Would the world be better without the Internet?

I think the world would be worse, but that doesn't mean I don't think there are some side effects to Internet useage that we haven't corralled yet. In crude terms, the technology has outpaced our ability to psychologically deal with it. I'm as guilty as anyone for getting sucked into screens all day. For compulsively checking - ever since I first got email in college, in fact.

The world is a better place because of the Internet. But the adjustment has certainly been rough, in some ways. And will continue to be.

 

Better.

 

That's so Alma.

 

Bottom line: The Internet has made for a better existence.

But anybody who thinks it's been a boon for our profession is kidding themselves.

This. Sorry about those good old days, buck. They did exist.

 

This is the real issue and the reason this is a valid question. Yes, you can communicate with anyone pretty close to instantly and have access to all sorts of information. But the tradeoff is everything you do and everywhere you go on the web is tracked. And it's way easier now to get personal and confidential information on pretty much anyone.

The privacy issue is a very big concern for me and is one of the reasons I don't do Facebook and anything similar -- not that that is enough to really keep private stuff private. There is very much a Big Brother is Watching You vibe to the technology/communication explosion.

 

Since I've been around since the days when all business was created by snail mail, I' just say it would be different without the internet.

I could come up with ten reasons why things were better in 1975 and then I could do the same for 2012

 

Biggest problem in that regard: Advertising.

Can anyone think of Internet ads that are MORE effective than the previous ways of reaching customers (TV, radio, newspapers, direct "snail" mail)?

Certainly no one at my shop has come up with anything.

 

The Internet and related mobile technologies are making it easier to interact with someone a thousand miles away, and making us drift apart from people right there in our lives.

The Internet and related mobile technologies give us an unprecedented repository of information, and little inclination to put it in perspective.

The Internet and related mobile technologies have created a glut of communication, but little of it much more than banal.

The Internet and related mobile technologies have allowed everyone to have a voice, which unfortunately has been equated to "everyone is authoratative" or, unfortunately for mainstream media, "no one is authoratative."

 

Most of us who are former and recovering journalists would likely still have journalism jobs if there was no Internet.

 

Another issue is that the sheer speed of the medium makes people and institutions more concerned than ever about being first over being correct. Because the news cycle is neverending and your reports can be out there immediately, many feel the need to have something out there immediately, no matter what it is or whether it's wrong or right. The pressure to be first is now much greater than ever.

While that has always been a problem, the instantaneousness of it all means far more misinformation is being distributed to a far wider audience in far less time than ever before, and once it's out there, it's the old toothpaste/tube scenario.

 

And I would have to think I'm working for a seven-day daily on Jan. 2 if there was no Internet.

 

I don't think we know yet. It will take an entire generation living a full life with the internet to know what it all meant. If we end up in some dystopian Orwellian future, I don't see how it could be a good thing on the whole. I don't think that will happen, but it's a possibility.