To think people would be much happier if the internet didn't exist

[Cat8303]

I know...it's ironic I'm using the internet to post this.

But I can't help but think life would be much simpler if the internet wasn't invented. Nowadays, kids prefer to use iPads and play computer games than go outside and play. People post their lives on social media, and drive themselves crazy seeing and saying things they wouldn't if the internet wasn't invented.

I think the time before the internet was a much simpler time. The internet had obviously bought good things (like Mumsnet ;) ) but there are bad things, like the death of the high street, the decline of newspapers and the fact we are tracked and 'spied on' through cookies and things we can't even understand.

Yanbu. The first time I ever saw or heard of the internet was when I was 32 (and then it was a new and exciting thing at work, only available to the chief exec) so I remember life as an adult without it perfectly well.

I wholeheartedly agree with you OP.

Yanbu. I fear for my children’s future.

I remember at school feeling very left out. I hardly had any friends as I was shy & quiet. I'd go home & forget about school & didn't feel too bad. If it was now I expect I'd come home, go on the internet & see what a great time everyone was having except me.
I thank God we didn't have the internet back then or I would have felt even more isolated.

You can live without it if you would be happier

So don't use the internet then. Problem solved.

The internet lets people who would otherwise be isolated find their tribe and find support.Some of the Internet is bad,some is good - if you are posting your life on social media and driving yourself mad looking at other peoples lovely lives,that's bad.If you are a lonely teenager who has finally made friends who care about what you care about on a fansite,that's good.And if you have had some random on the internet you would never have met in RL telling you that,no,it's not normal for your partner to bully and belittle you all the time,that's good too.
Good and bad in most things ( and I can still b heard on occasion muttering that we all survived just fine without mobile phones...)

YABU. The internet is what you make of it. I don’t use social media but spend lots of time researching things, using message boards for shared interests etc. I’d feel much more isolated without it.

Yanbu I think life was a lot easier and happier before the internet explosion. I don’t like the culture my children are growing up in

I disagree. I'm old enough to remember no internet and life was far more insular.
I have more access to knowledge, problem solving and advice.

Last night i spent hours watching footage of rawandan mountain gorillas totally entranced.
You can communicate all around the world with people.

I wish I'd had it when i was a kid.

The best invention of the 21st century in my view.

YABU. I would never state my true feelings.

Without the internet and social media justice for the residents of Grenfell would probably take as long as Hillsborough.......and justice for H isnt quite there yet.

There has been just as big an attempt to smear the Grenfell residents as there was the football fans at Hillsborough but its not as easy for the smearers to do that this time around.........partly thanks to the internet and social media.

Yabu. I'd have to go to an office every day and that would make me far less happy.

I'm on the fence with this one and actually created a similar thread before thinking of the other side of the argument and deleted it. It's connected us in ways unimaginable and yet has also helped brew up this divisiveness that we are currently seeing playing out in politics and spilling out into everyday life.

YABU

I'm old enough to remember adult life without the internet and the access to knowledge is wonderful. My mother learned to use it at 70, at 80 she is still happy to be online everyday. It brings so many great bits of knowledge which ordinary folk couldn't accumulate or curate without it.

I commute to central London for work and it's been great to have social media to develop a local social life.

Isn't it thought to be one reason for the drop in teen pregnancy as well?

Yanbu.

Yabvvvu I love the internet and it makes my life easier and more social every day.

YABU

Not everybody has family in the same street, internet is a godsend when your relatives are abroad.
Not everybody has both parents working 9 to 5, some parents go away for weeks or months at a time, internet allow you to keep in touch in a way a letter never did.
If my kids decide to go travelling after uni, it won't feel like they are gone so far.

I do feel sorry for the kids whose stupid antics will follow them in the future, it was so much easier to misbehave in the past!

Add information, entertainment, I think internet is amazing. Not all of us need to validate our lives on social media.

YABU, you can have a life without the internet, just terminate your broadband contract and don't use it.

I think it's great, I can shop whenever, saves paper for homework, downloaded books, movies, studying etc. I don't use social media or the news pages really so don't see the negatives.

Children can still play outside and have technology, it's not one or the other just like they have a mix of toys. I don't think outside okay is all that, growing up and even now it's just a way for parents to have the house to themselves in the main.

I live a long way from my loved ones and being able to instant message and send pictures of my baby is really helping me get through the newborn days.

Gosh OP I am of the generation that remembers having to go to the bank. You could only go to the bank within "banking hours". Said banking hours seemed to start at 9AM and finish at 3PM. Two clicks now when I wake up and all banking is done.

Thank goodness for the internet!

Without internet, I would have to physically be in my office 5 or 6 days a week full time. That really wouldn't work around my kids!

I think the internet has been a disaster for society really. That and mobile phones . We have all become addicted drones. I do not use social media, but if I got anywhere without my phone I feel panicky. Once upon a time we had a landline and that was it. We all managed. It has given people a very short attention span, and created a nation who are unable to communicate properly face to face. It is great for researching things, but honestly, we all managed before and life was much better. I realise I don't look at things properly, concentrate or read half as much as i used to. Unfortunately life without it has become impossible really.

YABU.

The Internet is probably the most effective and revolutionary way of sharing resources and connection, information and stories, getting help, making money, in all of history.

I think it allows people to be less isolated, get confidence boosts, and honestly there are masses of people whose lives have been saved because of the Internet.

People can whine about Snapchat selfies all they want but the technology boom was one of the best things to happen to mankind.

I am old enough to remember life before internet.
I think it is probably the best invention in my lifetime.
My aunts emigrated before I was born. Every couple of weeks a thin blue piece of paper called an aerogramme would turn up in the post. That was all the contact my mother had with her sisters other than their occasional visits home - in the case of one of them - only twice in my lifetime.
Imagine if they had had email - skype - instant messaging of every kind? It would have made such a difference to my mother's life.
I remember television being blamed for the problems of young people - "television killed the art of conversation" etc etc.
I guess they probably said similar things when the printing press was invented.
There is always a false nostalgia for a simpler past. Life was not simpler then. Just different.

YABU!

That said, I think it is right to be concerned about the effects of social media on children and teens, especially where it is used as a tool for bullying or grooming.