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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

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

91 replies

Cat8303 · 02/07/2018 20:06

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.

OP posts:

daimbars · 02/07/2018 20:58

Not right now. I'm stuck on a broken down train and would be bored out of my skull without the internet.

ReadingRiot · 02/07/2018 20:59

I agree the time I spend messing a out online is generally not good for my wellbeing. However, it has perversely improved my social life. Facebook has made me so much more aware of what's going on locally and its so easy to arrange to meet up with a group that I find myself getting invited to things that I probably wouldn't have been included in if someone had to ring round everyone and also arranging things myself which I didn't used to do.

Roselind · 02/07/2018 21:00

Just thinking about this further, the internet gave me the chance to do another degree when my children were small and I lived miles from anywhere. It kept me sane.
It also in due course made it possible for me to do a full time job from home. Again, keeping me sane.
I could have just stayed home and baked and cleaned I guess while my children were at school. Some might consider that better. I certainly do not.

LighthouseSouth · 02/07/2018 21:03

Some of these replies! I still read books, it is allowed.

I wouldn't have half the knowledge I have from Internet study, I don't have money for courses and this way I learn at my own pace too.

If anyone feels like an addict, you'd probably just be glued to something else.

LastTrainEast · 02/07/2018 21:04

YANBU but it's good and bad.

I love the access to everything. I can ask any question. I can use google earth to walk down any street. But social media has become like a disease in some ways. Fake news, bullying, stalking, doxing, identity theft whatever and it seems to cause a lot of pain to young people.

Perhaps there's a difference between those of us who got the internet later in life and those who grew up with it? We only had to cope with the people we knew when we were growing up and not everyone on facebook/Tumblr etc

The80sweregreat · 02/07/2018 21:04

I agree that life was easier without it and it has contributed to so many lost jobs as well. However, I’m much better read because of it and being able to look things up straight away is amazing.
YANBU at all - but it’s here to stay. I stay off social media and realise a lot of it is fake!
I’m mixed on my views about it. It’s good and bad.

ChristmasTablecloth · 02/07/2018 21:05

@daimbars
But you could have had a book in your bag. Or done the crossword in the newspaper. Or chatted with your fellow passengers.

rosesandflowers1 · 02/07/2018 21:05

I guess they probably said similar things when the printing press was invented.

People were terrified that people, lower classes and women especially, would have access to - God forbid - ideas when the printing press came out.

People always try and block change and wider accessibility.

Can't think of a time that it has worked.

Montsti · 02/07/2018 21:10

YABU re: the internet in general but social media on the other hand...

ikeepaforkinmypurse · 02/07/2018 21:11

But you could have had a book in your bag.
but now I have 100s of books with me in my kindle, so much better.

Jobs have been lost, other jobs have been created, it's all balancing out.

I agree with the lack of privacy, being recorded and the video put online for the world to see is very intrusive. We could do without that part!

FissionChips · 02/07/2018 21:18

If the internet is having a negative impact on you then it’s your own problem, go get therapy for it or just unplug.

ChristmasTablecloth · 02/07/2018 21:20

I'm just trying to think how having no internet was restrictive in any way.

I genuinely can't think of any. When people say they can't imagine it they are doing a great disservice to their parents, grandparents and every generation before. Are you all saying people were lacking something somehow?

Airmail envelopes kept people in touch pretty efficiently. There's really no big deal waiting for someone's news for 2 weeks. You're still related, you still love one another, you still keep up.

The arguments for are pretty slim imo when you think of the massive arguments against (sharing images of child abuse, most searched word being sex, terrorist networking, porn, the Kardashians, social media and all that it entails, fake news, no editorial process, Twitter, general internet bollocks).

I think if we are honest there are very few of us who don't feel a bit dirty/guilty about our internet use.

ChristmasTablecloth · 02/07/2018 21:23

Well, that's another argument re. the kindle isn't it?

Most people only read one book at a time so why is having a kindle such an advantage? Sure you can download endless books, but so what? You're never going to read them all in your lifetime.

MirriVan · 02/07/2018 21:25

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Oddcat · 02/07/2018 21:26

The internet is an amazing invention and has given people access to so many things they would otherwise not have had.

I do believe that social media is a double edged sword and has caused lots of trouble as well as opened up people's worlds.

I do think it's pathetic how grown adults sulk if you haven't 'liked' something they've posted.

usernamefromhell · 02/07/2018 21:26

YABU. Every generation has some technological bogeyman.

