Are you happy with what the internet has become?

[tokie]

If one looks around the internet today, they will see a collection of garbage the scale of which humanity has never seen before.

Cat pictures, Facebook LIKE THIS buttons, Twitter, idiots who don't know how to use computers, etc. Third world people have also flooded the internet with their shenanigans. Non-Latin letters are also now being allowed for domains.

I would place the peak quality of the internet around 2002, when broadband was relatively prevalent but not common enough that every clown on the street had it. At that time there was a bare minimum technical knowledge needed to get online. Today, cell phone stores make sure you have internet access before you leave the store.

Originally the internet showed such promise as a "way of the future". Well, I would opine that the world would be better off if 90% of people did not have access to the internet.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Third world people have also flooded the internet with their shenanigans. Non-Latin letters are also now being allowed for domains.

Location: Europa

white supremacist detected

 

[Imaginer]

Information Super Highway...

Complete with congestion and some areas in toll roads (network throttling, congested wireless areas, paid service access),

rude drivers in cutting people off to honking to being too slow or too fast wit no care or disagreeing with one's driving intentions (similar to anonymous posting with no perceived remorse or name calling or any argument/discussion online),

litter thrown out of the window or not securing your cargo so things fly off on the road (meaningless meme pictures and pictures not even worth 10 words being propagated/shared and mis-shares in information due to autocorrect/lack of proofing),

and lastly not maintaining your vehicle so you are more likely to cause accidents (malware spreading due to not due diligence in software).

 

[inf1nity]

What do you mean "their shenanigans"? I'm from a third world country, and i don't do anything that can be considered a shenanigan.

 

[lxskllr]

I dislike it for reasons you didn't list. Instead of collection of equal peers, the internet has become a collection of huge services that people access. That removes the fault tolerance, and make it easy to spy on and censor communication.

 

[yhelothar]

I don't think it's fair to equate your stupid facebook/twitter feed to the internet. Don't like that stuff? Don't go on those sites. The number of quality sites have only increased. The amount of ways we can interact with people with the internet have only increased. The amount of resources for information have increased.

The internet is still in its infancy. There will be more innovative ways to connect people than ever.

 

[norseamd]

I voted yes because of cats and the rest of the world joining the internet.

There are many problems I have with the state of the internet right now.

 

[mmntech]

There's a lot of stupid crap on their internet for sure. Cat videos, porn, ATOT. It's also given people a soap box who really shouldn't have soap box, and contributed heavily to America's phony apology culture. Or Google and Zuck trying to monopolize everything. Beyond all that, it's been a huge benefit.

The internet is a fairly level playing field for the average person to start a business or share their knowledge, without expending a huge quantity of resources. It also gives people the ability to discover things from all over the world, which we never really had access to before.

The real threat right now is the big ISPs trying to break it up and turn it into a pay-for-access system like cable TV. That's really going to screw a lot of people over, especially small businesses that can't afford to pay the toll for premium access. Not to mention increasing government attempts to monitor and censor content.

 

[Mixolydian]

No.

 

[MarkXIX]

You know the best part, you're still free to ignore the shit you don't like and develop your own version of it that you think people will want. Oh, and you could make money too.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Never underestimate the human ability to take a marvelous idea and turn it into utter crap.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Happy? No.
Surprised? No.

The handwriting was on the wall back in the mid-90s when chatrooms became the killer app. People didn't want a serious, useful internet that was true to its arpanet roots, they wanted flash and ease, communication with other losers and porn. We live in a tabloid culture and the internet is an extension of that.

 

[KeithP]

Cat pictures, Facebook LIKE THIS buttons, Twitter, idiots who don't know how to use computers, etc. Third world people have also flooded the internet with their shenanigans. Non-Latin letters are also now being allowed for domains.

So your argument amounts to..."TV is awful because all the shows I watch suck." Maybe you should just start watching something else?

-KeithP

 

[Sonikku]

Internet today is crap. Back in mid 90's, to be on the internet was free. One could not help but be marveled at the seemingly limitless untapped potential. It was like exploring the seas before the world had been mapped out, you never knew what was behind the next corner. Those you came across were nearly all intelligent and decent too. Clearly that went downhill as the internet became the McDonald's of information.

 

[Spungo]

I like how the internet has destroyed corporate propaganda media.
CNBC is collapsing even though stocks are at all time highs. CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC are totally screwed. According to polls, Jon Stewart is the #1 most trusted news anchor. Before the internet, people had no idea how bullshit TV news was. People would blindly follow anything said by a talking head.

RT giving the details:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ep51ZtEM63Q

 

[Tombstone1881]

I voted yes, because you can get any information you want, from technical advice and instruction manuals and tips to cat videos and 3 Stooges film details.

Sure, there's a lot of clutter, but that's true with every form of media. TV and radio are full of commercials as well as programs that you have no interest in to wade through, to fine what you want to find.

