements and doesn’t add any personal thoughts/opinions or knowledege to that. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ron-jeremy-hates-the-net/524786/26 "2010-01-14T10:18:00Z")
> [@Rafe\_Hollister](#): > > On a related note, the spelling ability of our students has become nullified by spell check. At a conference of us parents with the elementary school teachers a few years ago, they admitted as much. I mentioned that my son’s grammar, spelling, and punctuation were routinely overlooked by his teacher and questioned why such gross basic violations were allowed to stand. “Spellcheck & grammarcheck” Oh. Nice. Assuming that people will use spellcheck and grammarcheck? OK. Let’s! In that case, when they present a paper which hasn’t been checked, you take points off for not checking it. [del]Assuming that people will have computers?[/del]Making sure every student who hasn’t sold the computer he got with his first year’s tuition has a computer? OK. Let’s! But then, when they’re told to present an essay typed, justified and double-spaced, you don’t accept them handwritten, you don’t accept them left-aligned and you don’t accept them single-spaced. Re. personal thoughts: I’m currently in an MSc program; I’m awaiting the results on the first semester’s essays, but apparenly expressing your opinion on anything is a big no-no. You’re supposed to only report other people’s opinions. Being able to report other people’s opinions demonstrates critical thought… and having your own doesn’t? Stop the world, I’m getting off! ---
**Author:** ![Walker\_in\_Eternity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/46a35a/32.png) [@Walker\_in\_Eternity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walker_in_Eternity)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 10:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ron-jeremy-hates-the-net/524786/27 "2010-01-14T10:20:07Z")
> [@D\_Odds](#): > > In school, well before the internet, I was never taught how to distinguish sources. Sure, if my research turned up an article for the Midnight Globe\*, I knew better than to take it seriously. However, outside the “name” newspapers (NY Times, etc), one cite was as good as the next. I can’t blame the internet for not teaching children and young adults of how to critically assess their sources - in my narrow experience, it was never taught. I agree that you don’t really learn to properly distinguish sources until you attend university and not always even then. I think the problem occurs because of a lack of critical thinking, which I did learn at school. Because they don’t know any better they believe whatever they read on the internet, maybe because of a lack of basic science (for example) knowledge they then go on to believe in ID or cold fusion or any one of a million other false “scientific ideas”. I had a friend who, even though he was university educated, basically believed the last thing he read to be true, so you could give him the Torah one day and Mein Kampf the next and his opinion would change accordingly (extreme example I know). I think the internet feeds into this kind of mentallity (I’m not saying he was produced by this as we worked together pre internet). I still think the pros outweigh the cons here, as a grad student I can’t imagine going to the library to photocopy journal articles when I can just download them and sort out the good from the bad at my leisure. Plus as others have said the intenet allows us to communicate with people all over the world. I’m in the UK and by using the dope have gained new insight into other cultures and ideas than those I am familiar with. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Call\_Me\_Shirley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Don\_t\_Call\_Me\_Shirley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Call_Me_Shirley)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ron-jeremy-hates-the-net/524786/28 "2010-01-14T15:58:58Z")
When I was in high school I had a math teacher insist upon making us learn how to figure square roots without a calculator. He said we might not always have a calculator handy when we needed to find a square root. Thing is, I always have a calculator handy. In my office right now, I have a calculator on my computer, a 99 cent calculator sitting right next to it, and a calculator on my phone. I am literally never more than an arm’s reach from a calculator. That’s how the internet is going to be for these kids. So, instead of forcing them to do it the old way, researching from an encyclopedia or whatever the hell Ron Jeremy thinks they should do, we should be teaching them how to use the internet properly as a research tool. Teach kids to live in the world that will exist when they are adults, not the world that existed when Ron Jeremy was a kid. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ron-jeremy-hates-the-net/524786/29 "2010-01-14T21:41:52Z")
I heard Ron Jeremy claimed to have done all his own stunts, but I didn’t know he worked **without a net!** 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ron-jeremy-hates-the-net/524786/30 "2010-01-15T00:01:20Z")
> [@Don\_t\_Call\_Me\_Shirley](#): > > When I was in high school I had a math teacher insist upon making us learn how to figure square roots without a calculator. He said we might not always have a calculator handy when we needed to find a square root. Thing is, I always have a calculator handy. In my office right now, I have a calculator on my computer, a 99 cent calculator sitting right next to it, and a calculator on my phone. I am literally never more than an arm’s reach from a calculator. > > That’s how the internet is going to be for these kids. So, instead of forcing them to do it the old way, researching from an encyclopedia or whatever the hell Ron Jeremy thinks they should do, we should be teaching them how to use the internet properly as a research tool. Teach kids to live in the world that will exist when they are adults, not the world that existed when Ron Jeremy was a kid. You honestly believe everything that’s in print will eventually be online? 'Cause I got a TON of microfilm that calls you a liar. And four people using it right this minute. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ron-jeremy-hates-the-net/524786/31 "2010-01-15T00:09:50Z")
