Does the internet ruin or better people's life? Your life?

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Enuff2Eat

Full time employment: Posting here.
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Well, for my family. I think it hurts our productivity and consequently cost us more money to have internet. There are time internet is an incredible tool, instant access of information, knowledge, banking... but 90% of the time is spent wastefully.

DW, 2 kids + myself combined average of 6-8 hours a day or 2 hrs/person (not including smartphone time). Personally, I do feels in some aspect our country productivity is going down hill because of internet. Everyone seems to be smarter, get an answer faster but nobody seems to want to do the "real" grunt work.

Your thought?

enuff
 
Our family communications are an order of magnitude better than when I was in my 20's. Back then, we only argued with each other when the family got together physically - mostly holiday celebrations along with the occasional wedding, baptism and funeral. Now, both with my siblings, and also among my children, we are snarky with each other all the time and don't even have to be together to fight. Technology has been so enabling. It also allows us to ignore each other when we're together without suffering from that uncomfortable silence. I'm not exactly sure how to measure family productivity, but ours is certainly greater. :)
 
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internet-weather.jpg
 
Like just about anything, it can be misused (or overused) but for me it's been great. The last 15+ years of my working career it was a very big part of my job. Now that I'm retired I'd say my usage of the Internet is down as much as 60 to 70% but I still find it invaluable.
 
MichaelB said:
Our family communications are an order of magnitude better than when I was in my 20's. Back then, we only argued with each other when the family got together physically - mostly holiday celebrations along with the occasional wedding, baptism and funeral. Now, both with my siblings, and also among my children, we are snarky with each other all the time and don't even have to be together to fight. Technology has been so enabling. It also allows us to ignore each other when we're together without suffering from that uncomfortable silence. I'm not exactly sure how to measure family productivity, but ours is certainly greater. :)
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:ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:
 
All the information in the world right at my fingertips? The internet is an encyclopedia on steroids. How could this not add tremendously to my life? I think it has been one of the great advances in my lifetime.

I guess I could close my eyes to the internet and just vegetate. Often our leisure time activities before the internet were not all that constructive. To be honest, I'd rather have an active mind, thinking and learning about everything under the sun in my leisure time, or interacting with a variety of people discussing topics that interest me, like ER.

I get a lot out of the internet. On the other hand, I don't have as much patience when it comes to delays in finding out about things I am curious about. When I want to know something I GOTTA KNOW NOW - - I don't want to drive across town to the library, park, look it up in the card catalog, find the book, page through it, put it back, walk back to the car, drive across town again.
 
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W2R said:
All the information in the world right at my fingertips? The internet is an encyclopedia on steroids. I think it has been one of the great advances in my lifetime.
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+1. I certainly wouldn't want to go backward, the internet is an exceptional step forward.

It's been helpful keeping in touch with family via email. My Dad basically can't hear well enough to talk on the phone, without email I can't imagine. Sorry but I'm not going back to writing letters/sending snail mail.

That said, it can be a big time waster if the user chooses to spend time on the internet to the exclusion of life's other activities. Same thing can be said about television, alcohol and a host of other activities. The tool isn't the issue, the user is...
 
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I think that the internet has had a mostly positive impact on both my personal and professional life.

Professionally: no need to spend hours upon hours at the stodgy library looking for research papers and making photocopies of them. Get online, search the database, download the PDF, done.

Personally: It makes it a lot easier to keep in touch with my family in Europe. I used to write handwritten letters which had a certain charm. But now we can Skype and actually see each other and we can share media very quickly. It makes us feel like we are still part of each other's life even though we live thousands of miles apart. The internet also allows me to connect with people who have similar interests (life FIRE) all around the world. I do waste quite a bit of time online, but that is my choice.

The only downside of the internet as far as I am concerned is that it fosters shallower human interaction, which is ironic. Humans have never been so connected and disconnected at the same time, I feel.
 
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Enuff2Eat said:
Well, for my family. I think it hurts our productivity and consequently cost us more money to have internet. There are time internet is an incredible tool, instant access of information, knowledge, banking... but 90% of the time is spent wastefully.

DW, 2 kids + myself combined average of 6-8 hours a day or 2 hrs/person (not including smartphone time). Personally, I do feels in some aspect our country productivity is going down hill because of internet. Everyone seems to be smarter, get an answer faster but nobody seems to want to do the "real" grunt work.

Your thought?

enuff
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i think you should disconnect your internet-then see what happens:D
 
FIREd said:
The only downside of the internet as far as I am concerned is that it fosters shallower human interaction, which is ironic. Humans have never been so connected and disconnected at the same time, I feel.
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This seems so true :(. I found it kind of sad when our family were having burgers at Five Guys a few months ago and we observed a mother and her son (teen) come in, order food, sit down at a table and both pulled out their smartphones. Then they got burgers and still continued using their phones while eating. So, over 20-30 minutes in the restaurant, the only interaction was 'what burger will you have?" at the counter. I was flabbergasted.