I'm not a facebook or twitter person and have no interest in social media except for a few message boards, but I'm glad that they do exist for those that want them.

I'm glad that all that information is available. like anything else, you use what you want and ignore the rest.

 

[SKORPI0]

1994: "Today": "What is the Internet, Anyway?" :biggrin:
Internet before search engines- from the 1990's point of view :\
History Channel Presents - The Internet

 

[feralkid]

I'm less happy after reading your post.

 

[Jaskalas]

Yes.

The internet is in its infancy. It has barely learned how to crawl and is attempting at this point to stand up and walk. Exciting times ahead when it finishes college.

Look, "the internet is stupid" is merely a reflection of humanity. WE are stupid, derived from a violent base animal who breaks down into tribes and smashes the skulls of anything not the same. It's not surprising that the internet reflects its creator.

Yet it is a boon to us. Knowledge has never been so freely available. Learning has never been so easy. Right or wrong, information is out there like never before in history. People, though ignorant, need not remain that way. Whereas in any other time, remaining ignorant is precisely our life story.

The internet crosses tribes and allows for a global bond to slowly form. You see pictures and video of people being slaughtered overseas. You feel for them, you share their pain and wish for it to stop. The internet transmits our feelings and allows empathy to grow. That alone is worth the price of seeing how ugly we all are, because there is also beauty to be found.

And some day those feelings of bonding and fellowship might just prevent a war. Might just save us from ourselves. The internet could become the best thing that has ever happened to us. That is the power of communication.

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

To many people waste time on it .... even I as I type this.

Keeping the internet as a tool is the way to go.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I don't like the state of most websites these days, overusing javascript, flash and other BS, all the spying and ad scripts and all the bullshit that goes with it. The thing I HATE the most is how most websites now have those stupid delayed gray out pages that interrupts what you're reading and forces you to click something to get back to what you were reading. I typically just X out of the whole tab because it just pisses me right off. It seems all the news and information ("how to") sites are doing it. Researching for any kind of info is also very frustrating because most sites will also have those or other annoyances. Popups are only slightly more annoying but thankfully adblock can block those. Noscript is practically useless for most of these annoying sites as the site wont even load without allowing like 40 domains. It's gotten so ridiculous.

Then there's the whole NSA thing and the fact that everything is pushing us to go to the cloud. It takes more effort to not use the cloud than to use it. I don't use it and refuse to, but so many people get sucked in.

It seems the internet is being ruled more and more by sketchy megacorps simply wanting to make tons of money from our info.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Yes.

The internet is in its infancy. It has barely learned how to crawl and is attempting at this point to stand up and walk. Exciting times ahead when it finishes college.

Look, "the internet is stupid" is merely a reflection of humanity. WE are stupid, derived from a violent base animal who breaks down into tribes and smashes the skulls of anything not the same. It's not surprising that the internet reflects its creator.

Yet it is a boon to us. Knowledge has never been so freely available. Learning has never been so easy. Right or wrong, information is out there like never before in history. People, though ignorant, need not remain that way. Whereas in any other time, remaining ignorant is precisely our life story.

The internet crosses tribes and allows for a global bond to slowly form. You see pictures and video of people being slaughtered overseas. You feel for them, you share their pain and wish for it to stop. The internet transmits our feelings and allows empathy to grow. That alone is worth the price of seeing how ugly we all are, because there is also beauty to be found.

And some day those feelings of bonding and fellowship might just prevent a war. Might just save us from ourselves. The internet could become the best thing that has ever happened to us. That is the power of communication.

Communication, to a large extent, is a function of society. One of the greatest disappointments of the internet is that rather than becoming a melting pot where differences in experience and culture are shared, it has created yet another fractured society and culture that is inherently artificial and only serves to further obfuscate communication.

 

[Jaskalas]

Communication, to a large extent, is a function of society. One of the greatest disappointments of the internet is that rather than becoming a melting pot where differences in experience and culture are shared, it has created yet another fractured society and culture that is inherently artificial and only serves to further obfuscate communication.

We may firmly reflect our tribal roots here, but there is also opportunity to slowly break down those barriers. I see that process accelerating once we implement effective translators.

Aside from that, what do you mean by communication as "a function of society"? Are you not recognizing the very real bonding that can happen online?

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

We may firmly reflect our tribal roots here, but there is also opportunity to slowly break down those barriers. I see that process accelerating once we implement effective translators.

Aside from that, what do you mean by communication as "a function of society"? Are you not recognizing the very real bonding that can happen online?

I'm saying that almost all interaction online is filtered through an artificial culture that only serves as another barrier to communication. What you describe is the exception not, the rule.

 

[Gibsons]

I'll respond in a slideshow.

Seriously, for the most part, yes. Banking, shopping, netflix etc. on the interwebs are great things.