To ask what you would do about the internet?

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Imagine you were given two choices.

First, the internet would disappear and never reappear. It would be like it never existed in the first place, all harms undone, but also anything positive also undone.

OR

Second, everything just carries on as it is now (in respect of the internet)

Which would you choose?

And before anyone asks, no, there isn’t a middle way - it’s one or the other.

Disappear. Overall it's done more harm than good.

You should have done a poll OP, it would have been really interesting to see what the percentage in favour of getting rid, would be.

I find this difficult but on balance..

Get rid. I think we'd all be happier and healthier for it. The few benefits (like wfh - being able to reduce transport co2 emissions and cut the amount of space wasted space on offices) employers and the government are keen to limit us utilising. So overall - it should go.

I loved it. It was my home on the web for many years. We still had different forum boards for other stuff, it wasn't all centralised like it is on Facebook or the like. We weren't tied to apps on phones.

LiveJournal fandom communities and their meltdowns back in the day, were legendary.

Keep the information side. Too helpful and interesting to get rid of.

Block all sexual content.

Make the social media side inaccessible for those deemed too young to be able to make educated decisions about how to use it (upper primary teacher and now dealing with fallout for social media and whatsapp bullying with every class, I miss the days when that wasn't a thing!).

I like this.

The instant access to information is too ingrained now. We need it.

Kids don't need it. If they need some info, they can ask their parents.

The instant access to information is too ingrained now. We need it.

You wouldn't know you "needed it" because it would have been as if it never existed. You don't need it. We didn't need it then and could manage without it now, it might be more difficult in some ways but that's not the same thing.

We didn't need cars years back, and we managed. Does that mean we should go back to a time where we never had them? Would we really cope?

Keep it. Teach people how to navigate it.

Honestly, I think people are starting to get turned off by endless algorithms, in much the same way as we all got absolutely sick of moving banner ads in about 2007, and the internet has mainly moved on from these, or everyone uses adblock, so you rarely have to encounter them unless you accidentally click on a local newspaper article. (Or MN. Sorry MN but you are still unbrowsable without adblock.)

So I think the internet will shift and evolve yet again.

Keep it. I am too impatient to rely on post.

And YY to communities that feel like LJ used to - this is what I'm leaning towards now on the web and I find these more and more.

Keep it.

It's not really the internet that's the problem, it's the people using it.

Delete it. We wouldn’t miss it if we never knew about it

I would keep the Internet but ban the ability to upload any kind of image or video.

Disappear as if it had never existed! Many aspects are very convenient but the bad aspects far outweigh the convenience of online shopping, banking etc.

I agree with the anti-social media sentiment. SM needs to go.

The internet before SM dated around 1997 to 2007, the first 10 years that the internet was mainstream. This era still had YouTube and messaging apps like MSN Messager so I don't class these as SM. LiveJournal, Blogger and MySpace were also in this early internet era. Forums like here aren't classed as SM either as forums long pre-date 2007.

Post-2007 were sites/apps such as Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok and Instagram need to go, and especially TikTok and Telegram. The latter 2 bordering on dangerous at best.

I remember once, when I was young, when I was determined to finish a prize crossword in a Sunday supplement. I was at the library for about 4 hours, and two answers still evaded me. To think that I could now have solved it in a couple of minutes - even, say, just standing at a bus stop - is sobering!

Keep the internet but get rid of social media.

Get rid completely. Life was so much nicer before

Get rid. I'd be out of a job, but it'd be for the greater good.

Get rid of it. People who experienced life before the Internet are like a different species of human than those who didn't.

Disappear, without hesitation.

Hmm............

Disappear.

Sorry Tim, great idea but ruined by perverts.

I would say get rid but only if we had the option of never knowing it existed. Otherwise keep it, as it would be too hard to undo everything. For a start they'd have to reopen all the banks on the high street again!

What about all the children of couples who met online? If you take option A you are effectively committing mass murder. Look yourself in the mirror and tell me you're comfortable deleting millions of innocent children with the flick of a switch.

Monsters, the lot of you.