I am old enough that the internet wasn't really a thing before I was in my early 20s and when I was a kid it was TV: my mum lived in a state of constant paranoia that TV would rot my brain and suck my imagination away.

A few generations before that it was the novel -- people genuinely used to fret about young girls reading too much :)

Any technology is essentially neutral, its the way its used that is problematic. And with any technology if its not properly regulated or overseen it has the technology to become a medium that is used to spread hatred, or pornography, or just at the more banal level to suck away people's spare time. The internet has been used as a channel for all sorts of bile and like many other technologies is a forum for timewasting on an industrial scale.

It has also been a force for good: its vastly improved the speed at which people can access useful information, its made it much easier to stay connected to loved ones, to shop, to research things, to find recipes, plan route maps, allowed people to work remotely more easily (and thus spend more time with friends and family).

You have to be judicious about your use of the internet and it takes an awareness and a sense of willpower to make sure it doesn't take over your life. But its about moderation and consciousness, its not rocket science.

ikeepaforkinmypurse · 02/07/2018 21:35

Airmail envelopes kept people in touch pretty efficiently. There's really no big deal waiting for someone's news for 2 weeks. You're still related, you still love one another, you still keep up.

you never had a dad working abroad, have you? It does make a HUGE difference to facetime sometimes every night or so or to receive a letter written 3 or 4 weeks ago.

re: the Kindle. You might read one or 2 books at a time, but when you travel it's so much easier to carry a small tablet than lugging 25 books . If you don't speak the language of the country you are visiting, you have no chance of finding a book there.

I do love internet, I do my shopping online, look for recipes online, look at instructions videos, book my holidays online, research the place, the hotel and read reviews, I am in contact with the school and other parents. I send emails at a time convenient for me, people reply when it's convenient for them.
My work would be a nightmare without internet, it would have to be office-based for a start.

lljkk · 02/07/2018 21:39

Finding out info 30 yrs ago was a lot more hassle than today.

We mostly just stayed at home & watched tv & read books; there was less playing out 40 yrs ago than there was 100 yrs ago.

Death of high street is one thing I lament.
Flip side: amazing selection online.

Not sure I'd put MN in the list of 'good things'!

AlecTrevelyan006 · 02/07/2018 21:43

the internet is a double-edged sword, but technology never goes backwards

LighthouseSouth · 02/07/2018 21:45

Oh the banking hours...the queues at lunchtime or asking your boss for a different time so you could avoid the queue....

I usually have two books to read at one time, good for long commutes, and I have limited storage space. I also reread favourites. So a kindle is fab but I use the app on the iPad so only carry one thing.

I used to do airmail letters to family but being able to email or Skype has meant we have more closeness and time, plus my elderly auntie doesn't have to use her arthritic hands to write! It changes relationships when you can communicate more.

When I've had long periods of illness, I actually thought, thank goodness it didn't happen when I was younger and didn't have the Internet to cheer me up.

Re the child porn, I think we've probably caught more perpetrators with the Internet than without it? But we need a detective to confirm or deny that one!

Agree with HelenaDove on legal issues re Hillsborough and Grenfell.

People have been upset about books, gramophones, radio, telephone, television, rock n roll... I really am surprised by some of these answers from people on an Internet forum.

ChristmasTablecloth · 02/07/2018 21:49

It is not child porn, it is images of child abuse.

Of course there is more of it around now that it is so easily shared! You can't say the internet gives people more connectivity only for good things with a straight face.

Kingkiller · 02/07/2018 21:53

Life is full of things which can be bad for you if used excessively or in the wrong ways. The internet has big benefits and also drawbacks. The benefits are available to all. The drawbacks mostly only affect you if you let them.

WittyJack · 02/07/2018 21:53

It’s a good servant, but a bad master.

ChristmasTablecloth · 02/07/2018 21:55

I use the internet all day every day but I still don't think it's all that.

Without it I would have to work in an office.

I would have to live without looking up random facts about random people as and when they popped into my head.

I would have to phone or send postcards to the people I wanted to stay in touch with.

I would probably buy a newspaper a couple of times a week.

I would have to go to the shops to buy things, thus keeping my local High Street or favourite retailers going.

I would read maps and use the phone if I wasn't sure about how to get anywhere.

I would have a smaller group of friends who I actually made the effort to see and spend time with.

Still can't see any downsides in there.

BishopBrennansArse · 02/07/2018 21:57

YABU.
For some of us autistics it's the easiest way to socialise.

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