Anyway else i can use Internet for?

[kataras]

Hi,

Now i will try and be a philosopher for a minute and try to answer the question, what is the point of the Internet. Because after a while i found a point where i think there must be a gap or a thing i am missing to make the internet maybe more productive maybe more interesting and amusing.

For some very strange reason this has cought me. I basically come home after studies, have some lunch there is not much going on so i sit down by my pc and all i do is stare at the screen with firefox on it.

Can any of you name what is it that you do in the Internet? I will try and summarize what i find myself doing.

Work/Studies/Information

It is a very generalised category. Seeing how many organizations switching to internet, its unbelievable how much time i spend on it because of that. Yes there is material to download from my uni, yes i can check on my timetable (work rosters etc), train times over all i can look up INFORMATION, which helps to achieve one or other given task.

Email

Always check email, even if theres no-one to expect to get email from i still check it like 10 maybe more times a day.

Facebook

This one is for purely just to keep in touch with ppl, to know what is going on, latest events etc. dont go on this one too often maybe two three times a day.

Forums

I will probably exaggerate a little but i find myself spending a lot of time in these things, sometimes, trying to get some help, maybe help someone else maybe just to shout at ppl and show others how retarded/stupid they are or just to ask for someones opinion on certain thing (photoshoped image, film, website etc).

StumbleUpon

And theres stumble, this one fills in the gap, when it comes to a time when i think, god i just gone through all my often visited sites, ill press this button and ill see what site it will come up with for me to have a look at. I mean this is pure genius, but i dont think that is all i use interent for.

Games

Now i dont find myself playing much, but internet helps to do that, multiplier gaming is awesome when you want to just stay in and let it all out on other ppl.

Downloads

Now im certainly not saying that i am a download pirate, even though everyone knows that some ppl do it. But yes, internet makes it happen, it lets you download things, music, films you name it, one second its somewhere on some sort of website the other its in your hard drive for you to have 24/7 access to.

Purchasing

Internet makes buying stuff so much easier, you can go ahead and get yourself from pizza to a trip to mountain everest, its fast its quick, fantastic.

This buggers me, i cant stand but think that im missing something and that there is some other things i could do on the internet as well.

If you got any time to spare please name some of the main things you find yourself doing on the internet.

 

[Rastalovich]

It's a pretty decent thought. Something I'll probably come back to 2morrow.

Would like to point out tho that the information side of things blows for me these days. It used to be the case that u searched for something and although u would still get 50 million results, the first so many pages would be about what u searched for.

Today, and it's happened over the last couple of years I think, the first dozen results can contain blogs, auto-bot'd pages, suggestions, dead links. Or u get 1 result at the top for what u want +50 million results.... that have nothing to do with anything.

Meh, something to think about. Think the net has peaked for me tho, think it was during the time when it was still considered geeky, and after broadband was around by 1 or 2 isps.

 

[VonBlade]

The internet exists to allow bigots to be bigoted in the privacy of their own homes, kids to pretend to be adults and guys without a nearby newsagent to obtain shrimp.

Completely seriously, the Internet allows information to be disseminated quickly. It stops propaganda wholly shaping peoples opinions. It will, assuming it hasn't all 404'd, allow people in hundreds of years time to know what was going on now, rather than relying upon revisionist history/religious persecution/oral history.

Go back 60 years and an entire war was started with the use of propaganda and finished with the use of misinformation. That would never happen anymore.

The revolution wont be televised. It's happened.

 

[nepas]

Today, and it's happened over the last couple of years I think, the first dozen results can contain blogs, auto-bot'd pages, suggestions, dead links. Or u get 1 result at the top for what u want +50 million results.... that have nothing to do with anything.

agreed

 

[kataras]

I know right, now to find information it is needed to know reliable sources bbc, review sites for instance. Without that you will either find just some ppl blurbs of how much they know or would like to know about one or the other thing. Seems even that Wikipedia, usually the first thing i use to lookup a certain object, is slowly little by little becoming a user and administrator war zone where everyone has different stories for same topic and want everyone else to believe in it.

