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But this in itself doesn't make a person do anything. They are related though. What's worse? That they know you like to buy shoes twice a month. Or that they're allowed to spew lies and propaganda to sway your opinion. Again, the internet is a tool. By itself it's not destroying anything, anymore then a hammer is responsible for you hitting someone over the head. It's the greed and human nature behind it that is the problem. Blaming the internet IMO is just ducking responsibility. We could stop these issues if we really wanted. We just don't want to.
The first and fourth amendments are hanging by a thread. I'm not worried about my shoes. I'm worried about my health records, political opinions, cultural preferences, and so forth.
I'm not claiming that the Internet is a person. Of course any reference to the Internet is a reference to how people are using the Internet. That should have been obvious.
If it were obvious then the discussion wouldn't even have been started. Gerrymandering came about in 1812. Your employer has been in your health and personal business for decades. People have been in your business since you were born. None of this is new.
Really? That's pretty cool. I got it off of someone on Twitter.. Not sure of it's origin.
If discussions can't be started by quibbling over obvious things, this discussion wouldn't even have started.
If discussions can't be started by quibbling over obvious things, this discussion wouldn't even have started.
True. I just think it's fair to point out that all the bad things usually attributed to the internet (manipulation, privacy issues, etc) were actually in place and practiced long before the internet was even an idea outside of SciFi. I find that in general conversation most people will just blame the internet for issues without ever questioning the people behind those issues. As if it were a live entity doing these nefarious acts on its own.
I enjoy talking to people in person much more than through the internet. It’s more......personable. However it does have its uses. Don’t get me started on the no privacy aspect. As they say, if it’s something you want to keep private don’t put it on the internet.
Nailed it in the first post.
We're taking down ourselves. The internet is just a very efficient method for hastening the process.
It has made it possible for us to (somewhat) anonymously flame each other and drive huge wedges between varying segments of the population. It has allowed us to revert back to "If you ain't one of us, yer one of THEM!".
It's the modern version of torches and pitchforks. All one need do is whip up the crowd..... which is ridiculously easy to do.
Edit to add: ......which is just one more reason why I admire the purveyors of TalkBass for clamping down on politics and religion. We already cut each other down over flats and tort.
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Everything that can be described as a change, can also be described as an evolution with antecedents. Technologies can be described as out-of-the-blue novelties, or multipliers to existing forces. Carrying it to the extreme, nothing changes, and there is never anything to worry about.
Yet even a change that is limited to the magnitude of an existing phenomenon can be cause for concern if the magnitude is great enough. Abusing people takes effort, and that which makes it easier, is something I'd like to know about and discuss in the open, while it's still possible to have open discussions.
The idea that the Internet is a person, would have struck me as so ridiculous, that I wouldn't have read it into this discussion, or felt a need to point it out.
The point I have been trying to make is that everyone just generically blames the internet, as if it was some sort of "sentient" being, instead of examining or holding accountable the actual people or organizations responsible for bad behavior. I don't know where this notion that we were believing the internet is a actual person is coming from. I confess I don't really understand what point you are actually making. I get that the technology makes taking advantage of a group of people easier, what I don't understand is why that makes the technology bad. It seems a big cop out to me. Sure, it makes it easier to convince an idiot to believe the government is running a sex ring out of a pizza shop. But why does no one ever wonder why there's no consequences to try to manipulate?
As Bernard Trink used to write in the Bangkok Post: human nature
What I have trouble getting my head around is how people go to social media over every little thing, or they need a YT tutorial before they can accomplish even the simplest task.
This hit home for me other day when a person posted a photo of their Strat where the pickup screw had been adjusted too far out & it simply came loose & the pickup dropped down into the body.
Any simpleton could have known that you have to remove the pick-guard to fix it, but of course it took 2 dozen folks commenting that for this person to realize & then he's commenting how grateful he is that the group was able to help.
So, I'm guessing he couldn't have figured this out on his own
I’m old enough to remember the Sears Catalog having a few pages dedicated to replacement electric motors for just about anything they sold with an electric motor in it and in the case of tools like table saws and such, hop up motors. Ten HP motors to replace five HP motors, stuff like that. For some of their premier tool offerings, every part needed to build one was available as a spare/replacement right down to screws and rubber feet.
They quit selling that stuff for several reasons, one being the constant headache of dealing with clueless customers who would order and return part after part because they were clueless when it came to manipulating less than a dozen fasteners and a spring loaded belt tensioner to replace the motor in a clothes dryer or a handful of fasteners and an electrical plug to replace a heating element. A guy i was working with a few years ago paid a guy over $200 labor for the guy to come out and replace a set of water heater elements. He was there less than half an hour and charged the guy an additional forty for parts. It’s depressing at times.
