to miss the world pre internet?

[ArsenicChaseScream]

On balance, it was better, wasn't it?

.

No.

Ahh yes, the very definition of irony.

And yes I know Mumsnet is great and internet shopping is useful and information has been democratised.

But so much bad news and violence and porn and degradation is in our living rooms now too

Ignorance was bliss, in a way.

It was different Arsenic and there are many aspect of it I really miss... though I don't know if I would swap the convenience I have now, for the things I miss... hmm.... not sure.

Was it fuck.

It was tedious.

How can having the answers to anything you can possibly think of at your fingertips be anything but awesome?

You can interact with people without having to see them, fucking awesome!

Although you are neither reasonable or unreasonable to miss something.

Well miss as in yearn for.

The other that of missing stuff is UR on account it's rude.

See before the Internet you wouldn't get random streams of consciences from strange people you don't know.

You'd of had to read James Joyce instead.

You don't have to have violence, porn and degradation in your living room!

Internet shopping - love it!

I know Bump I know.

But I was just reading about IS's use of social media.

Consciousness

Jesus wept I up autocorrected that THREE times and fucker still slipped it through.

I miss the days before autocorrect.

That much I do fucking know.

No, I love the internet. I know a lot more. I love mumsmet and Pinterest etc.

I haven't read a while in a whle though - so it's bad in that way

Yes, I think the superficial pleasure and ease of being able to look and listen to what you want all the time, actually masks a huge encroachment of capitalist demands on our selves. I think we've gained fast knowledge and communication, but have lost our private selves, the sense that our time is our own and our selves and families are private; we've lost the ability to be absorbed deeply in something, we've lost the reflective possibilities of slowness.

And the fast communication has brought us distraction (can't read a book without checking email constantly at the same time), self-doubt (why does everyone on Facebook have a better life than me?), endless consumerism (must see/get/do that thing in the advert), anxiety (I need to stay up until. 1am to finish those emails....)

I miss the way of life pre-Internet. Actually, pre-smartphone. And I loved my phone when I first got it - I thought it was amazing. I thought it made my life easier and now I realise it's made my life harder and less enjoyable.

You don't have to have violence, porn and degradation in your living room!

Well I've also been struggling to adjust the parental controls this week to protect us all from accidental clicks more than anything now (DC are huge these days) and I'm rubbish at setting anything tech up and had to get the 17 year old to do it

And so I was then talking to the teens about porn and explaining how comparatively unavailable it was in my teens...

And we were also talking about the beheadings and stuff

Social media does more good than it does harm, I was thinking about Stephen Sutton earlier today, the reaction he provoked in other people was amazing.

See before the Internet you wouldn't get random streams of consciences from strange people you don't know.

I wouldn't mind reading some streams of conscience

You'd of had to read James Joyce instead.

Nah. I never did get beyond the third page of Ulysses, even in '93

The beheadings have nothing to do with social media and everything to do with the freaks who think that's an acceptable way to behave.

Those freaks will be there regardless of whether the internet is or not.

YES to all of that Planet. But there's no way back, no compromise.

You see ZigZag, I disagree. I think the beheadings have been chosen as a strategy because social media is available as a way of getting the footage out, to breed terror.

If this was 1984, committing those murders and sending video tape to broadcasters wouldn't work. It wouldn't be shown. The internet is a necessary part of the terror strategy.

Of course, Stephen Sutton is the positive side.

Less depressingly, Sparkling has stolen a LOT of my day with her Abbey Road webcam thread

I totally disagree, the Internet is amazing. I bet people muttered like this about printing presses back in the day.

Glasto I am NOT muttering! I am wailing.

Yabu.
The internet's awesome.
I can work at home.
We can watch Octonauts and Dr Who on demand.
There are filters and stuff to stop sick things.
Bad stuff happened before but we didn't know about it. Yes the baddies can use it but so can the goodies. :)

And the printing press was fabulous, a true democratisation.

I'm even feeling quite nostalgic about smut you had to work for a bit, about Soho and back street sex shops. About censorship at a stretch. About offensive extremist bookshops even.

It's the sheer ease and volume of extremist material, of violent porn, of violent imagery that worries me. Any 14 year old can find it without breaking a sweat. It's warping.

arsenic You can choose to opt out, nothig requiring you to be online. I happily read books (kindle and trad variety) whilst ignoring internet and social media, only you are to blame if you spend too much time on it.
As for murder and beheadings, the IRA bombed places and warned of bombs, disrupting life, without a youtube video.

arsenic You can choose to opt out, nothig requiring you to be online

Nothing I can do will put me in a pre-internet world.

I might as well take the upsides and guard against clicking unsavoury things accidentally.

The IRA bomb warnings were, at least in part, a genuine chance for areas to be cleared pre-explosion, hence the agreed code words and advance warnings. The beheading footage is propaganda - designed to spread terror.