The Internet. Is It Used More For Bad Than Good?

[LoneKiller]

What's up everyone?

Do you feel that society as a whole, uses the internet more for unsavory things than for good? I'm inclined to say that society does tend to use it more for unsavory purposes. Any thoughts?


Thanks for viewing!
LK

 

[Skorian]

I don't think it is used for anything unsavory. What you talking about?

I mean there are some crazy things here and there, but they generally are poorly done. Lone individuals who want aliens to take them away... tsk tsk.

If you are talking about porn. Well welcome to humanity. Women are hot and well I don't think us guys are, but anyway. I have nothing against a naked woman showing off a tuft of fur.

The internet is just peoples thoughts put on a screen. In a way you could also call it a mind reading tool, though I have never quite thought of it that way before. Humans are just horny hairless monkeys. Just look at Steve Irwin... classic monkey face.

 

[Thrasymachus]

Internet is generally used for distraction. I constantly itinerantly browse the net, I am addicted. It prevents me from getting alot of things I want to do in life, just wasting time between now and death staring at a screen depicting some website or web-forum. Often I can ride my bicycle for several miles in a suburban Northern NJ(which is quite densely populated) and see no person outside in their lawn, walking or no kids playing. And when I do finally see someone outside they are often enough just maintaining their lawn, walking to some store, etc.

People just lock themselves up and become more anti-social, for various reasons, one of which is the increasing competition from indoor activities like the internet. Generally all these technologies like tv, internet, cell-phones, cars allow you to ignore more and more your local environment. Operationally, on this forum I can pretend interact with people from all over the world via text in the lieu of spending that same time really interacting with people in my locality. Thus it is a viscous circle, I have a lonely life, so I keep coming back here.

 

[Skorian]

There is some truth to that. However, might I recommend using the net to learn some things rather then some of the mindless nothing?

 

[kamya]

[video=youtube]

 

[LoneKiller]

I don't think it is used for anything unsavory. What you talking about?

I mean there are some crazy things here and there, but they generally are poorly done. Lone individuals who want aliens to take them away... tsk tsk.

If you are talking about porn. Well welcome to humanity. Women are hot and well I don't think us guys are, but anyway. I have nothing against a naked woman showing off a tuft of fur.

The internet is just peoples thoughts put on a screen. In a way you could also call it a mind reading tool, though I have never quite thought of it that way before. Humans are just horny hairless monkeys. Just look at Steve Irwin... classic monkey face.

Well, I see what you are saying Skorian, but in my opinion, it's much more than just words on a screen. Some go beyond that and take action on their impulses. I'll list some examples.

1. Child molesters who set up dates with who they think are young girls and boys.

2. "Shock Sites" that depict truly some of the most disturbing and graphic
videos that I've ever seen. This is why I don't visit those sites anymore. It takes a big toll on your psyche. Sure, you aren't forced to view these sites, but they are available and malevolent and have a strong impact on
people's emotions.

3. Adults who are so active in child molestation they create tons of kiddy porn sites and sell their videos to other baby rapers.

4. You can learn how make almost any illicit things such as drugs, explosives, how to properly murder someone, etc.

5. You can buy prescription medication without a doctor's script.

6. Running financial schemes on the innocent and gullible.

I'm not saying it's all bad, but it's very much a reality. Just words on a screen? I respectfully disagree.

 

[Ak5]

Every single thing that humanity uses will be, eventually, used for "evil". So yes, Internet does have bad stuff, but so does every other thing in the world.

I would say that the Internet is more good than bad though.

 

[Skorian]

Well, I see what you are saying Skorian, but in my opinion, it's much more than just words on a screen. Some go beyond that and take action on their impulses. I'll list some examples.

1. Child molesters who set up dates with who they think are young girls and boys.

I would bet this happened through other means before the internet. It is not the internet's fault. How about instead of blaming the internet we blame english or language?

2. "Shock Sites" that depict truly some of the most disturbing and graphic
videos that I've ever seen. This is why I don't visit those sites anymore. It takes a big toll on your psyche. Sure, you aren't forced to view these sites, but they are available and malevolent and have a strong impact on
people's emotions.

