How has the Internet Helped or Hindered Your Life?

[qwertyportne]

I've been researching the questions "Is the Internet good or bad?" and "Is it destroying or improving society?"

I've encountered everything from "good" to "bad and "both" to "neither." My answer tends toward "Yes" because I see it as just another tool for communicating, connecting, gathering information and so forth. It's lots more interactive, or can be, than television, newspapers, books, radio and other, older medias. Most blogs, for example, go far beyond the author beating us up with his or her views by giving us a place to post our response.

But there are valid reasons for saying all of these things have advantages and disadvantages over an in-depth reading of a book or a careful analysis of a newspaper article or TV documentary or film.

Is the Internet creating a world of lazy people sitting on their fanny talking about stuff? Or giving them access to new and innovative ways to do these things? Has search engines spoiled us into thinking the answer to life's problems can be solved outside ourselves by typing a question and clicking our mouse? Or does Google give us access to a wide range of facts and opinions that can help us answer our own questions from within ourselves?

Lots to discuss and mull over here, I think. What do you think?

--Bill

[Criseyde]

The internet is a tool. The changes it makes are contingent upon the people who use it.

In my life, I'd say that overwhelmingly it's been positive. I think, being a naturally curious person, there truly isn't any other era I'd rather have grown up in. The internet is a gift for someone like me. I don't think it's bad AT ALL to be able to Google something (or JSTOR it or whatever) with "one click." I think it's amazing. The amount of information I can access at any time is truly a blessing.

Before the internet, I would have been(/was/am) someone who had her nose stuck in a book at any possible free moment, so I don't think it's really changed my basic personality by making me any more or less social. I do chat online, but I still have a hierarchy of ways I'd prefer to interact: in person > phone (or Skype ) > any kind of realtime text > email.

Plus, I love being able to talk to people around the world. I've made friends, gone places I wouldn't have otherwise, and basically had my world expanded beyond the small Midwestern town in which I grew up, starting at a very early age. Without the internet, I might be a Republican. Oh God.

Also, it contributes to a free society -- see the Arab Spring.

[ZephyrusX]

If it wasn't for the internet, I wouldn't be able to imitate being a cat. *stretches languidly* Meow!

If I did this in 'real life', I'd most certainly either be locked up or pull a muscle while stretching.

[qwertyportne]

Originally Posted by Criseyde

Before the internet, I would have been(/was/am) someone who had her nose stuck in a book...

Yes, like you I spent a large percentage of my early years before the Internet immersed in books. Still do but not as much. Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451" brought tears to my eyes. I can't imagine a day when I could not go into my library, touch a book, smell the paper or turn its pages.

But some critics, especially Sven Birkerts, sound like they are suggesting we stop the Internet and get off. Sorry, but I do not see the world wide web as something to avoid or eliminate. I see it as a tool that supplements rather than replaces books, face-to-face conversations, television programs and so forth. Just another example, at least for me, that a great number of things in life are AND, not EITHER/OR...

--Bill

[qwertyportne]

Originally Posted by ZephyrusX

If it wasn't for the internet, I wouldn't be able to imitate being a cat. *stretches languidly* Meow!(

Hey, could not agree more. Reminds me of something I wrote about my cat. Called it Catrisma. "She rose and stretched, her chi filling the room..."

--Bill

[Partaker]

Originally Posted by Criseyde

The internet is a tool. The changes it makes are contingent upon the people who use it.

In my life, I'd say that overwhelmingly it's been positive. I think, being a naturally curious person, there truly isn't any other era I'd rather have grown up in. The internet is a gift for someone like me. I don't think it's bad AT ALL to be able to Google something (or JSTOR it or whatever) with "one click." I think it's amazing. The amount of information I can access at any time is truly a blessing.

Before the internet, I would have been(/was/am) someone who had her nose stuck in a book at any possible free moment, so I don't think it's really changed my basic personality by making me any more or less social. I do chat online, but I still have a hierarchy of ways I'd prefer to interact: in person > phone (or Skype ) > any kind of realtime text > email.

Plus, I love being able to talk to people around the world. I've made friends, gone places I wouldn't have otherwise, and basically had my world expanded beyond the small Midwestern town in which I grew up, starting at a very early age. Without the internet, I might be a Republican. Oh God.

