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Thread: Article: I知 still here: back online after a year without the internet

  1. #11
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    I go for long periods of time when I'm never online and I am much more engaged with living than I am when on line. However as a tool of communication - and to set up all those activities of living :-) - I think the internet is invaluable. It all comes down to useage. If you are happy with the amount of time you spend online and enjoy it then great. If you feel you aren't as engaged in living because you are spending too much time online - or watching TV or whatever - then you probably need to change something. I find it is almost impossible to get by in life without some kind of online access, but I can get sucked in to the detriment of my living-life. So I have found ways that allows me to be online but not spend too much the there.

  2. #12
    Senior Member Gardenarian's Avatar
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    Interesting.
    I wonder why he thought that, overall, the experience was a failure. After all, in the first few months he accomplished a great deal. And, it sounds like he learned quite a bit about himself - mostly, that he can't blame the internet for unhappiness, lethargy, or dissatisfaction.

    I think taking time out from the internet is a great idea; I try not to use it for a few days every week. This whole "Year without..." is kind of faddish. I think if he had done "A month without internet" he would have called it a success.

    I think it is also important to note that he had "used the internet constantly" since the age of twelve, which means that he went through whole stages of development online - different from most of us.

    I'm afraid people will use this article to bolster their arguments that the internet is just wonderful. I feel that it is a tool with many uses, but 99% of the stuff online is sewage.

  3. #13
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    I'm afraid people will use this article to bolster their arguments that the internet is just wonderful. I feel that it is a tool with many uses, but 99% of the stuff online is sewage.
    I wouldn't presume to know what 99% of the stuff is, unless I saw some study or something (a study has determined 99% of the internet is porn, facebook, and cat jokes ) ... since one has a lot of leeway what they view online anyway. I tend to view: news and politics, get involved in discussions and chat, research information (I can't even say how many times I've looked up the same stuff - like how many cups are in a quart ).
    Trees don't grow on money

  4. #14
    Senior Member SteveinMN's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Gardenarian View Post
    I'm afraid people will use this article to bolster their arguments that the internet is just wonderful. I feel that it is a tool with many uses, but 99% of the stuff online is sewage.
    Then they're misusing the article. I don't see where Paul says that. He says that, for him, the Internet is an important source of connection with his friends and of reference information (directions, phone numbers/addresses, answers to questions, etc.). Maybe it also supplies reading and viewing material, but one would make those choices with books or TV/movies, as well. I think it's hard to explain how that works to most people who grew up before computers were cheap, plentiful, and connected. For him, it works. Nothing wrong with that.

    To claim that 99% of what's on the Internet is "sewage", however, illustrates a very incomplete understanding of the Internet. No, wait -- it's flat out incorrect. The Internet is a means of delivery. Saying that the Internet is "sewage" is on par with saying that 99% of all books are trash. Maybe, if we include pulp novels, pr0n, comic books, and bad sci-fi, they are. Ditto for phone conversations. Phones aren't trash regardless of what people say over them. Content does not invalidate a method of communication.
    Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome. - Booker T. Washington

  5. #15
    Senior Member Gardenarian's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by SteveinMN View Post
    Then they're misusing the article. I don't see where Paul says that. He says that, for him, the Internet is an important source of connection with his friends and of reference information (directions, phone numbers/addresses, answers to questions, etc.). Maybe it also supplies reading and viewing material, but one would make those choices with books or TV/movies, as well. I think it's hard to explain how that works to most people who grew up before computers were cheap, plentiful, and connected. For him, it works. Nothing wrong with that.

    To claim that 99% of what's on the Internet is "sewage", however, illustrates a very incomplete understanding of the Internet. No, wait -- it's flat out incorrect. The Internet is a means of delivery. Saying that the Internet is "sewage" is on par with saying that 99% of all books are trash. Maybe, if we include pulp novels, pr0n, comic books, and bad sci-fi, they are. Ditto for phone conversations. Phones aren't trash regardless of what people say over them. Content does not invalidate a method of communication.
    I stand corrected!
    Tho' I still believe that 99% of internet *content* is junk.

  6. #16
    Senior Member The Storyteller's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by SteveinMN View Post
    Saying that the Internet is "sewage" is on par with saying that 99% of all books are trash.
    Not quite 99%, but close.
    "There are too many books in the world to read in a single lifetime; you have to draw the line somewhere." --Diane Setterfield, The Thirteenth Tale

  7. #17
    Helper Gregg's Avatar
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    I try to live amoung the 1% whenever possible.
    "Back when I was a young boy all my aunts and uncles would poke me in the ribs at weddings saying your next! Your next! They stopped doing all that crap when I started doing it to them... at funerals!"

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