What are you talking about? Why are you looking at this stuff? You have access to more then 1000 libraries at your fingertips and you choose to oggle at crap? Do you mean 2 girls one cup?

3. Adults who are so active in child molestation they create tons of kiddy porn sites and sell their videos to other baby rapers.

I can't say I have ever seen a kiddy porn site. Now I have never actually looked, but I have been all over the web and never run across anything I could be sure was what your talking about. Usually what you find is people using legit porn stars that look immature for their age. I know there is child porn, but it isn't very common. That is policed pretty strongly.

4. You can learn how make almost any illicit things such as drugs, explosives, how to properly murder someone, etc.

And before this all you needed for this is to spend some time in jail.... The best place to get a criminal education. This information has always existed, it is just a little easier to access now.

5. You can buy prescription medication without a doctor's script.

Ummmmm it is so easy to get a script for many drugs anyway, that I don't see any problem here. I am all for buying Canadian.... Most medications cost less then ten cents to manufacture and are sold for anywhere from fifty to hundreds of dollars a bottle.

6. Running financial schemes on the innocent and gullible.

This is everywhere. It goes back thousands of years.... Has little to do with the internet. It is kind of like blaming the road for drugs being transported. Should we declare roads bad?

I'm not saying it's all bad, but it's very much a reality. Just words on a screen? I respectfully disagree.[/color]

This sounds like an attempt to demonize knowledge....
[/quote]

 

[LoneKiller]

Well, I see what you are saying Skorian, but in my opinion, it's much more than just words on a screen. Some go beyond that and take action on their impulses. I'll list some examples.

1. Child molesters who set up dates with who they think are young girls and boys.

I would bet this happened through other means before the internet. It is not the internet's fault. How about instead of blaming the internet we blame english or language?

2. "Shock Sites" that depict truly some of the most disturbing and graphic
videos that I've ever seen. This is why I don't visit those sites anymore. It takes a big toll on your psyche. Sure, you aren't forced to view these sites, but they are available and malevolent and have a strong impact on
people's emotions.

What are you talking about? Why are you looking at this stuff? You have access to more then 1000 libraries at your fingertips and you choose to oggle at crap? Do you mean 2 girls one cup?

3. Adults who are so active in child molestation they create tons of kiddy porn sites and sell their videos to other baby rapers.

I can't say I have ever seen a kiddy porn site. Now I have never actually looked, but I have been all over the web and never run across anything I could be sure was what your talking about. Usually what you find is people using legit porn stars that look immature for their age. I know there is child porn, but it isn't very common. That is policed pretty strongly.

4. You can learn how make almost any illicit things such as drugs, explosives, how to properly murder someone, etc.

And before this all you needed for this is to spend some time in jail.... The best place to get a criminal education. This information has always existed, it is just a little easier to access now.

5. You can buy prescription medication without a doctor's script.

Ummmmm it is so easy to get a script for many drugs anyway, that I don't see any problem here. I am all for buying Canadian.... Most medications cost less then ten cents to manufacture and are sold for anywhere from fifty to hundreds of dollars a bottle.

6. Running financial schemes on the innocent and gullible.

This is everywhere. It goes back thousands of years.... Has little to do with the internet. It is kind of like blaming the road for drugs being transported. Should we declare roads bad?

I'm not saying it's all bad, but it's very much a reality. Just words on a screen? I respectfully disagree.[/color]

This sounds like an attempt to demonize knowledge....

[/quote]Well, you're entitled. Thank you for your opinion on the subject.

 

[Lawrens]

I wouldn't know since I don't know the statistic and what the entire world does, I would say it's about the same as the amount of people doing unsavory/good things outside of internet. It's just a tool, people bank through the internet, donate through the internet, etc, it's kind of integrated into our lives.

I've made donations in the past through the net, so I guess I've probably done more good than bad.

 

[Sci-Fi]

Without running a safe search you run into a lot of bad things on the internet. Thankfully most browsers are pretty good at filtering those kinds of things. I use the internet for good, and most of the sites I visit are forces of good and decency on the internet. It's where you go and what you are browsing for. Just like if you went out shopping in a major city, on one side you might find a XXX store, across the street you might find a bible store. It's all in what you are looking for.