Also, it contributes to a free society -- see the Arab Spring.

I agree 100% - this sums it up.

The internet has been a great tool in my life - I've gained so much knowledge on spur of the moment "I wonder"s over the years.

Although, I agree some people seem to be obsessive/compulsive especially with social networking sites. It just depends on how you use it..

[Clint Cora]

The internet has enabled me to successfully move from corporate life to entrepreneurship with very reasonable costs. I'm pretty sure that as an author and speaker, I would be having a much harder time in promotion without the internet. Having that in mind, learning to do things online has been a real steep learning curve since it is not like offline business.

On another note, I think the internet in general, despite it's many positives, have made many people less effective in terms of in personal communications. I've met many folks, especially younger people, who are extremely savy in tech, but couldn't hold up a decent conversation in person if their life depended on it.

This is one negative aspect I see with technology. Many people have become too dependent on the internet at the expense of developing real interpersonal skills.

[qwertyportne]

Originally Posted by Clint Cora

Many people have become too dependent on the internet at the expense of developing real interpersonal skills.

Good point, Clint. I agree. And may I extrapolate from your comment to the possibility that many people, perhaps too many, are using the Internet in ways that prevent them from developing a healthy, insightful relationship with themselves.

That doesn't mean we should all join the gang who wants to eliminate the Internet, but I wish fewer (young and old) people would see the world wide web as a substitute for introspection, finding and applying answers to life's challenges from within themselves rather than going outside their own self knowledge for answers.

The Internet (other people's advice) can be a resource to guide our way through life, because life is frequently a labrynth, a maze. So why shouldn't we get a little help from somebody else to avoid a wrong turn? We should, of course, but not when the advice is mostly just shallow (anecdotal) stories. We should steer clear of that kind of guidance.

The cliche that the only things we know for sure are those we experience for ourselves is true, but only on the surface. Wisdom is not the result of experience, personal or otherwise. It is the result of sustained, careful, thoughtful reflection based on both experience and growing self awareness.

Long post, and perhaps a bit too "ranty" but as much as I want and need the Internet, it can be a source of ignorance and foolishness as much as for knowledge and wisdom. Like all of us, the world wide web is a work in progress.

--Bill

[brendannz]

Functioning without the internet is a bit like living in a cave nowadays.

[ButterflyWoman]

I've been on the net a long time (since 1993). The internet has been an enormously helpful tool for me, and without it, I wouldn't have the generally happy life that I now have, and that's literal. I met my husband on the net. I also used the net to connect to other abuse survivors when I was going through the worst of my breakdown and recovery. I can't even go into all the positive changes that have happened in my life that were facilitated by the internet.

Sure, people an use the net in ways that aren't healthy. No doubt. But that says more about their inherent not-healthiness than about the net. People can use anything in addictive, unhealthy ways, IMHO. I wouldn't blame the net for people having screwed up lives or acting in dysfunctional ways.

[taylor]

All the positives have been covered. It is a great resource, undoubtedly.

Now some downsides:
It's super duper distracting and really curious people like myself can get wrapped up in exploring and lose track of time.
It's harder on your eyes even than books.
It replaces face-to-face communication a lot of the time.
The medium itself encourages skipping around on the surface of multiple topics rather than reading say a 500 page book on one topic like smarty pants would have done more of in the old days.
It's addictive.
I'm sure since it's emergent popularity ADD diagnoses must have shot through the roof.

[CoolBee]

The internet is just a tool and can be used for good and bad.

I do come down heavily on the side of 'good'. Building up relationships, even friendships. I moved 3000 miles away from my family and have more contact now thanks to the internet than when I lived 200 miles away! I have developed what I would call friendships with people from all over the world who I would never have met in the pre-net world.

I was at a school the other day looking at physics teaching and the teacher was showing me all the resources you can get online now, things that simply didn't exist back when I was a young teacher. Videos of experiments, worksheets, lesson planning resources.

Add to that, internet banking - so freeing from the tyranny of having to find a branch somewhere (they're closing many physical banks in the UK), queue for hours to do a simple transaction.

