I think there are two different perceptions of the Internet, even after all these years.
There's one which is that the Net is where socially isolated people, perhaps even dysfunctional, go to hide from the world and real people.
And there's one which sees the Net as the single most powerful communications medium ever invented.
In 1994 a friend told me about the World Wide Web, and web sites. "That's for me, I want one!" I said.
I think life and ideas and communication is much too big and important and alive! to limit to sharing with the handful of people you happen to share a room with normally.
Alex said:
The net is a small town, everything you need is a short stroll from everything else. There just happens to be a worlds worth of stuff in this town.
Still, you can get groceries without having to stand in line. You can buy books without having to put up with the stench of someone elses coffee and trying to climb over the teens spread out on the floor in the manga section.
You can drop into a pub or coffee shop like this blog and talk to people, without the noise of other people or a busy kitchen. You can talk with time to think between sentences, like playing chess by mail. You can pickup and drop penpals globally. The lower (emotional) entry cost makes it easier to walk up to a stranger and say "I couldn't help but overhear and ...".
The internet is the perfect village in the heart of a metropolis.
26 comments:
If enough of us had access to the Internet on a regular basis and used it to share ideas and help one another, we could probably solve a lot of the world's problems.
We're all more alike than we previously had realized.
There really is this black-or-white view, and it's something I can not understand. To me the Net is both extremes and everything in between. It's what its millions of users make of it. It's a replica of the "real" world: you have all the good people and all the bad people, the shiny happy ones and the paedophiles, the evangelists and the serial killers, all the right places and all the wrong places, it can be safe and it can be dangerous, it can be useful or the greatest time waster. It is a vast thing, it's the world.
Yes, that last bit is very important. It is vast, it's like the sky. To see it as this little room where you can go and get away from the world, as some apparently do, is a spectacularly limited perspective.
"That's for me, I want one!" I said.
Proving the first hypothesis was correct! ;-)
No, but seriously, what Mary said.
As much immense potential as the world itself. Because we are what makes the world a world, more than mere space to stroll into, a place to LIVE.
But I'll spare you the cliché "larger than life" expression. That one's only proper for big statues of little people. Literally. ;-)
Yup. "Magnetic" ideas indeed, lil' missie. You think healthily.
(But why the stern-looking pic? Too many online lurkers hitting on you? :-)
The internet is really just a giant pornography network. The rest of it is taken up with stuff like this blog, which keeps people from achieving anything. Surfing accomplishes nothing. Reading and responding to blogs accomplishes nothing. I'm fine with that but some people are in denial.
Well, that's a viewpoint.
I'm curious as to what are activities which accomplishes something?
The Internet? Cables and routers, a couple of well thought protocols (TCP/IP) and many more design failures.
... the evangelists and the serial killers ...
But these are from the same end of the spectrum. I don't get it.
The net is a small town, everything you need is a short stroll from everything else. There just happens to be a worlds worth of stuff in this town.
Still, you can get groceries without having to stand in line. You can buy books without having to put up with the stench of someone elses coffee and trying to climb over the teens spread out on the floor in the manga section.
You can drop into a pub or coffee shop like this blog and talk to people, without the noise of other people or a busy kitchen. You can talk with time to think between sentences, like playing chess by mail. You can pickup and drop penpals globally. The lower (emotional) entry cost makes it easier to walk up to a stranger and say "I couldn't help but overhear and ...".
The internet is the perfect village in the heart of a metropolis.
You said it, Alex!!
I love all those things.
Not the least not having to stand in line for groceries and carrying them home. (I can't believe it took me til 2004 to discover that boon.
Yes, Alex just said it beautifully. (Pascal, but I don't look stern! I'm zen) (TTL, I see your point...)
You guys all sound like each one of you could be a poster child for the dysfunctional and socially isolated.
Although I dislike big chain bookstores, if those same chains hadn't driven all the smaller ones out of business I'd still prefer to go to a bookstore and browse. I am remembering the days before they had combined the warehouse, a coffeehouse, and a bookstore into one monstrosity. And it would be nice to have one of those small places that was within walking distance too.
I haven't gone to ordering groceries over the internet*. Since I work from home I think that would pretty much make me a shut in, especially in the winter.
I too would consider most of what people do on the internet to be a complete waste of time but that doesn't mean I don't do it or that we shouldn't. Not everything we do has to be productive; not everything has to be for self improvement or something.
