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indigo-cyclops
Member
I sit here and scroll through the same websites, see the same content, and think yes.
AREYOUOKAY?
Member
Because someone has to say it.
Porn.
Porn.
ForAcademicPurposes
Member
You make a strong argument my friend.
Nitty_Grimes
Made a crappy phPBB forum once ... once.
People who wouldnt have the balls to say something to your face but will happily hide behind their keyboard and spout off any old insult.
Social media has ruined it - the internet is amazing.
Social media has ruined it - the internet is amazing.
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BlackTron
Member
No "dooey decimal" is not that kind system honey
Alebrije
Member
As a pre internet user I can asure internet is the best invent in recent decades. it's a Game changer.
Yes it has a dark side but the bright one is bigger and has let humanity to develop faster ways yo solve problems.
Just imagine the COVID years without internet.
Influencers are just basically the new news anchors, or tv show hosts like Ellen , Oprah, Dr Phill, Difference they are more diverse, but basically offer the same: waste your time on stuff that won't help to improve your life.
But in general internet is great
Yes it has a dark side but the bright one is bigger and has let humanity to develop faster ways yo solve problems.
Just imagine the COVID years without internet.
Influencers are just basically the new news anchors, or tv show hosts like Ellen , Oprah, Dr Phill, Difference they are more diverse, but basically offer the same: waste your time on stuff that won't help to improve your life.
But in general internet is great
Alebrije
Member
Because someone has to say it.
Porn.
Maye you should have, I bet she's watched 100 videos on cleaning her butt for sex, ain't finding that in no library!
Hugare
Member
I met my wife and met many important friends that I have today because of the internet. And I use it daily for work.
I would still kill it with fire if I could. The damage that it's done for society is immeasurable.
And I dont blame social media itself. People are shit. The internet just facilitate them to be shittier.
People will never, ever use the internet only for good. And with AI now to make things even worse by faking voices, faces and etc., be prepared for a trainwreck.
I would still kill it with fire if I could. The damage that it's done for society is immeasurable.
And I dont blame social media itself. People are shit. The internet just facilitate them to be shittier.
People will never, ever use the internet only for good. And with AI now to make things even worse by faking voices, faces and etc., be prepared for a trainwreck.
ForAcademicPurposes
Member
Are you guys telling me that you don't like big dick goth girls?
Rentahamster
Rodent Whores
I love the interwebs!
rofif
Can’t Git Gud
Yeah that’s another can of worms that ruins our lives and erectionsBecause someone has to say it.
Porn.
EarsOfASnake
Member
It was great when it was a box in the corner of a room, it began to decline the moment you could put it in your pocket. Being able to interupt peoples lives 24/7 was too much to resist for everyone trying to sell you something or make you the product. Was it a mistake? Probably not, it has a hell of a lot of positives but they are countered with how easy you can be pulled into it's negatives and I'd say the negatives outweight the positives overall.
rofif
Can’t Git Gud
Yeah well said.
Internet does a ton of work for us but tbh, we are probably getting dumber and socially it’s a disaster.
Doing all those tasks and research manually was also probably good for our brains rather than blind internet download to brains
nush
Member
What the fuck did you just fucking say about me, you little bitch? I'll have you know I graduated top of my class in the Navy Seals, and I've been involved in numerous secret raids on Al-Quaeda, and I have over 300 confirmed kills. I am trained in gorilla warfare and I'm the top sniper in the entire US armed forces. You are nothing to me but just another target. I will wipe you the fuck out with precision the likes of which has never been seen before on this Earth, mark my fucking words. You think you can get away with saying that shit to me over the Internet? Think again, fucker. As we speak I am contacting my secret network of spies across the USA and your IP is being traced right now so you better prepare for the storm, maggot. The storm that wipes out the pathetic little thing you call your life. You're fucking dead, kid. I can be anywhere, anytime, and I can kill you in over seven hundred ways, and that's just with my bare hands. Not only am I extensively trained in unarmed combat, but I have access to the entire arsenal of the United States Marine Corps and I will use it to its full extent to wipe your miserable ass off the face of the continent, you little shit. If only you could have known what unholy retribution your little "clever" comment was about to bring down upon you, maybe you would have held your fucking tongue. But you couldn't, you didn't, and now you're paying the price, you goddamn idiot. I will shit fury all over you and you will drown in it. You're fucking dead, kiddo.
