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Would the world be better without the Internet?

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by Versatile, Dec 15, 2012.

  1. Batman

    Batman Well-Known Member

    Or free, easily accessible porn.
     
  2. dooley_womack1

    dooley_womack1 Well-Known Member

    I didn't think that needed to be said.
     
  3. dooley_womack1

    dooley_womack1 Well-Known Member

    Oh, and why is this being asked? Is 21 being given the keys to the whole thing?
     
  4. jlee

    jlee Well-Known Member

    I get what you're saying, but I don't think there's a substantial difference in the portion of people who are misinformed, devious or ignorant. "Mein Kampf" wasn't a blog post or RTed.

    The volume of misinformation has increased, but accurate info and the debunking of otherwise-believable misinformation seems to have risen proportionally.
     
  5. J-School Blue

    J-School Blue Member

    My only real concern about any "harm" the Internet might be doing to society is the erosion of privacy and, maybe even more, the erosion of the idea that privacy is important and that it's actually not OK to track every human being on the planet at all times.

    The rest of it, it's easier to get over-saturated with bullshit than it was before, but it's also made quality stuff more widely available. There's also a whole element of social change going on in societies far more censored than anything most Americans have ever dealt with, and it's being largely driven by the Internet. As much as I personally find Twitter irritating as hell and have never managed to mine any personal value out of the damn thing, I recognize that, in cases like bits of the Arab Spring, it's allowed important communication of ideas that would've been squashed in other mediums far more easily.
     
  6. Frank_Ridgeway

    Frank_Ridgeway Well-Known Member

    My days off seemed longer before. But then they might be shorter now not because I am spending time online but because I am older, fatter and married and two days aren't enough rest.
     
  7. Gold

    Gold Active Member

    Absolutely not. My family is spread across the country, and my daughters are able to stay in touch with their cousins in a way that would be more limited without the internet.
     
  8. Lugnuts

    Lugnuts Well-Known Member

    Love ya to bits, Verse, but this is one of the most moot discussions we've ever had. I mean, this isn't just the toothpaste out of the tube, it's the hand lotion out of the pump, and the shaving cream out of the... um... shaving cream thingy, and the soap off the bar all rolled into one.

    It's here, it's done. Use it to your advantage.

    Hey - at least you got us out of it.
     
  9. Versatile

    Versatile Active Member

    I guess part of the reason I started this thread is because of my age. By the time I was in high school, we had dial-up Internet (Compuserve, first, as it were) at home. I see people longing for the good ol' days and wonder how differently the world I know is to what some of you folk have. I think children, maybe anyone 15 and under, have an even more deeply ingrained connection to technology.

    Maybe this example is specific to me, but my mom says she needs to use the computer to check her e-mail. I just say I need to use the computer. There's a subtle difference there. I imagine kids look things up on their phone and don't think about it as looking things up on a phone, just looking things up.
     
  10. DanOregon

    DanOregon Well-Known Member

    Since it is going "poof" as opposed to never existed...

    yeah - it would be worse. Hell, the economic impact alone would be devastating.
     
  11. I Should Coco

    I Should Coco Well-Known Member

    For some reason, I think I'm someone Vers believes would argue "better without the Internet," due to my luddite posting history and vast collection of decrepit analog objects ...

    I won't. The Internet has brought more people greater access to information than any other invention in my lifetime. Overall, that's a good thing.

    HOWEVER, I would strongly argue that too much time obsessing over Facebook, our gadgets and other Internet-related items can cause us to miss out on the pleasures of the real world if we're not careful.

    Now that I've said that ... time to log out and shovel the driveway! :)
     
  12. SpeedTchr

    SpeedTchr Well-Known Member

    As much as I use it and make a living off of it, I would be perfectly happy to see it all go away if it let me go back to the halcyon days when I could stroll down to the newsagent on a Sunday and pick up papers from around the area. You know, newspapers? Remember those?
     
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