As far as information goes, Internet is wonderful. Moreover, I wouldn't have discovered other frugally minded people/bloggers who seek FI if not for the internet.
 
I'm really glad we have the internet. My kids do a lot of research projects and fortunately, their teachers have embraced the internet. They are taught to look at how credible the websites are, use easybib.com to format the bibliography, etc... Such a huge time saver. My 10 year old just did a 3 page report on the Pony Express... It was great... and a lot more in depth than if he'd based in on a single encyclopedia and perhaps one library book, like I did in the 4th grade.

The internet is good.

Time management skills are useful, though.
 
I use internet minimally for communication, other than my activity here. What is usage here? Information gathering (and trading) or hi, how ya doin? communication? Seems like a bit of both.

I have found the internet really helpful in quickly being able to answer questions that in the past might have required hours spent at a library.

Ha
 
I actually used the internet when it was called the ARPAnet and was limited access, i.e. not open to the public. It was a fabulous tool for the R&D community.

Today's public full open Internet is both a blessing and a curse.

The availability of information is amazing.

The "darkside" is a bit much, especially the X rated and gruesome images that can be found, the recipes for explosives and homemade weapons, as well as the snarky and hateful comments that anonymity at a keyboard allows. :nonono:
 
Enuff2Eat said:
Does the internet ruin or better people's life? Your life?
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The internet, networks, and computer devices are what my career has been based on.

Overall it is has elevated our ability to compete and lead in some areas. But there are some really awful consequences I've witnessed with kids.
 
The internet has definitely added a tremendous amount to my life. I can't even imagine how much less knowledge and skills I would have without it.


Edit: Bad consequences. I have to try very hard to keep normal conversations with coworkers who think that earning imaginary money on Clash of the Clans is more important than actual reality.
 
Like with every tool, the internet can be used for gain or abused for pain. My job productivity would not be where it is today without the internet. It has made research and information gathering much easier. It is more easier to keep in touch with family and "real life" friends who no longer live nearby.

On the other hand, it can hamper the development of social skills, make it easier to become intolerant and rude to others, and tempt one to exist in a "made up" world instead of dealing with the real world. You can be anything you want on the internet. Which is not always good.

Like everything else, moderation is key. One thing I strive for is to not spend more time online than being with and conversing with real people - be it family, friends, or social gatherings. And its another reason I do not yet have a smartphone - I need a break from being "connected" all the time.
 
The internet is wonderful and is a real socio-economic and geopolitical benefit to the world. But I am concerned that soon they will run out of tubes to send all the messages through.
 
Enuff2Eat said:
Well, for my family. I think it hurts our productivity and consequently cost us more money to have internet. There are time internet is an incredible tool, instant access of information, knowledge, banking... but 90% of the time is spent wastefully.

DW, 2 kids + myself combined average of 6-8 hours a day or 2 hrs/person (not including smartphone time). Personally, I do feels in some aspect our country productivity is going down hill because of internet. Everyone seems to be smarter, get an answer faster but nobody seems to want to do the "real" grunt work.

Your thought?

enuff
Click to expand...
My experience is completely the opposite, and I think the country's productivity has gone way up as a result of the Internet. That's probably one of the structural changes contributing to the US high unemployment rate.

Besides - before the Internet, people spent hours watching TV. Surfing the internet is probably better for you than being glued to the boob tube.

For me - the Internet has been a revelation, and it saves me incredible amounts of time every day.
 
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I think the Internet has been a great advance in the world and has immensely enriched my life.

I was talking to my daughter the other day (we homeschool) and was telling her to research something on the internet. The thought crossed my mind that she could very quickly find a huge amount of information on the subject in question. Back [-]in the dark ages [/-] when I was her age, my only resource at home was a 10 year old set of the World Book encyclopedia. Yes, I could do to the library. I even actually worked at the library at that time and so had easy access. But, on most subjects we had a few books, many of which were out of date.

Of course, there can be negatives to the internet, I just think the positives out way them.

As for spending time wastefully, I think that largely depends on who is judging it. That is, for example, I play an online game (World of Warcraft). I am sure many people think of that as wasting time. Yet, most of those people have hobbies as well. If I enjoy it and otherwise am meeting my responsibilities in life then I don't consider it a waste.

There is one area where I do think our increased use of computers (which includes but is larger than the internet) is harmful. People are becoming more sedentary and are sitting more because they can do so many things sitting at the computer that they used to couldn't do there. I can research most things on the internet, so I don't have to go to the library to research them. Most products are cheaper if bought from Amazon so I order online. The result is that I sit a lot more now than I did pre-internet. I am currently using a program (thanks for the tip, W2R!) that gives me a reminder so that I periodically get up and walk around, but I have to be diligent to make sure I get up and move.
 
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