How Important Is The Internet?

[Lorizael]

Well now I just look stupid.

[Aeson]

The internet is a lot of things. I love it, but I don't trust it at all.

I remember the first time online, it was trying AOL on one of those "free" trials. IIRC the first site I visited intentionally (rather than the AOL homepage) was ESPN to check some sports scores.

I cancelled right away to avoid going over the free minutes on the trial. Got billed still, resulting in an overdraft charge (I was 15, so my bank balance was... minimal). Cancelled again. Got billed again, another overdraft charge. Stop payment charge and cancelled again. Got some notification from AOL about the lack of payment. My Dad finally wrote them a letter about possible legal action to recoup the bank charges and about how their contract had been with a minor, ect... and never heard from them again.

Yah... I remember it... AOL sucks! (IIRC there was a class action about the issue later.) The bank were bastards too. I was over something like $1.50 the first time, and they took $35 for that. Then to stop payment cost $50. Plus some transaction fees.

My next try wasn't much better. Gotta love ISPs that wouldn't list their local access numbers before you pay. This one was the only one who claimed "local" coverage in that part of ID at the time. Of course it was long distance, which they failed to mention, and is kinda not "local" at all.

The latest scam I've been hit by is the "7 day trial" which while you can sign up for it online, actually needs to be cancelled over the phone before the 6th day (which conveniently is not mentioned anywhere before you enter the credit card number). Not to mention their call centers can't be reached on weekends, and only after a prolonged wait on any day, so in the best case it's really a 3 day trial if you sign up on Wednesday, and likely means you're going to be billed before you can cancel. The only saving grace is that they did have toll-free numbers to call to cancel... I'm sure there are "free" offers which don't.

[Odin]

Originally posted by Aeson
The internet is a lot of things. I love it, but I don't trust it at all.

I remember the first time online, it was trying AOL on one of those "free" trials. IIRC the first site I visited intentionally (rather than the AOL homepage) was ESPN to check some sports scores.

I cancelled right away to avoid going over the free minutes on the trial. Got billed still, resulting in an overdraft charge (I was 15, so my bank balance was... minimal). Cancelled again. Got billed again, another overdraft charge. Stop payment charge and cancelled again. Got some notification from AOL about the lack of payment. My Dad finally wrote them a letter about possible legal action to recoup the bank charges and about how their contract had been with a minor, ect... and never heard from them again.

Yah... I remember it... AOL sucks! (IIRC there was a class action about the issue later.) The bank were bastards too. I was over something like $1.50 the first time, and they took $35 for that. Then to stop payment cost $50. Plus some transaction fees.

My next try wasn't much better. Gotta love ISPs that wouldn't list their local access numbers before you pay. This one was the only one who claimed "local" coverage in that part of ID at the time. Of course it was long distance, which they failed to mention, and is kinda not "local" at all.

The latest scam I've been hit by is the "7 day trial" which while you can sign up for it online, actually needs to be cancelled over the phone before the 6th day (which conveniently is not mentioned anywhere before you enter the credit card number). Not to mention their call centers can't be reached on weekends, and only after a prolonged wait on any day, so in the best case it's really a 3 day trial if you sign up on Wednesday, and likely means you're going to be billed before you can cancel. The only saving grace is that they did have toll-free numbers to call to cancel... I'm sure there are "free" offers which don't.

Thank God for cable internet.

[Zkribbler]

(a) Instant, inexpensive, world-wide communication.

(b) Hangin' around places like 'Poly talking to people from all over the world -- getting a non-American perspective on things = Priceless.

(c)(1) Using google, ask.com and wikipedia to find out stuff almost immediately

(c)(2) Finding routes and location via Mapquest, etc.

(d) Xmas shopping online...find it...send it...done.

(e) Making inexpensive hotel reservations.

(f) Reserving books at the library...or buying hard-to-find books at Amazon.com.

Internet

[Pekka]

Well, with it, we have stepped into information age... the last paradigm before that was the industrial revolution.

If some old dude gets by without it, cool, but a lot of communication is done via internet, as well as business, as well as all kinds of phenomenons.

[Solver]

There's a difference, IMO, between convenience and exclusive opportunities. Online shopping or online maps are a convenience. You could do it without the Net, offline, it's just less convenient. The really big things are opportunities exclusive to the Net. Seeing the perspective of many and many foreigners, finding answers to questions (many of which would be near-impossible to do in an ordinary library / reference) and such.

[Wittlich]

I, myself, can not imagine my life without the internet...and that's quite scary when you think about it...

[Odin]

Originally posted by Wittlich
I, myself, can not imagine my life without the internet...and that's quite scary when you think about it...

[Dis]

I actually got rid of my internet connection for almost 2 months. I could do it, but it's an annoyance and inconvenience.

There are so many things I wanted to look up, but couldn't. I guess I could have gone to a library. But the internet is so much easier. Great for a lazy person like me.

Long live the internets.

[Ari Rahikkala]

I.SFB

[Dis]

Originally posted by Solver
On the one hand, it's a required luxury. On the other hand, it's probably the most required of all luxuries. And, in any case, it seems to be one of the greatest human creations ever.

Remember that the Internet is very new. Thinking about its current form, well, the Web started becoming interesting in 1995 or so. At that time, Internet was not really accessible to a lot of people. Even now, availability is very poor in India, China or poor African countries, some other autoritarian countries, etc.

Okay, the Net sure makes jobs easier. Say, programming. Online references are more convenient than book references, but books work, too. However, there's no way to replace forums where you have access to hundreds of thousands of questions asked by other people and answers to them - and where you can ask your own question. Which, of course, applies to many jobs.

But it's not even that. The Internet, really, is the first thing to truly transcend national boundaries. It's now easy to know what's going on in another country - without the Net, your info about that would be quite limited (even when available at all). Politically authoritarian regimes always restrict freedom of information, from the USSR to modern China. Still, as the Chinese have found out, it's not that easy to censor the Internet. Some find ways past the censors to get to foreign sites. Others publish their information, which is obviously not government-approved, on their own sites. It's hard to fight.

And rapid communication between like-minded individuals has never been possible on anywhere near this scale. With the popularity of instant messengers, the Internet has even gone from being rapid communication to sometimes being instant communication. That's what makes it so hugely important.

without the internet I would have never learned about those evil finns.

[Dis]

and without the internet I would have never learned the word bukkake.

[Solver]

Originally posted by Dis
and without the internet I would have never learned the word bukkake.

I learned quite a bunch of words on the Internet that I'd rather not know...

Without the Internet, though, it would be harder to decide which Stephen King book to read next . Oh, and to think that I'd never know about Battlestar Galactica without it!

[Dis]

good point.

Is the internet worth having seen the monstrosity that is tub girl?

[DrSpike]

Waste of time. You'd never catch me on no stinkin' internet.