TECHNOLOGY

The Internet? Bah!

Hype alert: Why cyberspace isn't, and will never be, nirvana

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  • Posted By: Kingy_0 @ 02/26/2009 9:42:17 PM

    I cannot personally see any of the 'problems' cited by this article as being detrimental to such a severe degree, which Cheryl seemed to believe (except for the one about cyber-sex that's just gross!). Admittedly this article was written in 1995 and hasn't received an update since that publishing date, so maybe the author still agrees with what they have said to this day.
    Who knows?

    The internet offers a massive learning resource to everyone, and although we may not necessarily agree with all its content, we can all say that we certainly become more realistic with our opinions as a result of being submitted to such content.
    Cheryl whether you like it or not the internet is an art form, which means it is a release expression and information. And you are unfortunately the modern day Plato we can all morally disagree with the content available over the internet. But irrespective of that the internet cannot be held responsible for the damages that people create for themselves.
    Censorship leads to the removal of free speech and expression, which proves to make people more submissive.
    Look at the Soviet Union other any other fascist dictatorship for the evidence.
    This is probably why the past was so much more socially sound (or so you seem to infer with your comment), and more likely to be considered being so by the majority of people during that era, who were lacking the knowledge of the reality of affairs worldwide, or at least to the some extent with information that is provided for us now in the form of the internet.
    Censoring or controlling the content placed on the internet goes against the 'more' democratic world we are supposed to have been brought up into, so my question to you is can you blame the ills of society and the world on the 21st century youth who wishes to retain the knowledge of the real state of affairs of the world morally, socially and politically?
    And forever condemn them to the media based message of a more violent youth which are nearing adulthood and the array of problems they will bring to society with them. In reality what you should want to have monitored instead is the tabloid based news stories that condemns such a mentally challenging digital information and commerce system.

    But it has been a pleasant experience to read this article and view it from a perspective where this advancement of knowledge was new and brought along with it an array ethical and social problems. I like the thought that most people can look back upon the article and disagree with the majority of the points made within it.

  • Posted By: Cheryl Chapman @ 03/31/2008 5:41:06 AM

    The other worry is the lack of a human element in digital communication, is, I honestly believe, dehumanising our children. Sound paranoid? I have a digi-child who spends a lot of his time online and I see a lot of the stuff he is 'submersed' in. I also see how he and his generation act off line. They are cruel, regularly violent and angry with eachother. And they are friends! This generation ,bought up online, are losing the plot of real life. They have been sold life through a screen and that's my point - the repercussions of their actions are screened out. And this is being carried across to real life. The kids are stabbing eachother in the street and the politicians are scratching their heads. But then I can't stand inthe way of money making 'progress' can they.? The internet may be one of the biggest inventions since fire- and like my mother always said about fire, it's a good servant but a baqd master. We need to take control.

    • Posted By: laurenh24 @ 04/14/2008 5:42:57 PM

      Cheryl: If you see what he is submersed in and don't approve, why not do something about it? You're the parent. And I'm sure kids didn't stab each other and everyone was super friendly all the time back in the 1950s. Yes, his generation has been brought up online, but he's been brought up by you. Take your own advice and take control of your own family before you blame your child's personality on the Internet.

  • Posted By: wabler @ 03/28/2008 1:22:22 PM

    I just think it is funny that an article from 1995, which claims there are no editors on the internet proves that with all the spelling errors...It's been 13 years and no one has edited this yet?

  • Posted By: fapestniegd @ 03/28/2008 11:14:45 AM

    "What the Internet hucksters won't tell you is tht the Internet is one big ocean of unedited data, without any pretense of completeness."

    And how is this any different than what passes for "Journalism" these days?

  • Posted By: blnadri @ 03/24/2008 12:52:13 PM

    Sounds to me like the same kind of talk that preceded the US Mail, the telephone, the automobile, and a good many other things we take pretty much for granted today. In fact, the single best sign that progress is truly underway is the advent of the naysayers. There will come a day when internet access will be as common as electricity. You simply won't have a home or apartment where it isn't standard. Refinement of technology will progress as any science/technology does and all the doubt in the world will be no better at halting it than it's ever been.

    • Posted By: Draconic Seraph @ 03/24/2008 10:54:08 PM

      What I think it boils down to is humanity's general fear of change. There seem to be a lot of people who think that just because something is new and different, that makes it inherently bad, and liable to either slowly degrade the fabric of society, or destroy us outright. Which could be true, in some instances, but I firmly believe that good and bad comes with every discovery and step forward that is made. It's the price to pay for progress.

  • Posted By: Old News @ 03/24/2008 3:29:06 PM

    No, the article is right, it's so overblown, overrated, GREAT for wasting time.
    Another example of degradation pushed down the throats of consumers by marketers.

