I like the internet and I don't like the internet. I've met some good people through it and met some crappy people through it. It's helped me learn and made me stupid. It's made me more productive and wasted a lot of time. It's helped me appreciate people more and made me truly believe there are folks who are completely irredeemable. In other words it's just like real life, only it's in a box. The best thing about it is that if there are too many trolls and cranks around I can just turn it off and walk away. You can't always do that with real life. And that's the other thing; you used to be able to differentiate "internet" vs. "real life." I don't think there's a difference any more, except that if you're lucky there aren't that many trolls and cranks walking around your neighborhood. Hopefully.
Sometimes I'd like to be away from it altogether and other times I can't wait to turn it on. I think I liked things better before it existed but I can't imagine not having it.
Like everything else it's what you make it. I'd play Talk Talk singing "Life's What You Make It" but nobody likes that song so I won't. That's another thing that's wrong with the internet; you having an effect on what I like.
Who the hell do you think you are anyway? Don't make me turn this off!
If I turn this off you don't exist anymore. Like if you stop reading a blog they stop reading you. Kind of phony then, ain't it? No that's okay you're not a troll or a crank. Of course I don't actually know that. I've had people turn on me before. Anything is possible.
The internet makes me paranoid.
7 comments:
I'm just your run -f -the -mill bitch - but not a troll!!
I have to admit, I am glad you didn't play that song.
And that you're here. :)
No. Once "the internet" shows up at your doorstep so they can eat your pizza and drink your beers... well... there's no way of turning THAT off.
Unless you place a call to the police.
I'm very thankful for the Internet... I wouldn't have met you or realized that Scientology was evil.
But I also get irritated with the Internet when it won't let me comment on your blog, like it did yesterday. Let's try this again... in case it works, know that I hate it when people text when I'm talking to them, too. So rude.
sybil- I don't care. I LIKE it. So nyeh...
dave - the good internet can eat my pizza any time it wants to.
faiqa- Yes as a matter of fact Scientology destroys families. So does texting!
uh, dude? taking some stuff personal?
it can happen, i know.
been there.
but the place is full of people who only write to tell you what to think, and people who only write to try to get you to follow their blog, and people who only write to spam, and so what?
the place is also full of interesting stuff you'd never know about elsewise.
i mean, i KNOW what ideas and music and books i already like. i already know the things i know.
if you can wade through the crap, you get to see some AWESOME stuff and who-gives-a-damn if they like you?
i personally make it my practice to read the blogs of people with wildly divergent views on just about everything.
it's handy in terms of being alerted to alarming trends, or interesting developments, or just really cool ways to look at data and maps and stuff.
and having an effect on what people like? well, if you're not that strong...
me, i'm fashion resistant in nearly everything but if some random blogger i follow didn't alert me to the existence of music THEY like, i wouldn't necessarily have the opportunity to hear it and decide if i like it or not.
please don't go away. if you turn us off and then in your world we no longer exist, i would miss you.
and there. i have attempted to influence you through my comments.
damn.
oh well, you're a big boy. you can handle it.
flask - not really. Just dwelling on dichotomies. I usually don't care what anybody thinks, and have been online far too long to trip that way. Just dualisms & such, is all.
I do sometimes wonder what would happen if the internet was just shut off for a few days. It is so integrated into my daily life at this point that I'm sure I'd find it distressing.
I mean...I can go without blogs and Facebook and all of that (and believe it or not I do, periodically) but I use it to know whether my bus is on time, where to go eat in a particular neighborhood, how late a store is open, what movies are playing, how to properly cook the strange vegetable that came in the CSA box, to send my mom flowers on Mother's Day, etc., etc...
I know people got along fine with timetables, newspapers, phonebooks, and cookbooks, but I'm just not used to it...plus I hate paper clutter...
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