I shall be back later.

 

[Rastalovich]

Go back 60 years and an entire war was started with the use of propaganda and finished with the use of misinformation. That would never happen anymore.

I tend to disagree. Hundreds of years ago, rulers, or those with intent, would send spys/people into villages to vocally spread rumors. e.g. the xxxxxx are coming, they're gonna kill every1, blah blah. Nice foreignish people turn up and get their arses handed to them.

War of the worlds broadcast on the radio.

Later years leaflets are scattered over areas. Loudspeakers get used. TV stations can be slanted to party lines.

These days I feel the majority of the lemmings see or read something on the internet and have no thought as to either question what they see or any incline that it could be wrong.

And the information is immediate.

The whole media circus evolves around the channeling of information, not necessarily wholey accurate, voice in terms of an opinion (which isn't information, it's a slant of the information), to generate views, hits, ratings - which in the long run equal cash.

And if it's in the media, the majority take it as face value. Politics is greatly controlled by this. For me, right now, the net is a part of the media as much as TV/Radio.

It can be thought that a person with a wireless connection, living in a cave if u like, can stir a whole race/religion/culture into a war based on mis-information, crafted in a fashion to have their particular lemmings think the way they want them to based on perhaps religion/lies (or we could say propaganda).

Worrying also that a good handful of the words just inside this thread will have govt based institutions (on the opposing side to the above if u like) creaming themselves over so many keywords flashing lights on their scanners.

I know right, now to find information it is needed to know reliable sources bbc, review sites for instance.

Even this worries me see. Everything should be questioned, held in view as opinion.

 

[fruityness]

The information side isnt all that within the internet, or any other media forum.. It all comes with the authors point of view, or slant on things. You cant really get an unbiased opinion of anything, from any site.

I read the bbc site often, and it annoys me greatly how they comment on things " the president said XYZ", but they never actually QUOTE what was said word for word, they pick and choose the words to highlight what to use or omit for their own ends to justify their own view or editors wish.

Its all rubbish. Anything you read beyond the realms of academia, need to be taken with a big pinch of salt. Its all spin.

 

[Rastalovich]

I read the bbc site often, and it annoys me greatly how they comment on things " the president said XYZ", but they never actually QUOTE what was said word for word, they pick and choose the words to highlight what to use or omit for their own ends to justify their own view or editors wish.

One of the things I don't like either.

 

[VonBlade]

But that's nowhere near as bad as tabloids, Fox News or even Sky News.

I watched an interview on Sky News the other day which was basically :

"I'm concerned about x"

"How worried exactly are you?"

"Well, I'm worried"

"So you're saying you're disturbed by this?"

"I'd say I was very worried yes"

"So there we are, person x is deeply distressed by this, back to you in the studio".

And that happens all the time.

Fox News is the same thing. As this video attests.

 

[Rastalovich]

There are definitely degrees.

To give a rundown of how news-tv happens:

• Buildup: in the run-up to the time it goes on air, u can have a commercial for it, possibly with 1 or 2 shock snippits about what they'll talk about to get u keyed up to tune it.
  
• It'll start with some fantastic soundtrack, something exciting and dramatic. Some employ stills of topics about to be mentioned, just to real in those who're partially hooked.
  
• Smart, business like set, or fringing on a homely front window look with the addition of a couch. Action in the background puts the impression over that they're looking into stuff just as ur watching, usually it'll be glazed off glass so u can't see they're actually looking at myspace or ebay.
  
• Attractive presenters. Female-wize, alot of emphasis is on the mouth area (and I'm not trying to be funny here or anything) it has an unconscious capture on the male audience, almost hypnotic. Even if the presenter is slightly "doggy" and a legend in broadcasting, if they have that going for them, they'll be capable of anchoring. Male-wize, to be serious enough looking, smart, often a type that an elderly female (for want of a better choice) would classically like to "mother" or be proud of. It's a fixatable trait for them. All this is to keep the attention of a demographic.
  
