Shamelessly piggybacking on this thread, I wonder what you dislike about using the internet? I think we can take ‘a very easy way to waste time better spent on being outdoors/working/sleeping’ as read since that’s guaranteed to be a popular choice.
How about:
1.The occasional misconception that internet users are in the majority, or are somehow special. Internet users do not necessarily represent the wider public on every issue, but on some other boards you’d think they did.
2.The ease with which communication can be misinterpreted and arguments can start.
The idea that because it can be done on the internet, it should be done on the internet. I’m still at a loss as to why some people I know will dial-up at home and search for movie times or bank balances online instead of just telephoning the cinema or bank.
It provides too much temptation for would-be plagiarists. Back in the old days, if you wanted to copy an essay, you’d have to search for something suitable in the library and then re-type it; nowadays, students can just cut and paste.
Even the honest students have trouble thinking critically about Internet sources – it’s too easy to take the first link that pops up on a Google search as gospel.
Nobody seems capable of citing a web page correctly in a bibliography, no matter how many times I go over the format in class.
Spammers, scammers and other low-lifes that have always existed but who have found in the Internet a powerful and virtually cost free (for them at least) method of hawking their dubious products.
The ease by which viruses can spread - the way a “script kiddie” can cause billions of dollars of disruption to businesses and users worldwide.
The bloated hyperbole of the “suits” at the dot-com companies, who said things like “Our product will leverage your resources into the 21st century by exploiting cross-platform heterogenous components” and other such meaningless drivel.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the Internet (and owe my livelihood to it!) - just following the thread title.
Ditto on the unreliability of information.
Ditto on the new ease of plagiarism.
2 more things:
I’m tired of those annoying Pop-up advertisments. Do they really work?
Sometimes I worry that people are becoming more comfortable communicating and interacting with others through a computer screen and a keyboard than with face to face communication and contact.
I value the Internet and wouldn’t know what to do without it sometimes, but I often wonder whether it actually isolates people rather than bringing people together
Wow… No offence meant, but have you ever tried it? Moviefone.com or movietickets.com or whatever, are waaay easier to use than:
a) calling every theater in town to see if they have the movie you want, then sitting through 100 showtimes for all the movies you DON’T want to see before they get to the one you do want.
or
b) calling 777-film, and sitting through ads, then having to “press 1, press 2, etc.”
Just hop on the web, click click click. Done.
Ditto for the Bank. I do use my bank automated phone system a lot, because I can’t get to their website from behind my work firewall, but the website is much easier and faster. No arcane touchtone menu, and I can look at a whole bunch of checks/deposits at once rather than listening to ms. phone-voice read them all at her glacial pace.
Basically, the answer is: The interface. A monitor and mouse, while not perfect, are much better at conveying information than voice and a 12-key keypad.
Things I hate about the net:
Popup ads
the idea that anonymity=freedom from ethical responsibility
That’s not a drawback of the internet, that’s a drawback of using Microsoft stuff everywhere. If half the computing population used a non-Microsoft email client, these viruses would take much longer to spread everywhere. And if they used a non-MS operating system, they’d be safe from those script kiddies.
Anyway, to address the OP, I’d say spammers are the #1 on my hate list. Yes, I know you can reach three million people at once for nearly nothing, but that doesn’t mean it’s something you should do.
My other dislike about the internet is that it makes it easy for people to fake sincerity. This is a problem that I see fairly often in chat rooms and MUSH-type environments; people get into “cyber relationships” because the relationship is text-only; without the cues from facial expressions, vocal tone, and body language, a person ends up filling in details about his/her SO from the imagination. That makes it easy for an unscrupulous person to fake interest/desire/friendship with someone else, and later exploit that.
Maybe this problem will be alleviated once we get enough broadband and webcams everywhere, but for now, that’s the situation as I see it.
I hate when website owners don’t update their sites. I’ve been to sites that haven’t been updated in years. Why don’t the owners just delete them off the server?
I hate when people attempt to get into lengthy IM conversations. If it’s longer than two or three exchanges, then pick up the phone and call me.
I hate the bored people on other message boards, that for some reason which I will never truly comprehend, decided to single me out beyond so many others and do everything they can to belittle my work and make me feel like complete and utter crap.
Anything that makes noise that doesnt ask me first or I didnt initiate.
People blaming a company because of skript kiddies.
Skript kiddies.
Pop-ups of course.
1331 typing
Cheaters in online games.
dead0man
Yep, I actually use online banking all the time. If all I want is a balance, though, I dial one number, type in my account number and two PIN code digits, then press one key and I get a balance. Faster than dialing up (for me, on a 56k, anyway). Same with movie tickets.
I’m not against using the internet for banking and tickets, but against people who refuse to acknowledge that the internet isn’t necessarily the best medium for every task.
Intellectual little kids that can mouth off or say things to you with impunity that IRL would get them backhanded across the street.
Cyberstalkers.
Identity theft.
Lack of legal accountability. If some enormous shithead in another State or Country wants to threaten me, I want a quick legal remedy to make them pay - and pay big.
The banking/movie times thing struck me as severely weird.
First off, though, I have a cable modem… so my computer is always online. Second, I have a bookmark that takes me directly to the showtimes near me. So all I have to do is “click” and then I can see every movie that is playing near me and what time it is playing. How is that not better than calling each theater or having to buy a newspaper?
Bank is the same deal… click, enter the first two letters or so then auto-fill does the rest, click a button and poof. My balance, recent transactions, etc. All faster than I could have dialed the phone.
Things I hate:
Spam.
Spam.
Popups.
Spam.
Rude people with no sense of personal acountability
Spam.
This is it for me, too. People can be insulting, rude, whatever, with no accountability.
Jerks can behave this way and never have to look the subject of their abuse in the eye.