*You say you can't believe it took you till 2004 to learn of that, well I'm just learning of it now. Now that I know it exists I might have to do that.
Ah, but the local grocery store has Mariah and Kourtnee working there.
There is something wonderful about the tactile feel of a book, and that cinnamon smell of old books in the second hand shop.
There is the game of darts or pool to enhance the pub experience, or dominoes or cards.
I agree with all of the 11 comments ! :-)
Depending on my mood. If that day I got energy from internet or if it just ate up my time. Some days an interesting thought can just lift me up, I keep thinking of it while walking on the street. Some days it just steals energy and gives backache... :-)
But being honest, I can pretty well agree with all the comments at the same time.
Basically it gave me very much, but I am a new interneter.
How can you be so new, you're in your twenties, I thought the young'uns grew up with the web?
Anon,
There's more to it than that, you know.
For instance, if you're in a sour mood, you can just mercilessly bash at someone's dearest opinions without leaving a name, and revel in the sadism of it.
Just a random thought... ;-)
"Surfing accomplishes nothing."
Really? What about a
double cutback floater off the lip tube ride, you call that "nothing"? Like, gnarly, dude! Ease up, will ya? Get a life, yo. Get laid, it'll help your square mood, and quit grinning upside-down like a Great White shark.
Alex,
You and me both, buddy.
Homestly, teens today. Such poor reading posture. Baka!
My dear Auntie Euphrasia, famous pillar of our Parish, always told me: "Don't read while lying down, you'll end up cross-eyed!"
For some bizarre reason, I wear glasses, since before I ever thought of reading spread out on the bed, but my eyes stubbornly refuse to diverge. Or converge.
Go figure. My aunt is alays right. She said so herself...
Mary,
Must be the rectangular glasses. They always make a woman remind me of Mistress Severa, our Sex Ed teacher. Without her, I'd still be a happy unscarred virgin.
SHE made some memorable points with her stiletto heels. I tell ya, these nuns are STERN educators.
Joe,
You're really gutsy, man. I mean, surfing the web just like us losers, and in fact WITH us, not afraid of what your innumerable cool buddies might think? Wow. That takes real balls. Bowling size cojones, hombre. ;-)
With the still widespread dial-up internet and the electricity rationing, online commerce isn't about to threaten family businesses and stores here in Lebanon.
Plus, a salesman you know well gives you special discounts, solely because you're buddies. The smile is a free bonus.
I like dealing with humans who have a face. :-)
As a bonus, like Joe says, going out to do your shopping (especially on foot) helps you keep a healthily mobile lifestyle. And decreases exhaust fumes CO2emissions.
You should try it if you're attempting to lose a few pounds, Eolake. Every time I go "store window-licking", I walk at least an hour and a half that day. With just once every week, I have my medically recommended minimum quota of longevity-expanding physical exercise. (For reminders, that's 30 minutes walking 3 times a week.)
Getting yourself reasonably tired once in a while is very healthy. Ain't nothing wrong with carrying your groceries yourself (done it for 2 years while I was living alone as a student) and meeting the people who live right next to you.
Ain't nothing wrong either with meeting people from further than your nose and worldwide. Ideally, one should do both.
(Not bragging that I'm an ideal guy, but hey, if the shoe fits...)
"Now that I know it exists I might have to do that."
Et tu, Jodicus? NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!
Oh, cruel solitude.
I once read a sci-fi- story, about a future "perfectly germ-free" world where people travelled instantly anywhere through teleportation "Doors". Including kids going to school. For everything.
Then one day, a kid's door breaks down, and a repairman has to come fix it... arriving from "outside". The kid discovers that secret part of the planet, and soon the horribly mud-smudged trend spreads. Maybe the worst thing about it is, these now "filthy" children actually seem happier than ever, playing and rolling over in the (eyuck!) DIRT. Parents get understandably concerned...
Alex said...
"Ah, but the local grocery store has Mariah and Kourtnee working there."
What, you mean that disgusting primitive way of meeting women who actually look like their photo and use their real name?
You're sick, man! Somebody should arrest you and shove you in a padded cell, for your own good.
..."and that cinnamon smell of old books in the second hand shop."
Vade retro, you devilish temptator! You sing my tune, but my will... is... strong... and...