EarsOfASnake
Member
Yeah, socially it is poison; especially when the majority of communication is done via text where nuance is complelely lost. Fine for talking about mundane things but for getting deeper and actually engaging with someone, yeah, it's a struggle. It also takes really long to do!
Much easier to bash out a couple of sentence hot take about the latest current event and move on to the next app you're addicted to. Hell, so many times I browse GAF, start to type a response to something and then just bail out because it's too much work.
rofif
Can’t Git Gud
And I hate the kings and queens on twitch and YouTube. They are bigger than celebrities. You say something in asmongold chat? Ban. He gives you a false stage to reply but not enough time and he will ban you anyway for having different opinion.Yeah, socially it is poison; especially when the majority of communication is done via text where nuance is complelely lost. Fine for talking about mundane things but for getting deeper and actually engaging with someone, yeah, it's a struggle. It also takes really long to do!
Toxic af
EarsOfASnake
Member
That whole situation is just flat out bad for even trying to have a conversation though; no one is on equal footing and it's in the favour of the streamer to dunk on random people.
rofif
Can’t Git Gud
Ah so maybe you are aware of this.
it's really toxic. I was banned like that and I felt like shit being put on the stage.
I said something that it's not fair since he is a big streamer and people are allowed to have different opinions.
He randomly puts me up, 50k people watching and said "yeah so explain your statement". Not sure why, but all of sudden my head is empty. 50k people are watching, I just got stressed over nothing.
I typed something among the lines "I am anxious rn and I am not able to answer so fast, give me some time" and he banned me...
Yeah... he talks every single day in front of tens of thousands of people. I type in foreign language and get limited time to answer and I am not used to "public" speaking.
And bet your ass, ton of people sent me DMs "lol fuck you looser" but also tons of people sent me dms that they were banned like this.
And that's all fine - it's his chat. But how fucking toxic and petty is that. To ban people who put him there. Permanent ban I might add
EverydayBeast
ChatGPT 0.1
Adopting computers was the thing to do in the late 90s and early 2000s.
Darkmakaimura
Can You Imagine What SureAI Is Going To Do With Garfield?
Social media, with the exception of YouTube, is really what's bad about the internet.
But the idea now that you can order things online, pay your bills very easily and look up information is pretty awesome.
But the idea now that you can order things online, pay your bills very easily and look up information is pretty awesome.
Hero of Spielberg
Member
The internet is / was great. It was the iphone that lead to the cesspit it's become today.
ForAcademicPurposes
Member
wondermega
Member
As it gets more advanced by a couple of generations, the issues that we have with Internet (and tech) in the modern day will probably seem quaint. At some point soon - who knows how much of this is true already - we will each be a tracked profile, with an AI (or whatever) that's able to relatively easily predict (and more concerningly, direct) where you will be regularly, how much money you will spend on what products, what type of people you will associate with, clothes you will wear, food you will eat - music you will listen to, games you will play, etc etc etc. Again I am sure some amount of this is tracked (and interacted with/directed) already, but on a profoundly more microscopic level. Where social media currently moves kind of in waves (in how it "controls people,") I suspect it will get much more elegant and effective in ways that will seem much more nightmarish from a modern perspective.
Can we stop it, what does any of it mean? The genie has been out of the bottle for a long time now.. this current situation has probably been put in motion since the advent of moveable type, honestly. Maybe even since anything beyond very simplified language first appeared.
Can we stop it, what does any of it mean? The genie has been out of the bottle for a long time now.. this current situation has probably been put in motion since the advent of moveable type, honestly. Maybe even since anything beyond very simplified language first appeared.
mclaren777
Member
I legitimately think it's one of the worst things to ever happen to humanity.
I would retroactively Thanos-snap it out of existence if I could.
I would retroactively Thanos-snap it out of existence if I could.
