Would the world be better without the Internet?

[Versatile]

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.

 

[DanOregon]

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

yeah - it would be worse. Hell, the economic impact alone would be devastating.

 

[I Should Coco]

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!

 

[SpeedTchr]

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?

 

[Dick Whitman]

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.

 

[Alma]

Let's say everything else stays the same, but this mass communication network, along with its application in all phases of technology, goes poof.

Better or worse?

Better.

 

[Versatile]

That's so Alma.

 

[jr/shotglass]

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.

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?

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

 

[joe king]

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.

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.

 

[JR]

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

 

[I Should Coco]

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.

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.

 

[dooley_womack1]

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."

 

[Mizzougrad96]

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

 

[joe king]

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.

 

[jr/shotglass]

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

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

 

[Brian]

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.

 

[BTExpress]

The pressure to be first is now much greater than ever.

I'm not so sure I understand that one.

It used to be, if you weren't first, the competitor had a full day on you. It was in THE OTHER paper all day for everyone to see and comment on. Broadcast reports credited this report, and your publication had nothing for the entire day. You are called into the boss' office and asked,"How did we get beat on this?"

And then, smarting from the embarrassment, your publication compounds it by 1) downplaying the breaking story somewhat the next day or 2) qualifying it ("sources say deal to acquire Joe All-Star no sure thing", etc.)

Today, the competitor tweets a breaking story at 1:06 p.m., and you see it and tweet your own 140 characters at 1:07 p.m. Ten minutes later, it's all over the place. Who was first? Who knows? Who cares? What advantage was there to being the 1:06 guy?

 

[Beef03]

Overall I think we're better with it, but it's not so clear cut. The distribution and access to information and ability to easily communicate with people the world over makes it an improvement to our civilization and essential to a democracy in this day and age.

But there are a lot of costs.

Someone earlier mentioned privacy, and right now there is next to none.

Internet crimes are incredibly scary, especially with the ease that an identity can now be stollen and a life ruined. Hell, even the intensity of cyber bullying, at least the kids used to be able to escape that **** at home or by hiding in their room.

It has made people lazy. To do research you used to have to actually get up and go to a library or, you know, talk to people, now everything is a click away. I think it is taken for granted by a generation that doesn't know anything different. But every generation that lived in the time before something came along can say that after the establishment of the new technolgy. And get off my lawn, damnit.

Socially, while it gives you the ability to keep in touch with people all over the world, the face to face meeting is disappearing. Why go out and converse with the real world when you can do it from a keyboard and behind a monitor? Damn world is scary, there are actual people out there, they might discover me for who I really am.

And the slow death of newspapers, but much of that is the fault of newspapers and their inability to figure out how to make it work -- giving the product away for free for much of the last 15 years sure didn't help.

Also we are more and more living in an ADHD world where people are thinking less and less for themselves and prefer to regurgitate the last thing they heard as the God's honest truth without looking into it for themselves. While there have always been people like this, it is a problem that is exacerbated in this day and age, the Morgan Freeman rant was just the latest example. Yes, information is passed along easily, but how many people actually THINK about what they are taking in and forming their own educated opinion on that information? The world is full of sheep and it is much easier to shepard them online.

Lastly, our overall relliance on the Internet and technology. If it all goes poof, we be ****ed. All of our pertinent information is online and we have become conditioned to communicating through this one medium. I think we'd have a much more difficult time transitioning back off of it than we have transitioning to it. Can anyone at a paper now imagine going back to the pre-Internet days for your wire service or sending your story in from the road?

So yes, it is better with it, but we better hope we do not lose it.

 

[I Should Coco]

Lastly, our overall relliance on the Internet and technology. If it all goes poof, we be ****ed. All of our pertinent information is online and we have become conditioned to communicating through this one medium. I think we'd have a much more difficult time transitioning back off of it than we have transitioning to it. Can anyone at a paper now imagine going back to the pre-Internet days for your wire service or sending your story in from the road?

So yes, it is better with it, but we better hope we do not lose it.

Yes, Beef, I can imagine it. But I'd have to find one of these ...

Great post. It reminds me of the feeling I get as I see my town officials crazed to tear out any remaining railroad tracks.

I wonder if someday we'll need them again.

 

[Versatile]

Why would we?