Has the Internet been a great success or will it ultimately be a great disaster?

[16bha]

Reflecting back on the Olympics and the celebration of Sir Tim Berners-Lee, I wonder whether the Internet really is the great success.

Obviously, without it we wouldn't have NSC, but what damaging effect has it had?

The failure of Comet, Blockbusters,HMV, Jessops are just four very recent examples of how online shopping has affected shopping habits and impacted on the make up of the high street.

Are the pros greater than the cons, and what's next to be destroyed by the Internet?

Discuss.....

 

[El Sid]

Time will tell

 

[Mr Smggles]

It has clearly had an effect on people's counting abilities.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

It has clearly had an effect on people's counting abilities.

 

[vegster]

The Honey Badger has never had such good pr

 

[16bha]

It has clearly had an effect on people's counting abilities.

It has!

 

[Acker79]

 

[Poyetry In Motion]

Success obviously, although it's way too Orwellian for my liking. You can't do anything online without your data being fed back to someone,somewhere to be used for who knows what!

 

[beorhthelm]

why would it ever be considered a disaster? is this just because a few high street shops have gone into administration? its a bit like asking if electricity will be a disaster because a few parafin lamp sellers have gone bust.

oh, and Berners-Lee invented the WWW, not the Internet.

 

[coagulantwolf]

Facebook culture destroying social skills & communities, with easy access to porn & violence, lack of fresh air and exercise, crazy conspiracy theories driving them insane (@The Truth) - I think it is worrying times for the mental and physical health of the youth today.

I think the comment about facebook etc is so true. They literally waste so much time on facebook, I think I'm of the age where I've just avoided it ruining my childhood (i'm now 20). When I was there age I was down the park playing football, playing cricket, or actually meeting up with friends face to face. Now apparently just talking over text and facebook chat is good enough!

One of my pet hates though is people like at dinner or in a social situation STILL going on their phone to just check things like facebook. Pisses me off so much.

But even with these points, I think overall I think the internet has played a massive improvement.

 

[coagulantwolf]

Brilliant double post.

 

[16bha]

why would it ever be considered a disaster? is this just because a few high street shops have gone into administration? its a bit like asking if electricity will be a disaster because a few parafin lamp sellers have gone bust.

oh, and Berners-Lee invented the WWW, not the Internet.

I think you'll find that I didn't say heinvented the Internet, just that the olympics ceremony prompted the reflection, and the reference to retail is just one example. Apologies for having to explain to you...

 

[MattBackHome]

why would it ever be considered a disaster? is this just because a few high street shops have gone into administration? its a bit like asking if electricity will be a disaster because a few parafin lamp sellers have gone bust.

oh, and Berners-Lee invented the WWW, not the Internet.

Totes this.

 

[GingerBeerMan]

As a spin-off question, how do people think the internet will evolve in the future? Just ten years ago we had dial-up and couldn't access at speeds more than 56kbps, now in some parts of the world they have 100 mbps internet as standard.
A question for you older folks: When you first heard the word 'Internet' and discovered what it was, did you think it would become so widespread and influential in modern day life?

 

[niknokseagull]

Success obviously, although it's way too Orwellian for my liking. You can't do anything online without your data being fed back to someone,somewhere to be used for who knows what!

..... Which is why more and more people are using search engines like DuckDuckGo DuckDuckGo

It's not beyond the realms that, one day, Google could go the same way as MySpace, Bebo, AOL et al.
It's been said that if a service is free, then it's you who is the product. Well, as some of the above services found out, 'the product' found something better elsewhere.

 

[Lethargic]

We are the generation that experienced the introduction of the Internet and all it has offered good and bad so we have to deal with the novelty factor in the future children will be born where it is perfectly normal and will just be part of life. I see it as an evolution of what libraries were, our ancestors probably thought libraries would change the way of life much the same way people think the Internet will change us but who spends all day in a library?

 

[Sussax]

If I had a choice between living in this day and age and living 500 years ago, it would be the latter.

 

[gazingdown]

Even though half of us here would be dead? Not sure many of would want to go back to the levels of poor health, disease, lower life expectancy etc. that they had then.

 

[skipper734]

As usual in life, younger people do not think that the experience of older adults has any relevance to the world in which they live.
Most of the modern worlds gadgets appeared in Startrek episodes in the 1970's. Before that we only had one gadget, it was called outside. Fortunately we also had comics, within those colourful pages, the Beano, Dandy the Eagle and others in the 1950's lay the blueprint of most of the current crop of the essentials of life in the current century.
What was missing was a way that all this could be achieved, 0's and 1's was the key to unlocking all of them. The energy to drive them still derives from a 300 year old invention, your personal transporter is powered by a slight up dating of the steam engine using volatile liquids. There is a version that uses fans instead of pistons to compress the flammable liquid, but that's about it with the progress.
My one disappointment with a big proportion of my contemporaries, (people born in the 1940's) is that they and older people have not embraced and used, all this modern technology to their advantage. I believe they think it is frivolous and without a point, which is a foolish thought from a generation that generally didn't have any of the things you have in your house, apart from beds, chairs and tables.

 

[beorhthelm]

I think you'll find that I didn't say heinvented the Internet, just that the olympics ceremony prompted the reflection, and the reference to retail is just one example. Apologies for having to explain to you...

ah, no you didnt but it is infered by linking the adulation of him to this topic. just making the point as its too often mixed up. care to reflect on the many businesses and benefits to the economy that the internet has brought us? access to knowledge has been highlighted, i think that greatly outweighs the negatives of a few loonies spreading their conspiracy nuttery. the social impact of something like Facebook is arguably a negative (dont care for it) but the bringing together of people and communities outwieghs again - wasnt the fight to save BHA coordinated through the early NSC?