> [@AskNott](#): > > I heard Ron Jeremy claimed to have done all his own stunts and many of them were quite cunning, too. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ron-jeremy-hates-the-net/524786/32 "2010-01-15T03:21:48Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > You know, I saw Ron Jeremy once suck himself off in some video. Man, those were the golden years of MTV. ---
**Author:** ![Cerowyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/82dd89/32.png) [@Cerowyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerowyn)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ron-jeremy-hates-the-net/524786/33 "2010-01-15T07:24:24Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > You honestly believe everything that’s in print will eventually be online? 'Cause I got a TON of microfilm that calls you a liar. And four people using it right this minute. Are you seriously suggesting that material valuable enough to be microfilmed will never be digitized? Or are you saying that it will never be freely available to the general public? ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ron-jeremy-hates-the-net/524786/34 "2010-01-15T14:11:03Z")
> [@Cerowyn](#): > > Are you seriously suggesting that material valuable enough to be microfilmed will never be digitized? Or are you saying that it will never be freely available to the general public? It definitely won’t be free for the general public, of course. And I think you’re seriously underestimating how much stuff is out there - if there’s a small enough audience (smaller newspapers, etc.) then there’s no money in digitization. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ron-jeremy-hates-the-net/524786/35 "2010-01-15T17:23:06Z")
How can he hate the net when he’s probably personally responsible for half the things on here? ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ron-jeremy-hates-the-net/524786/36 "2010-01-15T18:05:24Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > and many of them were quite cunning, too. Holy crap! I’m at work here ya know!!! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![flickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7bcc69/32.png) [@flickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flickster)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ron-jeremy-hates-the-net/524786/37 "2010-01-15T18:35:51Z")
I would think Jeremy’s overall displeasure with the internet is that it provides free access to better quality performances than the public used to pay him for viewing privileges at theaters & video outlets. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2010, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ron-jeremy-hates-the-net/524786/38 "2010-01-16T01:31:07Z")
> [@Don\_t\_Call\_Me\_Shirley](#): > > When I was in high school I had a math teacher insist upon making us learn how to figure square roots without a calculator. He said we might not always have a calculator handy when we needed to find a square root. Thing is, I always have a calculator handy. In my office right now, I have a calculator on my computer, a 99 cent calculator sitting right next to it, and a calculator on my phone. I am literally never more than an arm’s reach from a calculator. Corollary : my college US Civ. professor told us that we could bring any book, text or document we wished to the exam, including notes taken in class, the material he handed us himself etc… I was stunned and figured it would be a total piece of cake. Come the mock exam week, US Civ. was one of those courses that really took a back seat when it came to cramming - I didn’t work it at all, merely selecting a towering pile of documentation to bring. I didn’t even bother reading most of the books, I could do that during the exam, right ? Boy did I tank that mock. Which I guess was the point. Come the real exam, I didn’t do much _more_ work : I simply got myself a rough picture, and more importantly learned how the information was organized in the fewer books I brought with me. I read them, but I certainly didn’t memorize them by heart. I rocked the exam. Similarly, while my high school physics and math teachers all insisted we beothians learn each and every formula and theorem by heart, I quickly discovered that in higher education, every exam either offered a “cheat sheet” of every formula needed for the problems, or allowed students to store them in their calculators. Because knowing the actual formulas isn’t actually important to understanding physics or solving problems, only knowing how and when you’re supposed to use them. So, I concur with the Feynman quote upthread : what’s the worth of learning everything by heart ? You only need learn where and how to look up anything should you ever need to, and how to process that information to suit whatever your ultimate purpose is (whether it’s passing an exam, better understanding a book or a news story, doing your job or pwning someone in GD). What information you really need in your daily life or job, you’ll naturally commit to memory by simple virtue of using it anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2010, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ron-jeremy-hates-the-net/524786/39 "2010-01-16T12:59:28Z")
> [@Rigamarole](#): > > The Internet didn’t _make_ people stupid; they were already stupid. The Internet just brings it out more. Just what I was thinking. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2010, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ron-jeremy-hates-the-net/524786/40 "2010-01-16T15:06:28Z")
> [@flickster](#): > > I would think Jeremy’s overall displeasure with the internet is that it provides free access to better quality performances than the public used to pay him for viewing privileges at theaters & video outlets. Yeah, and now the semen crusting the walls and floor is all my own! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ron-jeremy-hates-the-net/524786.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ron-jeremy-hates-the-net/524786.md?page=3)