Every now and then online, I see the following statement: “The internet is both a blessing and a curse”.
I agree with this statement, what is Station’s thoughts on this statement?
3 months ago · 👍 bavarianbarbarian, jo
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14 Replies
@hanzbrix i definitely agree (with the last thing you said). it's such a shame how mystified the internet and the web are. they should definitely teach the fundamentals of how the web works at school and how to protect your privacy online and I'm 100% serious. people think only corporations can give you the ability to post online, it's scary! · 3 months ago
@hanzbrix Yes, this is how I see these things as well (replying to your reply to me). We use to invent new technologies that we don’t understand at all and use them as good magic, then suffer from bad concequences. In the same time me and you, we have no outhority to tell people what pase would be proper. And I think it’s good. But we can learn for ourselves and show others the benefits of our decisions. · 3 months ago
additionally, not everyone always understood how to read. this is a change that came gradually with the adoption of large scale printing and the education of the population (beyond just the rich people who can afford to sit around and read). Before that reading was privilege. And when you were suddenly expected to read, those who couldn't had a big problem. I don't like the forced reliance on technology and internet anymore than the next guy here. But we should remember that this has happened many times before and will again. I'm not defending it, but even though it's being intigrated into our lives in a bad way, we should'nt forget the benefits of the net either. · 3 months ago
@hanzbrix i have to disagree. you could certainly say that the internet or web has been weaponized, but it cannot be the same as a weapon because it wasn't created with the intent to cause harm. I agree that the way those who control it make use of it is a huge problem.
I agree that the internet or technology as a whole has more potential to be abused as a tool for surveilance than a book (though as a tool that carries ideas they both have lead to deaths). But even as far back as the beginning of the industrialisation people have recognized that the machines themselves are not hurting them, it's the way they are used and the society in which they exist. · 3 months ago
the internet itself is not the problem. people have compared it to a weapon here but that's very over the top when a more realistic comparison would be: "books are both a blessing and a curse". these are amazing inventions that expand our understanding of the world and each other, but they are still fundamentally made by humans. books can be Gray's Anatomy but they can also be Mein Kampf. the internet is a tool for communiaction but in the end it depends on how we use it and what we communicate · 3 months ago
i think, in my opinion, it is what you do with it. like an axe.. splitting your neighbours head or making firewood for heating and cooking for your family? i quit IT for some reason.. · 3 months ago
@hanzbrix Also, just so you know, I didn’t read the whole discussion here. · 3 months ago
@hanzbrix My point was, it’s not technology that does anything. It’s us using it to do harm. That’s why I focus on how I can cut the wrong use and keep the good use in my life and then teach others to do so. · 3 months ago
@hanzbrix nailed it. Time consumption is the key to understand how Internet had turn bad.
But it's half of the story: the missing piece is the governments closing both eyes on the creation of mega-conglomerates on the service sector of online services, destroying real competition, since they simply acquire and extinguish alternatives.
There's no real antitrust there.
So a couple of companies have enormous control on information, and now they're leveraging it using so called "AI".
I can think about only one person seeing it coming clearly as a social issue, and it's Joel Kotkin from his book The New Class Conflict (2014). · 3 months ago
Internet is technology, a powerfull tool. That’s all. The rest is within us. · 3 months ago
It is true to some extent, but as others have replied, the same logic can be applied to many other aspects of life. You could argue that even a basic thing like food is a curse, for people who don't have an healthy relationship with it. Relationship is the key word, in my view: the way you use the web can change your whole perspective. If you manage to find the "secret formula" to get the best out of it (according to your own needs), you win :) · 3 months ago
I think this is a statement that can apply to any tool. The tool itself is neither blessing nor curse; how we use it, for whom, and against whom is where the need to evaluate it comes in. · 3 months ago
I think the curse is mostly the forced reliance on it (apps for everything, official places only to be reached by shitty websites), and the death spiral of most social media. But I wouldn't want to miss it. I like being able to talk to my partner in Montana without having to wrangle timezones for a phone call or waiting for a letter, and I like being able to meet all kinds of people with the same niche interests. · 3 months ago
its not the web that destroys people but people themselves using it wrong? · 3 months ago
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