half the internet is down

[JDFP]

Some of us ARE the exceptions which prove the rule. I read biographies/autobiographies of/by famous people, study significant world history as the mood takes me (I'm a bit biased toward Western civilization), research advances in the fields of astronomy, aeronautics, epidemiology & microbiology, and in my spare time I'm teaching myself a language or two via Rosetta. Don't get me wrong, Wyld, I commend the internet and love it just as much as the next guy/gal. I think it's great -- but you really hit on what I'm saying above here in bold. An exception as opposed to what I think is really the general rule of thumb. j.p.

[Danny]

That sounds like doomsaying to me, in the same way you hear stuffy people say each generation lacks morales compared to the last even though 100 years ago it was still possible to get away with killing someone if they looked at you funny. Just for future reference all these stupid people wasting time on the internet? how many took part in your census on the topic? what is the size of your sample groups? The majority of people you talk to about "the general public" all have exactly the same sentiments. "they arent as educated or well read as i am" "they get dumber every year" "they all do drugs and live on wellfare" the lists go on an on when these people dont realize THEY are the general public as well they are not above them on a pedestal and they are nothing special. Everyone who has the internet learns more using it than they do sitting on there arse grazing on television. why? because its the nature of it. there is no direction, no control. Everyone has been on wikipedia or tvtropes and lost an hour due to drift searching at least a few times. it is guaranteed to impart information because that is the primary function. not to sell something, or impart a message but to allow networking and archiving of information which people are free to choose to browse at there leisure. Now i am part of the general public and nothing special either and i learn a few new things every day form the internet. i don't watch television because it is base, mindless garbage made to advertise, make money and keep you there watching and having these advert bombs set up in your head. Maybe it's the websites you visit, god knows there IS lazy people on the internet, mostly in the over 20 bracket who use the internet for forums, facebook and nothing else and these people are a problem, but i know there are many people who use websites to keep there lives interesting and give them knew things to do when AWAY form the computer. all the television wants you to do when away from it is get around the watercooler and advertise the shows to other people. for example, want some websites to use that dont involve "O.M.G THEY CHANGED THERE STATUS TO SOMETHING ENW!" (if you cant tell i hate websites like facebook and myspace, the only reason i have one is because i have uni friends who only converse using it) http://www.ted.com/ - actual intellectually stimulating talks on subjects. http://boingboing.net/ - neat diy science projects and things from around the world. http://lifehacker.com/ - tips and freebies to make your life easier or more interesting. http://makezine.com/ - webzines about making neat things. http://www.theonion.com/ - clever comedy http://www.howstuffworks.com/ - name kinda says it. http://www.popsci.com/ - science news and technology. http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ - photography adn articles form around the world. http://www.rollingstone.com/ - entertainment industry news and articles minus the gossipy bullshit. http://www.aintitcool.com/ - movies and dvd articles. thats a handful of ways to spend your time learning something new on the internet instead of bitching on forums and stuff. When people do the "most people are stupid and only do blank" this kind of thing always comes to mind.

[darth los]

That sounds like doomsaying to me, in the same way you hear stuffy people say each generation lacks morales compared to the last even though 100 years ago it was still possible to get away with killing someone if they looked at you funny. Just for future reference all these stupid people wasting time on the internet? how many took part in your census on the topic? what is the size of your sample groups? The majority of people you talk to about "the general public" all have exactly the same sentiments. "they arent as educated or well read as i am" "they get dumber every year" "they all do drugs and live on wellfare" the lists go on an on when these people dont realize THEY are the general public as well they are not above them on a pedestal and they are nothing special. Everyone who has the internet learns more using it than they do sitting on there arse grazing on television. why? because its the nature of it. there is no direction, no control. Everyone has been on wikipedia or tvtropes and lost an hour due to drift searching at least a few times. it is guaranteed to impart information because that is the primary function. not to sell something, or impart a message but to allow networking and archiving of information which people are free to choose to browse at there leisure. Now i am part of the general public and nothing special either and i learn a few new things every day form the internet. i don't watch television because it is base, mindless garbage made to advertise, make money and keep you there watching and having these advert bombs set up in your head. Maybe it's the websites you visit, god knows there IS lazy people on the internet, mostly in the over 20 bracket who use the internet for forums, facebook and nothing else and these people are a problem, but i know there are many people who use websites to keep there lives interesting and give them knew things to do when AWAY form the computer. all the television wants you to do when away from it is get around the watercooler and advertise the shows to other people. for example, want some websites to use that dont involve "O.M.G THEY CHANGED THERE STATUS TO SOMETHING ENW!" (if you cant tell i hate websites like facebook and myspace, the only reason i have one is because i have uni friends who only converse using it) http://www.ted.com/ - actual intellectually stimulating talks on subjects. http://boingboing.net/ - neat diy science projects and things from around the world. http://lifehacker.com/ - tips and freebies to make your life easier or more interesting. http://makezine.com/ - webzines about making neat things. http://www.theonion.com/ - clever comedy http://www.howstuffworks.com/ - name kinda says it. http://www.popsci.com/ - science news and technology. http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ - photography adn articles form around the world. http://www.rollingstone.com/ - entertainment industry news and articles minus the gossipy bullshit. http://www.aintitcool.com/ - movies and dvd articles. thats a handful of ways to spend your time learning something new on the internet instead of bitching on forums and stuff. When people do the "most people are stupid and only do blank" this kind of thing always comes to mind. Very apt and level headed response. The other side of the argument seems to imply that when there was no internet, evey living human was a bookworm and that's far from the case. There were just as many people slacking off then as there are now only with inferior technology. There will always be people who are in the pursuit of knowledge and will use the best available medium to do so. Conversely, there will always be those who want to use that nmedium to watch porn even though it can be used for a host of other things. This pertains to books a swell as the internets.