    • Posted By: Draconic Seraph @ 03/24/2008 10:47:37 PM

      As one of the young people who ???gets??? computers quite well (I would not label myself a genius, but I do have an affinity for technology) I can assure you that this is not the case. The internet, like any other tool, can be used for either wasting time or learning. It is the user???s choice whether they have a meaningful experience or not, and is not inherently the computer???s fault. Same could be said for television. It is your choice whether you decide to sit in front of Cartoon Network or Comedy Central and engage in meaningless amusements, or end up learning something from Discovery Channel or the History Channel.

      In addition, my communication with others is rarely monosyllabic, as I am sure you have gathered by now??? Provided they are attempting to speak with me about a topic that I find to be at least somewhat engaging. I agree that human contact is highly important and needed. I prefer meeting my friends in person to spend time with them, but due to the fact that most of us live at least 5 hours away from one another these days, that is hardly practical. Keeping in touch via email, instant messengers, webcams, etc. is the best substitute there is. One can even actually talk for hours with someone across the world without creating a sizable phone bill in the process.

      I have gone to school online, I have ordered books, gifts, school supplies, clothes, and almost anything else imaginable online. I do not feel as though I am missing out on any social experiences by doing so, and in many ways, it has been quite beneficial. It is true, I hope, that computers and the internet will not replace all traditional things??? But they will surely create additions to them. For example, paintings and drawings will continue to be made with canvas, paint, paper, charcoal, etc. All of the traditional mediums. However, computer programs and tablets that allow artists to emulate traditional mediums are also being used quite prominently. Commercially, the digital aspect has replaced the traditional, for a multitude of reasons, but that does not mean that traditional art is going to disappear altogether!

      Same will likely go for books, shopping, learning, etc. People like choices, which is what the internet gives. Why not let everyone decide for themselves what they want? Not everyone is a social butterfly. As an introvert myself, I like using the internet to take care of menial tasks, so that when I am spending time with others, I can enjoy the experience to the fullest extent. I find it best think of technology as a supplement to what we are already used to in life, not a replacement.

      • Posted By: Draconic Seraph @ 03/24/2008 10:51:49 PM

        Whoops, replied to the wrong comment by this individual, though they say mostly the same thing. All hail the joys of multitasking. =)

  • Posted By: Old News @ 03/24/2008 5:37:00 PM

    If it's 13 years old, remember that's 65 COMPUTER years, and IT'S STILL TRUE, so the guy is Nostradamus.
    He's right about human contact. Those young geniuses who "get it" with computers click away all day, but start a conversation with them and they say Yup or Nope.
    Ready to get "outsourced" haircuts or bartenders?
    I like computers to get work done, but the Internet at home?
    I'm afraid of the time I would waste!
    Why do I need to comment here? A waste!
    But I enjoyed the article.

  • Posted By: pmpguy @ 03/24/2008 3:58:43 PM

    Anoo: http://www.newsweek.com/id/106554
    Pmp Nerdz: The Battle of Trafalgar was a naval battle west of Cape Trafalgar in the province of Cádiz in south-west Spain. A British fleet of 27 ships of the line destroyed an allied French and Spanish fleet of 33 ships of the line on 21 October 1805 in the most decisive naval engagement of the Napoleonic Wars.
    Pmp Nerdz: Google Search. First Link. First sentence in article.
    Pmp Nerdz: 15 seconds.
    Pmp Nerdz: I think he's using Archie or Veronica on USEnet to search.
    Pmp Nerdz: He's been online for 20 years, but I don't think he's surpased the usage of Internet circa 1989.
    Anoo: Archie rocks
    Pmp Nerdz: Lolipop Dragon.
    Pmp Nerdz: There's an educational filmstrip I remember from Grade school.
    Pmp Nerdz: or how about "And Then It Happened" the filmstrip that used scare tactics to tell the kids to sit down and shut the fcuk up on the school bus.
    Pmp Nerdz: Or the one in highschool about drugs that showed the guy turn into a lizard. That one effing rocked. I wish I actually remembered the name of that one.
    Anoo: oooh, yeah - i remember those
    Anoo: bet you can find 'em on google video somewhere
    Pmp Nerdz: wayback machine or archive project probably has them.
    Anoo: ooh. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1285725859935620263&q=and+then+it+happened&total=20296&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=2
    Pmp Nerdz: This guy doesn't dislike the internet. He just want's the soccer moms, church ladies and Blue Collar dads who have surpased his usage to get the fcuk off of his internet so he can feel L33T again.
    Pmp Nerdz: Bet he was a hacker groupie in college.
    Pmp Nerdz: One of those guys that we tricked into thinking we had hacked the grade system and done them the favor of changing their grades.
    Pmp Nerdz: Loved in when those guys went home for the semester and learned that htey had flunked out.
    Pmp Nerdz: I'm gonna post this as a discussion after the article. Bet someone will pick apart my spleling.

