We have taken a resource capable of spreading knowledge from almost every human on earth to every other human on earth in seconds, millenia of science, culture, art, all available freely for anyone to enjoy, and then turned that technology into a machine for lies, disinformation, addiction, and abuse.
When I look at social media, I do sometimes wish the “normal people” wouldn’t have found out about the internet. But, on the other hand, I know damn well that my 1000mbps internet connection wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for mass adoption.
I’ve had this same thought. I blame the smartphone for removing the last barrier to entry for most people. It became easily accessible and from pretty much anywhere. Kind of like an Eternal September but from a global perspective.
At least for now, we can avoid most of the crap by not using social media, always using ad blockers, and by using search engines that are not shit.
But work is ongoing to remove ability to protect ourselves from tracking and blocking ads. Because even ordinary users who know nothing are waking up to ads in the start menu on windows soon.
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Positive: You can find out nearly anything.
Negative: You’ll be driven mad seeing all the people clearly wrong about what you now know who are uninterested in actually finding out the facts yet unashamed in spouting off their misinformation.
Distraction is just one click away.
Positive: Everyone has a voice
Negative: Everyone has a voice
Positive: I can learn a sorts of stuff!
Negative: There’s so much to learn!
Positive: porn Negative: porn
The duality of man
Positive: Lots of easily accessible information Negative: Lots of tracking and misinformation
Positives: You’ll learn everything
Negatives: You’ll become insufferable
Anyone can post anything on it.
You might want to elaborate on that question a bit. Do you mean for an individual, for a company, a government, a society in general?
And what do you mean by using the internet? Obviously unless you live as a hermit in the woods many systems you use every day are going to use the internet anyway, the traffic light as you are crossing the street, the order system the stores you shop at use to fill their shelves, your employer, the government departments managing the infrastructure in your area and your taxes and other bureaucratic data about you and your possessions, your doctor, the producers of most of the goods you use, the phone system,…
So presumably you mean some sort of direct use on a device you interact with, what do you mean there, the web? Social media? Messengers? Email? Voice calls? Video calls? Video conferences? Online games? Search engines? Mapping apps? Wikipedia? Youtube? Netflix, Amazon Prime and similar sites? Twitch?
As an individual.
Internet indeed has negative aspects, but are all superseded by the positive aspects.
And that’s why we keep on improving network infrastructure for better speed and lowest latency possible.
Positive: you could make a website about anything, for example I used to have a bookmark to Amish Rake Fight GFY, which was just a single page with a “🖕Go Fuck Yourself” message and a counter of how many people were told to go fuck themselves.
Negative: Sadly, this is gone now and all I’m left with is fucking my memories. Web 2.0 sucks.
Positive: Government and corporate injustices are increasingly hard to sweep under the rug, and awareness of these injustices is more prevalent.
Negative: All this access to injustices going on can easily lead you down a spiral of hopelessness if you let it, especially when it seems like nothing is being done to fix the problem.
Positive: you have access to multiple sites
Negative: you only only visit the familiar ones (or just social media)