Jeff Spicoli
Member
Its beautiful and sad at the same time.
Just like the world.
Just like the world.
Comfortgel
Member
To be fair, even social media isn't inherently bad - what ruined the internet is when companies started monetizing users with "the algorithm" and companies figured out SEO. Have you tried using Google search for anything lately?
ForAcademicPurposes
Member
When Tumblr died it was like Arkham Asylum let everyone escape.
This was the point of no return.
This was the point of no return.
Pejo
Member
It's a huge net good for humanity, but just like any tool can be used for all sorts of reasons.
I personally want early 2000s internet back. When the mainstream still were unaware about most of it and what it could do. Mass appeal and adoption really ruins most things, and I think the internet is a prime example of that.
Also it gave a public square to idiots, for them to all band together. That's been probably a net negative. I doubt Flat Earthers would exist if not for the internet, and that's just a super easy non-controversial example.
I personally want early 2000s internet back. When the mainstream still were unaware about most of it and what it could do. Mass appeal and adoption really ruins most things, and I think the internet is a prime example of that.
Also it gave a public square to idiots, for them to all band together. That's been probably a net negative. I doubt Flat Earthers would exist if not for the internet, and that's just a super easy non-controversial example.
ÆMNE22A!C
NO PAIN TRANCE CONTINUE
Hey. Someone who get's it
It's a deep lol state information gathering system in it's core essence. The positive and negative implications were designed and bound to happen as to, well, "reasons" let's say. On the superficial level it's one or the other. But Internet and anything "smart" is.. nvm.
MarkMe2525
Banned
At one point, I looked at Wikipedia as an example of how good intentioned people would make sure the internet would become a place of enrichment and truth. Unfortunately, 98% of what comprises the internet is garbage at best, bad for humanity at its worst.
Azelover
Titanic was called the Ship of Dreams, and it was. It really was.
Not the internet, but I think the smartphone was.
Just pay attention anywhere in public, everyone with their heads down. No real communication. That was definitely a mistake. And I believe we will pay dearly for it as a society in terms of mental health.
Within a decade or so most people will be taking psychiatric drugs. That ain't good.
Just pay attention anywhere in public, everyone with their heads down. No real communication. That was definitely a mistake. And I believe we will pay dearly for it as a society in terms of mental health.
Within a decade or so most people will be taking psychiatric drugs. That ain't good.
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Neff
Member
The internet isn't a mistake. It's a logical and inevitable invention.
However I'm not going to lie about the fact that I often miss late '90s/early '00s internet. Normies hadn't discovered it yet, and it was more or less solely the domain of nerds with PCs, and as such was governed and influenced by people who at least had a couple of brain cells to rub together. A stark contrast to today where the vast majority of human beings can easily go online, and for better or worse, modern internet culture reflects that.
I wouldn't go back, but it goes without saying that the average person is shit at participating in the information superhighway.
However I'm not going to lie about the fact that I often miss late '90s/early '00s internet. Normies hadn't discovered it yet, and it was more or less solely the domain of nerds with PCs, and as such was governed and influenced by people who at least had a couple of brain cells to rub together. A stark contrast to today where the vast majority of human beings can easily go online, and for better or worse, modern internet culture reflects that.
I wouldn't go back, but it goes without saying that the average person is shit at participating in the information superhighway.
Dancer_BV
Member
I don't think the internet was a mistake; it's led to incredible things, just as it's led to all sorts of bad things. The same could be said for pretty much everything in human history. We discover we can harness fire to sustain others, and we discover we can harness fire to harm others. Was learning to use fire to reach our goals a mistake?
It is a spiral of wondering if we should blame means to ends or if we should blame the people who use these means. The internet's worst attributes are correlated to the fact that it's the easiest way for people to express themselves however or achieve whatever they want to. If that was clamped down on, maybe the internet wouldn't be considered so much a mistake.
Next in the cycle is considering why people act the way they do, the point of necessitating a muzzle on their means of expression; to the point where a platform of the freest form of human communication is feared and hated because of it. This can scope out and broaden seemingly indefinitely.
