Scratch

No. 

The internet is not killing our culture. The internet lets us interact and create. Of course the are some cons but everything has as many cons as it has pros! The internet is not bad for people unless they choose to use it that way.

stevetheipad wrote:

I feel that with every good thing comes a bad thing (or two  ). You have to be ready for the bad things, and to avoid them, but to embrace the good thing(s). Every single invention and idea that I can think of that has come into play has a negative side and there's hardly a way to avoid it. Same thing goes for the internet, except multiply it be a thousand. There are a thousand positive effects and probably just as many bad effects, if not more.

I hear people saying that technology has ruined us, rather than help us, but to me it's more that technology has presented a way to help us, but only a very small amount of people have used it that way; it's us that's to blame.

exactly.

people take the internet for granted, and they misuse it, and that's the problem.

Last edited by ROSMan (2012-10-03 15:26:01)

Although just reading from your main post I could see some truth in what Andrew Keen is saying from his book, having watched the video, I strongly disagree.

First off is one of the ideas mentioned in the video, which says that amateur content replacing professionals is bad. I disagree with this because I believe that this ability to express one's own opinion and express one's thoughts on the internet is helping us, not making us worse. Although experts can provide very useful information and companies can make very entertaining movies, us the consumers are also able to gather knowledge very well and make content that we enjoy, and we have just as many good and bad intentions as these "elitists" he speaks of.

Major examples (as mentioned in the video) include Wikipedia and YouTube. You can criticize Wikipedia a lot about its unreliability, but in most well-developed articles, the content is quite accurate and the number of mistakes the articles have is relatively similar to those in other encyclopedias. YouTube on the other hand is providing a place for people to create videos about their interests, discuss ideas with their fans, and make entertainment for others; and there is nothing wrong with that. We the people decide what is "funny" or "amusing".

One other minor point he makes in the video is the "increasing illiteracy" of us. Although this may be possible to a certain extent, I think he's greatly over-exaggerating it, and not acknowledging the fact that many of us choose to not use proper grammar and spelling while using the internet for efficiency's sake.

Is it possible that the internet may be decreasing our attention span or having other unintended side-affects on us? Possibly. But it's certainly not dumbing us down for the reasons he has given.

P.S. I also think a lot of other people on this thread have other good ideas too. Like how stevetheipad says "I feel that with every good thing comes a bad thing (or two)." and 16skittles says "To improve a technology fundamentally means that the old one will become all but obsolete. Times change, for better or worse."

Nomolos wrote:

The internet lets us interact and create. Of course the are some cons but everything has as many cons as it has pros!

There are many things with very few or nonexistent pros to their existence or happening.

Woo, community moderator approves of my post 

Mokat wrote:

Not unless someone wastes all their time on the internet.

"Wasting time" is subjective. There is a difference between spending all day on the computer on Facebook or texting (why not just talk f2f, unless long distance, in which case just call them), spending time gaming (overcoming challenges, developing strategy, in MP working as a team) and programming (developing a useful and lucrative skill).

Personally my time is split between Reddit and scratch, (maybe 20%), programming (currently making a game engine in C++, 35%), and Team Fortress 2/Portal 2/Minecraft (55%). Also that isn't including time spend writing papers and essays. So maybe 10% school (some textbooks are ebooks) and 45% gaming. Some time on Reddit is spent just for the lulz, but also reading up on r/gamedev to see what works and what doesn't as well as what's hot on the indie game market. Much of my time working in C++ is in Programming class and study halls, but also a bit at home. Then I have almost all of my gaming at home in the afternoon. (Friday nights are sacred to me, no homework, just me and TF2)
All in all much of my time is spent unproductively. Still, time enjoyed is not time wasted. 

16Skittles wrote:

Woo, community moderator approves of my post 

Mokat wrote:

Not unless someone wastes all their time on the internet.

"Wasting time" is subjective. There is a difference between spending all day on the computer on Facebook or texting (why not just talk f2f, unless long distance, in which case just call them), spending time gaming (overcoming challenges, developing strategy, in MP working as a team) and programming (developing a useful and lucrative skill).

Personally my time is split between Reddit and scratch, (maybe 20%), programming (currently making a game engine in C++, 35%), and Team Fortress 2/Portal 2/Minecraft (55%). Also that isn't including time spend writing papers and essays. So maybe 10% school (some textbooks are ebooks) and 45% gaming. Some time on Reddit is spent just for the lulz, but also reading up on r/gamedev to see what works and what doesn't as well as what's hot on the indie game market. Much of my time working in C++ is in Programming class and study halls, but also a bit at home. Then I have almost all of my gaming at home in the afternoon. (Friday nights are sacred to me, no homework, just me and TF2)
All in all much of my time is spent unproductively. Still, time enjoyed is not time wasted. 

Things like reddit, blogs, Facebook posts, wikis, etc. are becoming the virtual newspaper of our time. We could nearly do away with news websites even because these places are condensing the important information we need and telling all about them. I could see tons of Facebook posts (and even get a "Your friends are talking about:") when Steve Jobs died and I end up knowing that. I may even see the continued efforts of newspapers to keep rolling in that "Steve Jobs article" trivial, 'everyone already knows'.

maxskywalker wrote:

And yet here we are, and mark my words: there will be an innovation in all of our lifetimes that many of us will reject.

I reject the idea of Facebook, personally, even though I just talked about it for an example.

It's the epitome of what a connected world shouldn't be.

Last edited by soupoftomato (2012-10-03 20:32:31)

(Partial credit to luiyisia's sig  )

The internet is a horrible awful place and I fear that you haven't even scratched the surface. The deeper you go the more depraved it becomes and the less it attempts to make sense until you get to the center, the horrible, twisted, hateful center made of chaos hatred and insanity. Once you get there, you can't escape, ever. That's why I live here, I sit at the eye of this great and terrible storm and I am whole.

Last edited by zubblewu (2012-10-04 00:33:59)

trinary wrote:

Change is an essential part of society.

I couldn't agree more. I think it's silly when people freak out simply because something is different. maxskywalker made a good point-- there were people who didn't like all sorts of different technology that eventually became incredibly standard.

I believe that change is essential to society because it allows us to improve. Is this change an improvement? (I think it is, but some people could argue that it lowers the quality of our reading material and entertainment and makes it hard to decide what is true.)

jackrulez wrote:

The internet killing our culture? Really? The internet is culture nowadays.

I agree, the internet has turned into a huge part of soceity now, getting rid of it would cause problems. I remember I once saw a picture depicting the internet as a wild animal (I think it was a dragon...) the artist of it said that that's how he views the internet. Just like the real word, it has it's pros and cons, it's up to society to choose how to use it.  Getting rid of the internet wouldn't solve all of the problems we are having, it would just be a desperate attempt to. Also, we can access things on the internet that we normally wouldn't be able to see. Yes, that could be bad, but it could also be very good. For example, I'm able to read manga that wasn't popular enough to be in the library near me, and have become more creative and happy, becuase I get to read so many things that I normally never would have. Also, there are schools that revolve around the internet (Cyberschools) that wouldn't be able to happen without the internet. We can't just blame society's problems on it, that would be ridiculous.
If you want I could post the drawing, it was pretty cool.

Last edited by rodentqween9 (2012-10-04 20:26:29)

Due to this being the Internet and the fact that most people who believe that wouldn't use the Internet, I doubt we'll get any opinions from the other side.