• Weather reporting heavily leans on the cuddly side. It's the soft side of the news report, nice and glossy, often very presentable, often very wrong, but it's overflowing with niceness to make u comfortable.
  
• Pictures, scenes - all have to be dramatical. If it's of a suspected criminal character, it will be of them actually looking menacing, obviously not of them at a christmas party. A recent trend is to zoom in on the eyes/facial area of the subject. This particularly has absolutely nothing to do with the subject but it's equivalent to a subliminal message. If u didn't think one way about the subject, u will go along with the words being spoken about them now.
  
• Reporters will be in places they really have no value in being. Even if they have nothing to say, they have to fill a minute or so of air time, even if it's to put over what they (or what the station wants) want to say to make their piece of reporting appear the most important part of the news segment. They can be dangerous in their actions, put lives of not just themselves, but crew at risk, just to get a dramatical a scene put together for their segment. Whether it being in a disaster zone, freak of weather, or a war zone. Most stupid is standing in front of No.10/parliment in the UK when no1 is in there. Or in the US standing in the foreground of the WhiteHouse when the staff are on a visit somewhere else. It puts over to u that what I'm saying has to be right cos look where I am.
  
  Reporter awards are a big big no-no imo.
  
• In the states, or a particular state I know, a big attraction is a car chase. There's absolutely no news in watching it, but it's pull is like an exciting ball game or a movie. People, including me, will flip on just to watch it. U know the suspect isn't going to get away and ur hoping they beat the living crap out of them when they catch em. To curtain some of those feelings, from time to time a peace officer will be brought on charges in relation to similar events, but inherently u don't care about that, just brings reality back.
  
• Finalizing in a "nice" story has been a long tradition. It's almost subliminal in itself. It's not merely on the face of it to put over that although all these bad things happen, there are good things too, it's to re-assure u that u can trust what u have just seen or experienced and feel good about the delivery. It's that chemical release thing in the brain, similar to how u can come to love something that is obvious to every1 else is bad for u, but cos of the release thing u get from time to time, u go along with it.

This could be any news channel. To just give u the facts that they know and not what they perceive would just be too boring, not audience capturing, and not be a solid platform for them put over to u the thoughts they want u to have.

If they don't get ratings, they won't stay on air. Totally wrong imo.

 

[atarist]

are i ask my self that every time i go on the net,

Like wot the hell am i doing sat here looking at the screen all day long.

When i can be doing some fhink more constructibe in my life??

When i first got the internet in back in 2004 i though 2 my self for the first time,

WOW jst look at all the stuff i can do send e.mails / download games / and all the porn i like :worship:

I spent about 15 hours a day on chat rooms for about 3 mouths straight,

night n day.

It was like a drug 2 me then but after a bit it soon got very boring 2 me after 3,

Mounths as the novently worn off.

i look at it like this the internet for some people need it in there lifes and some dont i call people that sit in frount of a p.c.on the internet all day

(iINTERNET VOMBIES) for me the nets jst a pass time when theres nowt no

t.v.

I my self just look at computer stuff in my time on the internet on places like e.bay and pc world maplin and the odd chat rums like thera i am ALLWAYS,

checking my e.mails 2 about 10 times a day your not alone on that one lol.

I look up the odd cheats for games i have on the net some times 2,

and download the latest gfx card drivers i need.

at the end of day its jst down 2 peoples choice what there what 2 do in life.

 

[Diablo]

This thread sums up all the thoughts I have had about the internet recently. I feel a little depressed that I seem to sit in front of this screen for probably 6 hours a day, and the computer is on about 18 hours a day.

At the minute, I don't game online, mainly because I feel that if I end up doing that, something is very wrong (at uni). I use the internet basically to live on this forum/XKCD/BBC/Facebook and that's it apart from the odd download of drivers. (gotta love 100Mb line)

I check my emails (automatically) every two minutes so probably about 500+ times a day.

I don't even look around the internet shops as much (mainly because I don;t have the cash). I don't even use the internet for work related things (i.e. wiki) except for differentiator 101 and integrator.

The internet really needs something else...or maybe I should just go to the bar more often?