The internet

Unknown said:

it (ie written thought) doesn't convey the "whole reality of the writer"....and attempting to "shade-in" the gaps with portraying images of self-choice and  design......is probably VERY unhealthy for us all, collectively, in the medium to long term.

I agree.

It depends which aspect of online one is talking about. Yes some of what I mean is to do with online presence on social media which influences how lives are led in all sorts of ways. Taking another another aspect is that I use email and Internet resources for work. This is part of my every day life and feels quite natural. Until i get overloaded. What I do have difficulty with is more and more aspects of life and work moving online but I've addressed those before elsewhere. 

I have no idea how one could possibly, honestly, portray oneself online accurately.  Accordingly, I take all online presentations.....as just that.  I think written thought is more important than images, followers, volume and speed......but it (ie written thought) doesn't convey the "whole reality of the writer"....and attempting to "shade-in" the gaps with portraying images of self-choice and  design......is probably VERY unhealthy for us all, collectively, in the medium to long term.

This is just part of my personal thoughts on these matters.   Each to their own, and respect extended to all.

Welcome to our 2025 everybody.

Number.

Unknown said:

Maybe for some there's no differentiation between real life and online.

I find that rather sad but am unsure if I should.

I think there's a whole debate available in that alone.

Yes I saw this movie but couldn’t recall the name of it! Absolutely I also think about this one from time to time when I see the devices getting thinner and thinner and their owners getting bigger and bigger while glued to them. 

I met the internet when it was young, back in 1997 or so. 

Soon after there was a debate about how "cookies" work and I knew it was going to be "Tricky".

It allowed me to be a part of a multi-national collabration that did some work in the field of nuclear fusion and hasgiven emteh answers to many things I would never have got answers to under the old system. 

The internet also has allowed us unprecedented access to the hidden world of our leaders and other "icons" and has allowed me personally much greater facility to examine alternative ponts of view than my own, and obtain life saving briefings in the event of, say, a disease outbreak or other significant events.

It's also exposed me to a LOT of sheer usless rubbish, made buyig stuff we do not actally need, vastly easier and more tempting through teh targetting advertising and profiling that most of you submit to, largely unaware of it's depth and pervasivness. 

Then there's the porn... An essential part of teh plot to destroy western males (according to the LURID CONSPIRACY THEORIES mostly set to distract and ensnare anyone who's vaguely awake and concenred about the world they live in. I watched a guy lying his face off teh oethr day, about an event that he claimed was going to happen yesterday. WHY do they do that?? 

I do fidn teh internet far more interesting that TV programming though and there's loads fo stuff telling you how to fix things so it's not all bad scary and mad.

Dunno why I wrote this really, it'll most likely be a week before it appears.

Unknown said:

ComputerGeek1337 said:

Now real life is an escape from the internet

Possibly for those who knew life before tinternet.  It's hard to imagine the younger generations where it exists like water and electricity.  Maybe for some there's no differentiation between real life and online. I don't think there is even for the older gen in some respects. 

100%.

I didn’t realise Wall-E was a documentary until quite recently.

ComputerGeek1337 said:

Its funny that in the late 1990s/early 2000s the internet was an escape from real life.

ComputerGeek1337 said:

Now real life is an escape from the internet. 

Very astute observation.

Its funny that in the late 1990s/early 2000s the internet was an escape from real life. Very anonymous and completely disconnected from your 'real self'. Kinda like what 4Chan is. Now real life is an escape from the internet. 

And there is another thing, I manage to add random things when I type like the number 1.

1. I do, yes probably spent hours looking through there too.

S'ok Homebird, do you remember the weird wonder of a new IKEA catalogue too?

Thanks for reminding me, I remember too the excitement of a new Argos catalogue.

Unknown said:

Perhaps some of the problems you are experiencing ARE because you have these multiple accounts?  Just a thought?

I've only ever made second accounts when I've been unable to post here because of the spam filter, which has been occurring during my whole time on the forum ie once a single post is thrown out, I can't post again until it is approved.

This has probably occurred 100s of times.

I created a new account recently when I was locked out again, but can no longer log into it.

I kept the details of my previous accounts and I can't log into those either - I get a message saying that the account isn't approved.

I've noted that others are still having problems logging into their accounts.

I think it's just a part of the overall failures here.

Deleted User said:

Social media in particular has been absolutely poisonous. It has polarised politics, supercharged extremism of all kinds, damaged peoples’ mental health and made it very difficult for people to distinguish truth from disinformation.

It has indeed.

Iain, I think people forget that the increase in cars are one of the biggest reasons for not seeing children out and about, it's not nice having to worry about a football or something hitting a car and getting shouted at by it's owner, also lot's of cars means lack of steet space and the speed at which many people drive around residential streets is shocking. Another thing that I think stops children playing outside is everythings been built on, when I was young here were loads of bits of scrap land, WW2 bomb sites and just odd patches of ground, all those bits are gone now, built on or fenced off. I think people are a lot less tolerant of children playing outside now too.

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Oddly enough I was thinking that I would of like a good old window shop yesterday, just of random stuff, to get ideas and stuff, can't do that anymore, theres few shops left and they only have a fraction of what they used to have. I also miss paper catalogues, the excitement of a new argos catalogue! I don't get the sense of perspective with an online search, if you want to buy a piece of furniture then seeing it in isolation rather than in a room mock up gives no sense of how it fits into a space. The internet seem to mean you can buy anything from anywhere in the world as long as its the same dozen or so things per catagory. People being able to buy their way to the top of search engines has led to the enshitification of the internet, along with so much being behind paywalls.

I do think social media has had detrimental effect on life, it's too polarised and polarsing, nobody seems able to agree to disagree anymore.

I wouldn't like it to disapear completely but if it could reverse about 10 or 15 years then I'd be happy.

I think there's different issues here - internet, smart phones, social media.

It's the quality of information - how much of what is consumed actually enriches our lives? It's based on instant gratification.

Yes I'm (hopefully) aware of my own potential irony here.

That reminds me of another issue, although it’s caused by the combination of the internet with smartphones: it has destroyed our attention spans.

People are so used to watching very short videos and reading very short pieces of text that hardly anyone even reads books anymore.

Iain said:

It doesn't really matter as we can't change it.

History suggests that wholesale change does happen.....always....eventually.....for every civilisation or system thought to be the new "immutable reality."  Perhaps "we" can't change it....but that doesn't mean that fundamental change won't occur.