[AcesandEights]

When people do the "most people are stupid and only do blank" this kind of thing always comes to mind. That's beautiful! Definitely reminds me of the inherent paradox of the astronomical number of people on the internet authoritatively claiming the world is full of idiots; always a bugbear of mine. PS--Thank you for the links, will look at the ones I'm not familiar with over this week!

[Danny]

That's beautiful! Definitely reminds me of the inherent paradox of the astronomical number of people on the internet authoritatively claiming the world is full of idiots; always a bugbear of mine. PS--Thank you for the links, will look at the ones I'm not familiar with over this week! you win points for using bugbear in a none d&d context.

[AcesandEights]

you win points for using bugbear in a none d&d context. Ummm...many kobolds of thanks?

[darth los]

Don't trip over your 20 sided die patting yourselves on the back guys.

[Terran]

I remember back when I was in college from 2000 - 2004 there was a collective gasp as our professors at the college informed all the students that they could not use the internet for sources on any college paper requiring sources with exception to periodical resources such as the "New York Times Online" or other periodical sources online. Even to this day, my alma mater bans the internet for online sources except for periodicals (this includes wikipedia -- you may not cite from or use it as a source for papers). When I went to school we were required to use the internet for sources. Of course we couldnt use something like Wikipedia as source. In terms of scientific articles, journals, etc. The best place to get them was from the internet from article Databases...so while these places are on the internet its not the same thing as just some website, they are the actual physical articles that end up getting published. This being said it was for science classes... Books and magazines were already obsolete by the time they had been printed. Additionally for the most part anything that was written in a book in terms of science was first originated in one of these unless terribly dated...and even if still relevant you could find copies of the old articles in these databases. The main problem with people using the 'internet' as a source is most people dont actually know how to use it.

[Danny]

When I went to school we were required to use the internet for sources. Of course we couldnt use something like Wikipedia as source. In terms of scientific articles, journals, etc. The best place to get them was from the internet from article Databases...so while these places are on the internet its not the same thing as just some website, they are the actual physical articles that end up getting published. This being said it was for science classes... Books and magazines were already obsolete by the time they had been printed. Additionally for the most part anything that was written in a book in terms of science was first originated in one of these unless terribly dated...and even if still relevant you could find copies of the old articles in these databases. The main problem with people using the 'internet' as a source is most people dont actually know how to use it. only difference between then and now? Its okay to use the internet because they can use software to search for students plagiarizing, back in the day the internet was a dark pit of grade a work waiting to be pilfurd, thats nigh impossible nowadays. as it should be.

[kidgloves]

Whether you like it or not Uncle George got it right with Diary. I'll give you an example. Im a member of a very large boxing forum and the sport, by its tough nature, attracts all sorts of people. Some of the people on this forum are batshit crazy and obsessed with particular fighters and will do or type anything to make their fighter look good and discredit said fighters nemesis. Sometimes this gets out of hand and can attract a lot of threads that in turn attract the looneys and it morphs into a big thing. Now the topic can be anything including false rumours. If enough people get on board it gets reported on boxing news sites and becomes almost fact. People brainwash themselves on this forum into believing stuff that has NO substance whatsoever. Its incredile. In Diary, George is saying that the internet, and youtube in particular, create the news because everyone has a voice and its difficult to filter out the real facts amongst all the noise. The truth gets lost.