It is a spiral of wondering if we should blame means to ends or if we should blame the people who use these means. The internet's worst attributes are correlated to the fact that it's the easiest way for people to express themselves however or achieve whatever they want to. If that was clamped down on, maybe the internet wouldn't be considered so much a mistake.
Next in the cycle is considering why people act the way they do, the point of necessitating a muzzle on their means of expression; to the point where a platform of the freest form of human communication is feared and hated because of it. This can scope out and broaden seemingly indefinitely.
bitbydeath
Member
Obligatory:
EsotericManiac
Banned
It’s easy to miss the simpler, more exciting early days when the internet was a novel tool rather than a pervasive presence. For me, recognizing that balance is key. Taking breaks, setting boundaries, and focusing on meaningful connections instead of superficial interactions helps mitigate the negative impact.
DeafTourette
Perpetually Offended
Socializing hasn't been a problem for me, even as an introvert. I have made new friends over the past 10 years thanks to Facebook and some very close friends for over 20 years thanks to the Internet at large! We meet up, we hang out ... Not as often as I'd like because we're all adult and adults (most) have jobs and families but in my age group, we make do! I even met my ex thanks to the Internet. We're still close friends to this day. I just don't see social media the way most of y'all do. It's been a net benefit for me.
I can learn a ton of things thanks to the Internet as well.
Yes, it's easy to get sucked into a rabbit hole and waste an entire day, especially if you're depressed (ask me how I know) ...
I'm not as jaded and skeptical as most of y'all ... It's in my nature to give things a chance (like with movies and TV) and I find joy in simple things or in parts of things.
That said, the Internet has been GREAT! Sure there's misinformation and disinformation and outright lies peddled by people who love drama and chaos but there's also so much good out there. I've seen/read stories of people helping others with no return expected... I've seen people rise up out of their circumstances with help from complete strangers or somehow by themselves through sheer force of will (walking again with no medical help because of no insurance or their bodies healing from something that was supposed to be incurable) or getting justice for someone wrongly killed, robbed or jailed. Stories where someone stood up for themselves or others. So many heartwarming stories and testimonials.
If you go through life hating everything, you find joy in nothing. And that's bad for anyone's health.
I can learn a ton of things thanks to the Internet as well.
Yes, it's easy to get sucked into a rabbit hole and waste an entire day, especially if you're depressed (ask me how I know) ...
I'm not as jaded and skeptical as most of y'all ... It's in my nature to give things a chance (like with movies and TV) and I find joy in simple things or in parts of things.
That said, the Internet has been GREAT! Sure there's misinformation and disinformation and outright lies peddled by people who love drama and chaos but there's also so much good out there. I've seen/read stories of people helping others with no return expected... I've seen people rise up out of their circumstances with help from complete strangers or somehow by themselves through sheer force of will (walking again with no medical help because of no insurance or their bodies healing from something that was supposed to be incurable) or getting justice for someone wrongly killed, robbed or jailed. Stories where someone stood up for themselves or others. So many heartwarming stories and testimonials.
If you go through life hating everything, you find joy in nothing. And that's bad for anyone's health.
diffusionx
Gold Member
I'm watching that Beatles documentary on D+ that launched a few years ago and one of the first things I noticed is how engaged everyone is. And it's not because they're the Beatles, IIRC Lennon was hooked on junk by then. But they weren't reaching for their phones every 12 seconds to fill in every second of dead time.
Without the internet the covid years would not have happned.
TintoConCasera
I bought a sex doll, but I keep it inflated 100% of the time and use it like a regular wife
Something I miss about the old internet is that, at least to me, it felt more community oriented. You had gaming forums, sports forums, car forums, tech forums, forums dedicated to specific games even and multiplayer communities. (miss my Enemy Territory boys 
)
Is this still the case today? It feels to me that everything is either social media or discord servers, which to me feel more like screaming into a void rather than what forums offered, more meaningful interactions and actual conversations being had.
)Is this still the case today? It feels to me that everything is either social media or discord servers, which to me feel more like screaming into a void rather than what forums offered, more meaningful interactions and actual conversations being had.