Another benefit, you may be going through 'stuff' - situations, health or whatever, and there may not be anyone local to you who has any experience of it, you can find support and help on the net from anywhere in the world. eg rare diseases and the like.

As someone mentioned, the Arab Spring. I was talking to an Egyptian guy a few weeks ago (in real life) and he was saying how before the internet, a lot of Egyptians thought westerners were just plain and simple rich without doing any work (it rains gold bars and we pee diamonds) and had sex in the streets (such are the notions they collect from popular Western movies!). Now, many realize that it's not like that at all and actually many people do indeed work quite hard, and not all women 'give it out' at the drop of a trouser.

On the other hand, when they shut our internet down for 5 days during the revolution, my flat has never been so clean Since that experience, I am definitely going to plan to take a couple of extended internet breaks a year. Actually, in October I went out to the Western Desert and only had an internet-enabled phone with me - seriously NOT a smart phone - so I was able to just about check Facebook and a couple of important email addresses and that was it.

[ButterflyWoman]

I thought of a couple more things I've gotten by way of the net. Aside from a new life and the love of my life, multiple jobs (in person ones, as well as online stuff) and now I'm actually doing my university degree online (from a fully accredited university).

Originally Posted by CoolBee

I am definitely going to plan to take a couple of extended internet breaks a year.

When we go for a day out or a short holiday, I have a strict "no internet" rule. Not even if there's free wifi or we go into a library with free internet use (as has happened on occasion). I do have a smart phone, and so does my husband, but when away from home, we are away from the net.

If we took a longer holiday (more than a week), I'd probably relax the rule to at least check for any important emails, but, generally, if people need to contact us, they can call us...

[qwertyportne]

Originally Posted by ButterflyWoman

I met my husband on the net... I wouldn't blame the net for people having screwed up lives or acting in dysfunctional ways.

Me, too. When my wife died, I walked around like a zombie for awhile, then decided to find somebody else and did, on the web, and it was and still is a very good match. And how right you are about people being the root of dysfunctional behavior, not the Internet...

--Bill

[qwertyportne]

Originally Posted by taylor

The medium itself encourages skipping around on the surface of multiple topics rather than reading say a 500 page book on one topic...

Yes, I think that is a valid criticism. But as others have suggested, the problem is how we use the Internet, not necessarily the Internet itself. My experience with web design brought me face to face with the impatience that characterizes modern life, on line or off.

Don't know what the criteria is now, but when I built web sites, if a page didn't load in 30 seconds, most people would browse elsewhere. This relates, I think, to what I call the Blog vs Book phenomena. As you so clearly pointed out, many of us just want to get a quick summary of a topic, then move on to the next. Like butterflies, we tend to flutter by, and that means we are most likely going to have a shallow rather than in-depth understanding of a topic. We ain't gettin' all the nectar!

Yeah, pretty lame metaphor, but there it is...

--Bill

[taylor]

Originally Posted by qwertyportne

Yeah, pretty lame metaphor, but there it is...

--Bill

Haha, no it was good.

[qwertyportne]

Originally Posted by CoolBee

As someone mentioned, the Arab Spring...

CoolBee, so many on-the-mark coments. My teaching career was in the aerospace industry, not public education, but the access I had to lesson plans and so forth mirrored the benefits you mention.

And the Arab Spring revolution is just one of many ways in which the Internet is having a global effect in positive ways. Joseph Campbell was fond of saying we need a "global myth" -- something people around the world can embrace as a kind of coming together. Can't say the Internet is it, but believe it can be and perhaps already is the tool for understanding. The word itself refers to standing up and moving under the other person's point of view to see what things look like from over there...

--Bill

[superfoodist]

I can honestly say that internet has severe negative effects on my life.

I stay in all day (when not at work) browsing stuff, on social networking sites, or trying to learn something [which isn't necessarily bad, but learning from a book is more natural].

I notice that computer use spikes my social anxiety levels very high. The few times I've experimented with "no computer" (which also means no internet), my social anxiety has fluctuated between dropping A LOT or becoming non existent. I'm going to try and make this my last day on computer actually. Going to aim for a 30 day trial of no computer, as well as no playing with my cell phone (TV isn't an issue. I stopped watching that about a year or two ago).