So I just browsed through the ‘consequences will never be the same’ thread, which led me to a website I never heard of before, encyclopedia dramatica. After browsing through that site for a little bit I came to the conclusion that the internet is a terrifying place. Its made me grateful for my tiny corner of the web, here at T-Nation and a few other choice sites.
So as I watch the influence of the interweb trickle into everyday life I wonder about the ultimate effect its going to have on our culture and society. Is the internet going to serve as a wealth of knowledge and a forum for great minds to make solutions for todays problems and challenges? Or will people come to more closely resemble their internet personas; spiteful, rude, and without any measurable attention span.
Maybe this is just another ‘are people getting dumber’ thread, but I’d be interesting in hearing your opinions on the influence of the net, and perhaps even internet censorship.
[quote]LankyMofo wrote:
Nothing, and I mean nothing, can be worse for the American population at large than television.[/quote]
lol as bad as most tv is, most shows that I’ve seen show how a person should act, maybe not in the characters entirety, but they show some decent qualities sometimes.
The internet? Jesus, fucking 4chan alone is the death of thought. Not to mention kids desensitizing themselves to gore and guns and stuff to the point where they don’t think it’s wrong anymore. Then wonder why they’re in jail for 20 years because they lit some goddamn kid on fire, because he stood up for himself.
[quote]LankyMofo wrote:
Nothing, and I mean nothing, can be worse for the American population at large than television.[/quote]
lol as bad as most tv is, most shows that I’ve seen show how a person should act, maybe not in the characters entirety, but they show some decent qualities sometimes.
The internet? Jesus, fucking 4chan alone is the death of thought. Not to mention kids desensitizing themselves to gore and guns and stuff to the point where they don’t think it’s wrong anymore. Then wonder why they’re in jail for 20 years because they lit some goddamn kid on fire, because he stood up for himself.[/quote]
That’s not even what I’m referring to. I don’t care if everyone on TV is the most upstanding citizen there ever was.
TV gives people something to do other than learn and educate themselves. The average American doesn’t care about political, economic, social issues anymore, they want to catch the newest episode of Lost. They choose ignorance over knowledge.
Couple that with the fact that most get their news from the mainstream media, shoving whatever bias it may have down their throat and you have a recipe for disaster.
Before if you wanted to know something you had to go out and learn about it. Now you have pundits just regurgitating whatever causes the most alarm because that is what gets ratings, without regard to the TRUTH.
[quote]LankyMofo wrote:
Nothing, and I mean nothing, can be worse for the American population at large than television.[/quote]
lol as bad as most tv is, most shows that I’ve seen show how a person should act, maybe not in the characters entirety, but they show some decent qualities sometimes.
The internet? Jesus, fucking 4chan alone is the death of thought. Not to mention kids desensitizing themselves to gore and guns and stuff to the point where they don’t think it’s wrong anymore. Then wonder why they’re in jail for 20 years because they lit some goddamn kid on fire, because he stood up for himself.[/quote]
I tend to agree. I think the internet is a whole different animal then TV, because of its participatory nature.
I don’t think the internet changed anything but it’s now easier to see how ugly and judgemental we can be. If that is reality well ‘‘it is what it is’’
So as I watch the influence of the interweb trickle into everyday life I wonder about the ultimate effect its going to have on our culture and society. [/quote]
The influence of everyday life had to trickle into the internet first for us to get where we are, so the effects depend entirely on how much culture and society eventually influence the internet: they feed off each other - the internet wouldn’t be a scary place if the world wasn’t equally as scary.
[quote]johnnytang24 wrote:
You do know ED is one big joke right? What’s scary about it?[/quote]
Yeah I know its a joke, and I even acknowledge that some of it’s funny. I just wonder if that casual disrespect, contempt for everything attitude found there is going to become the norm outside of the net. Maybe you are able to compartmentalize this stuff or make distinctions between reality and the internet, but think about the 11 year old girls out there, like the one that dun goofed up, that grow up involved in this crap. Think about how that shapes their fragile, gooey little minds.
[quote]jasmincar wrote:
I don’t think the internet changed anything but it’s now easier to see how ugly and judgemental we can be. If that is reality well ‘‘it is what it is’’[/quote]
[quote]roybot wrote:
The influence of everyday life had to trickle into the internet first for us to get where we are, so the effects depend entirely on how much culture and society eventually influence the internet: they feed off each other - the internet wouldn’t be a scary place if the world wasn’t equally as scary.
[/quote]
Excellent points guys. Maybe what we’re seeing is the anonymity of the internet allowing people to act without fear of consequences or shame. Do you think that this could have some kind of snowball effect, like people become desensitized to filth and thus feel less restrained to spreading more crap.
You know what “Internet Hate Machine” is right? I do agree with you that the Internet is scary. Its such a powerful thing that was suppose to help people come together and bring us all closer…instead people abuse it and rape what once was a “good idea”. I guess because its all anonymous people think God cant see what they’re doing so they think they can get away with it.