  • Posted By: GJAX @ 03/23/2008 4:40:35 PM

    not sure who is dumber....the guy who wrote this or all you people commenting like it was written today...this was written in NINETEEN NINETY FIVE!!!!!

    • Posted By: blnadri @ 03/24/2008 12:55:32 PM

      Actually, I replied much the same IN 1995, so I had no issue with doing so when it appeared today. Sometimes it isn't stupidity, sometimes it's enjoying the fact you were/are correct. :)

  • Posted By: blnadri @ 03/24/2008 12:52:36 PM

    Sounds to me like the same kind of talk that preceded the US Mail, the telephone, the automobile, and a good many other things we take pretty much for granted today. In fact, the single best sign that progress is truly underway is the advent of the naysayers. There will come a day when internet access will be as common as electricity. You simply won't have a home or apartment where it isn't standard. Refinement of technology will progress as any science/technology does and all the doubt in the world will be no better at halting it than it's ever been.

  • Posted By: GustoMaybe @ 03/24/2008 12:22:49 PM

    Admittedly, unmoderated and unedited content has the majority. (my post proves the point :)
    Also, virtual education still hasn't really caught on, and it seems to be gaining ground quite slowly compared to other things.

    Also, had it not been for things like Google, we might still be in the search quandary the author was in.
    The major point of disagreement I have with the article is the assertion that salespeople are capitalism's necessity. I don't need a salesperson to buy a book, buy my groceries, or to pick up some office supplies. Even on big-ticket items, I have seen many people decide on a purchase beforehand, and treat the salesperson basically as a sales clerk.

  • Posted By: GWMan @ 03/24/2008 12:09:57 PM

    My post negates this article in its entirety.

  • Posted By: cyphertube @ 03/24/2008 10:19:26 AM

    Well, he called the death of Usenet. But I remember what crap the Internet was then. We were still pushing the use of Gopher at the University of Minnesota. But 1995 is also when I learned HTML, started building online, and got going on a career. And now, here I am, in my bed, telecommuting and feeding my Amazon.com ordering addiction.

  • Posted By: Akujin @ 03/24/2008 8:19:48 AM

    This is a great article to test people on whether or not they read the article till the end and pay attention to the appropriate meta data about the article (ie, the date) before commenting.

  • Posted By: worldvoyager @ 03/24/2008 8:01:06 AM

    It's too bad you are contributing to the mis-infomation highway. Electronic books are not limited to laptops. Dedicated ebook readers have been around for years. Small handheld devices with power saving e ink screens, Sony ereader and the Amazon Kindle are just two. Without technology, we would still be chasing down bison with our bare hands.

  • Posted By: infostud @ 03/23/2008 11:34:42 PM

    Please read another work by this author http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cuckoo's_Egg

  • Posted By: chasingtheflow @ 03/23/2008 10:20:44 PM

    @jdempey

    you're an idiot. this article was written in 1995 - google and wikipedia did not even exist yet, of course you encountered different results.

    looks like my man missed the whole point of this digg story (as im sure you must have come from there or another social website as one does not simple stumble across mediocre 13 year old news stories too often).

    though much of what the author of this article wrote seems like bullshit now it was legitimate thinking in context with the time it was written.

    btw totally just had an XKCD "someone is wrong on the internet" moment.

  • Posted By: jdempcy @ 03/23/2008 9:54:49 PM

    I just Googled "battle of trafalgar" and followed the very first link, to the Wikipedia entry. It contained the date of the battle. I'm not sure about the other results you encountered but I assure you, the Internet is an immensely helpful research tool. While it will never replace human interaction, it can certainly facilitate ever-greater knowledge-sharing and new possibilities for learning.

  • Posted By: jdempcy @ 03/23/2008 9:46:16 PM

    I just Googled "battle of trafalgar" and followed the very first link, to the Wikipedia entry. It contained the date of the battle. I'm not sure about the other results you encountered but I assure you, the Internet is an immensely helpful research tool. While it will never replace human interaction, it can certainly facilitate ever-greater knowledge-sharing and new possibilities for learning.

  • Posted By: GJAX @ 03/23/2008 4:43:36 PM

    not sure who is dumber....the guy who wrote this or all you people commenting like it was written today...this was written in NINETEEN NINETY FIVE!!!!! In all fairness to the author, do a little searching back to 1995 and this perspective was widespread.....and in fact alot of the examples people give to refute this article are a direct result from the proliferation of this limited perspective and the challenge to disprove it.

    • Posted By: PatrynXX @ 03/23/2008 9:25:16 PM

      Can't believe this silly thing is now the number 2 article of the day. Stupid people breed more stupid people and before you know it it's number one. So are we partying like its 1995??

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