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Back in more pathetic years when I pretty much lived in front of computers - for a timespan say 1998 to 2004 - I feel like I got massive value out of having an internet connection.
It really helped with the computer games I was picking up (Civilization included). I was exposed to new **** constantly - foreign cultures, differing political viewpoints, tech culture. I used it to teach myself basic programming. A big chunk of what I know about politics, I picked up from forums like this one.
I met a ton of people purely through the web that I got into "intimate", knowledgeable relationships with, without ever meeting physically. So I might know their troubles with their husband, or they might know what I think about abortion, and neither of us would really know the "slightest" thing about each other like what color they were or that, fe, I was a ****ing kid.
I got to witness dozens of online communities rise and fall or change as their demographic aged, and stumbled by accident onto nascent phenomena that are already "ancient history" like All Your Base.
These days I feel like the exchange of ideas is pretty dead. All the viewpoints are already out there. People already have their minds made up on everything. If you turn somewhere new, you're either going to see the same stuff rehashed, or be trolled into oblivion.
The whole Web 2.0, user-generated content model is mostly garbage. People post content for their families and friends they already have in meatspace to see. That's what the rest of us have already been doing, but now it gets data mined so I get to see ads about **** I search for that are depressingly on-target.
In the past year the most of what I have used the internet for is to talk to friends, make some quick references, and watch The Daily Show. I can only think of two sites that I feel like have shown me completely new things I wouldn't have possibly seen without the web - englishrussia.com and joshreads.com. One of these is about newspaper comic strips.
Therefore, I am going to posit that the Internet is for all intents dead, and its best work is behind it. It'll still be a quick way to talk to friends, a useful tool for scientists to exchange data, and a neat replacement for television. But I don't think I have to worry about it throwing anything at me that is new and interesting.
For summary right now I'm feeling the internet has lost all its wonder and it's only better as a timesuck than, say, cable TV because it's cheaper. As long as there are public libraries with free access I might just well drop it. They'll satisfy what I need in the way of studying and work, and it's not like any of the people that I regularly talk to online these days aren't my friends in real life as well.
If you think I'm wrong, then tell me what I'm doing wrong, and post where you go to get anything that is genuinely exciting or genuinely new. Good luck.
-mrmitchell
It really helped with the computer games I was picking up (Civilization included). I was exposed to new **** constantly - foreign cultures, differing political viewpoints, tech culture. I used it to teach myself basic programming. A big chunk of what I know about politics, I picked up from forums like this one.
I met a ton of people purely through the web that I got into "intimate", knowledgeable relationships with, without ever meeting physically. So I might know their troubles with their husband, or they might know what I think about abortion, and neither of us would really know the "slightest" thing about each other like what color they were or that, fe, I was a ****ing kid.
I got to witness dozens of online communities rise and fall or change as their demographic aged, and stumbled by accident onto nascent phenomena that are already "ancient history" like All Your Base.
These days I feel like the exchange of ideas is pretty dead. All the viewpoints are already out there. People already have their minds made up on everything. If you turn somewhere new, you're either going to see the same stuff rehashed, or be trolled into oblivion.
The whole Web 2.0, user-generated content model is mostly garbage. People post content for their families and friends they already have in meatspace to see. That's what the rest of us have already been doing, but now it gets data mined so I get to see ads about **** I search for that are depressingly on-target.
In the past year the most of what I have used the internet for is to talk to friends, make some quick references, and watch The Daily Show. I can only think of two sites that I feel like have shown me completely new things I wouldn't have possibly seen without the web - englishrussia.com and joshreads.com. One of these is about newspaper comic strips.
Therefore, I am going to posit that the Internet is for all intents dead, and its best work is behind it. It'll still be a quick way to talk to friends, a useful tool for scientists to exchange data, and a neat replacement for television. But I don't think I have to worry about it throwing anything at me that is new and interesting.
For summary right now I'm feeling the internet has lost all its wonder and it's only better as a timesuck than, say, cable TV because it's cheaper. As long as there are public libraries with free access I might just well drop it. They'll satisfy what I need in the way of studying and work, and it's not like any of the people that I regularly talk to online these days aren't my friends in real life as well.
If you think I'm wrong, then tell me what I'm doing wrong, and post where you go to get anything that is genuinely exciting or genuinely new. Good luck.
-mrmitchell
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