Aw, who am I kidding? I was missed at five feet by a stray bullet last time I went to the Beirut used books fair, and it didn't even shake my paper addiction resolve.
I have a problem. I need help.
Got some room left in that padded cell? Then be a friend, and move over a little.
"Good morning everyone. My name is Pascal, and I read paper books. Page after page after page."
"There is the game of darts or pool to enhance the pub experience, or dominoes or cards."
Nothing that a good Wii™ CD cannot ensure you, along with the online Mii™ avatar friends.
Plus, like Eo said, the game is helpfully rigged so you cannot even send your bowling ball in the gutter ON PURPOSE.
Real life is scarily cruel. You can actually lose. Not very character-building, is it?
Aniko,
Welcome to the web and our shut-ins chatting salon.
Or should I say Konnichi wa? (Maybe ohayô gozaimas, if I assess the current time in Japan correctly?...)
I've learned manners thanks to the internet.
"And for the last day and a half, I haven't touched one book. Thank you, Bookaholic Banonymous!"
:-)))
Pascal, I like to know you write from Lebanon. Makes the "shut-ins chatroom" feel wider.
I am not Japanese, I am hungarian, so "Konnichi wa?" is quite ok. Don't have a blog, but a story here, so if everybody wears a portrait I should do that too.
http://www.domai.com/news/2008/12december-26/index.html
"How can you be so new, you're in your twenties, I thought the young'uns grew up with the web?"
Well, I am of course in my twenties and will always be, but administratively I've already begun my third decade,
so no, I did not grow up with internet. And when I used it, it was mainly for e-mail, to communicate with people I knew. Sometimes to look up information. Always had slow internet until a few years ago.
So this is the first blog I ever wrote in ! :-)
"You can talk with time to think between sentences, like playing chess by mail."
So right, Alex.
Ah that Aniko. From the name alone I would have chanced "Konnichi wa" too.
Loved the set EO posted from you, I was going to give up on Domai since it seemed to be all these pale young ladies.
As for a "Shut Ins chatroom", I do go out to work, not work from home. I don't think the sun sets on the Stobblehouse blog empire really, we even have Canadians here ;-)
Welcome to the blog, I hope you stick around a while.
Alex
Thanks ! :-)
I've been trying for ten years to get more non-caucasian models, but screaming and kicking hasn't helped.
EO, you provide a wonderful service, and Aniko has helped enhance that.
I know just from Googling around there is precious little India/Pakistani nudity, and it seems that black models either appear in hard core porn, or very artsy nudes.
I cannot complain, and try not to sound like I am complaining. If I wanted to fix the problem I should learn how to photograph people, and hunt down some models myself.
You're really gutsy, man. I mean, surfing the web just like us losers, and in fact WITH us, not afraid of what your innumerable cool buddies might think? Wow. That takes real balls. Bowling size cojones, hombre. ;-)
I'm Joe Dick not Joe Balls. My dick is huge, my balls are just average sized. They are, however, made of brass.
That said, I wasn't agreeing with anonymous. I'm just saying: Yes, it's not productive, but not everything has to be.
"Now that I know it exists I might have to do that."
Et tu, Jodicus? NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!
I once read a sci-fi- story, about a future "perfectly germ-free" world...yadda yadda yadda
Do you know the title? It sounds interesting.
I was missed at five feet by a stray bullet last time I went to the Beirut used books fair, and it didn't even shake my paper addiction resolve.
As I've said before, you need to move to a place where that kind of thing isn't quite so commonplace. You know what? I've never even heard a gun fired in real life. I've never held one (except for an antique French musket), and seen only a handful. One of those times was when I was in England shortly after that subway bombing and the airports and subways and everywhere else was crawling with scary looking dudes carrying submachine guns.
A dude with your skills should be able to requalify pretty easy, and bring the whole fam over with you. Think about it! And you know what, we've got a whole province of French speaking people. You'd fit right in! No English allowed!
"Now that I know it exists I might have to do that."
Et tu, Jodicus? NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!
Nah, don't worry, P., I'm not going to. I won't give into peer pressure. Everyone saying "Come on, Joe, everybody's doing it! You want to be cool, don't you?!" Bah!
Alex: "we even have Canadians here ;-)"
And Canadians going against type by not being all that polite! What's next are you going to tell me not all Americans are loud mouthed and obnoxious?!
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