 

[IgnoredOne]

Free will is cause of evil. It should be excised from the human mind.

 

[kamya]

Assuming free will exists.

 

[Skorian]

Free will is cause of evil. It should be excised from the human mind.

I hope you aren't serious....

Anyone who thinks this way needs to start by removing their own free will first. I recommend they start taking the max therapeutic dosage of Haldol.

 

[Rolo]

Meh, I don't think free will exists, everything we do is influenced and controlled by so many factors-most people don't realise it!

Anyway, back to the topic- I just think the internet is what you make of it- for me its more good than bad I doubt I would know half the stuff I do now-it just makes things so much more accessible. Sure, there are people that use it for bad like in the examples that were given earlier, but they would most likely have been around in the past as has been said, its just the internet has made them more accessible for people that may or may not want to see it.

 

[IgnoredOne]

I hope you aren't serious....

Anyone who thinks this way needs to start by removing their own free will first. I recommend they start taking the max therapeutic dosage of Haldol.

Why? Its as logical as any argument that the internet, a simple medium of expression and connection, could be quantitatively and qualitatively defined as 'bad' or 'good.'

 

[Thrasymachus]

You guys are missing the philosophical point about the adoption of new technologies. You focus on impotent surface observations about whether you visit "good" or "bad" websites. According to systems theory there are technologies that incorporate their users into a new system that forms an indivisible whole, from which you cannot easily separate the man from the tool. When I am focused on my computer surfing the net, I often shut those around me out, it is hard for them to get my attention, because I really am forming a new symbiosis with this technology that pulls me into the machine interface at the expense of immediate surroundings. Further according to new knowledge about neuroplasticity using new media like tv and internet over time will kill your attention span and ability to concentrate. It makes you encounter difficulty in feats requiring a longer-term mental focus. Also I am sure you have noticed that all these new technologies change the way people interact. I am not that old, 29, but I have noticed that in the 1-3 decades since I was a child or teen a massive change, you simply cannot find children out and about where I live except with extreme difficulty.

Examining all this I can firmly say internet has an emphatic negative impact on humanity. It does not help us connect with each other. It along with other technology helps people become alienated from those most immediate to them, so they must spend more time seeking poor substitution elsewhere, often the internet or something equally vapid. This is substituting more direct human contact for contact mediated by a monitor, keypad and mouse. Time is not an infinite quantity, the more time you spend on a new technology, is time that will displace some old use.

 

[Felix]

More than good or bad, it's used for SEX............. which is GOOD............ unless your asexual or repressed.

So my conclusion, it's GOOD.

Then if I add, I was able to look at films, series, music, books and information I wouldn't be able to see any other way, I'd have to say it's a ******* blessing!

If it's bad, then no one really makes you see something, you might run into some disgusting honeysuckle from time to time, but for me that's also part of the fun.

Also about the "shock" sites... I happen to like them. I'm curious about deaths, fights, war stuff... seeing is a part of knowing for me... I get curious from time to time. I came across "documenting reality", the best site for this stuff I found, unfourtunately I think I got banned right after the day I found a way to enter the content of the site at least 20-30 times (they only let you see like 2-3 topics a day)... I just think that it's good that this violent stuff is shown, you don't have to watch it if you don't like it...

 

[IgnoredOne]

Examining all this I can firmly say internet has an emphatic negative impact on humanity. It does not help us connect with each other. It along with other technology helps people become alienated from those most immediate to them, so they must spend more time seeking poor substitution elsewhere....

The same could be said of automobiles and their effect of increasing mobility; or even the written word and its ability to extend meaning over distance and time. Every tool, widely used, has an impact on our daily habits and expectations; with the same empirical observation, I firmly reject that it does not help us connect with each other, given its vast additions to my life.

I wouldn't be connected to the same girl I am now without the internet; I certainly wouldn't have as much knowledge at my fingertips to utilize from and make decisions, not to mention have not met people who have similar interests and caused me to develop and hone my skills.

 

[Okiedokes]

I would say it's probably used for good stuff mostly. A lot of questions can be answered on the net. Definately passes the time and nice to meet people in a different way.