Does the internet ruin or better people's life? Your life?
It can work both ways.
Depends on knowing oneself.
It can work both ways.
Depends on knowing oneself.
The tool isn't the issue, the user is...
Your thought?
enuff
.... 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 ......
When I bought my Blackberry, I thought about the 30-year business I ran with 1800 employees, all without a cell phone that plays music, takes videos, pictures and communicates with Facebook and Twitter. I signed up under duress for Twitter and Facebook, so my seven kids, their spouses, my 13 grand kids and 2 great grand kids could communicate with me in the modern way. I figured I could handle something as simple as Twitter with only 140 characters of space.
My phone was beeping every three minutes with the details of everything except the bowel movements of the entire next generation. I am not ready to live like this. I keep my cell phone in the garage in my golf bag.
The kids bought me a GPS for my last birthday because they say I get lost every now and then going over to the grocery store or library. I keep that in a box under my tool bench with the Blue tooth [it's red] phone I am supposed to use when I drive. I wore it once and was standing in line at Barnes and Noble talking to my wife and everyone in the nearest 50 yards was glaring at me. I had to take my hearing aid out to use it, and I got a little loud.
I mean the GPS looked pretty smart on my dash board, but the lady inside that gadget was the most annoying, rudest person I had run into in a long time. Every 10 minutes, she would sarcastically say, "Re-calc-u-lating." You would think that she could be nicer. It was like she could barely tolerate me. She would let go with a deep sigh and then tell me to make a U-turn at the next light. Then if I made a right turn instead. Well, it was not a good relationship...
When I get really lost now, I call my wife and tell her the name of the cross streets and while she is starting to develop the same tone as Gypsy, the GPS lady, at least she loves me.
To be perfectly frank, I am still trying to learn how to use the cordless phones in our house. We have had them for 4 years, but I still haven't figured out how I lose three phones all at once and have to run around digging under chair cushions, checking bathrooms, and the dirty laundry baskets when the phone rings.
The world is just getting too complex for me. They even mess me up every time I go to the grocery store. You would think they could settle on something themselves but this sudden "Paper or Plastic?" every time I check out just knocks me for a loop. I bought some of those cloth reusable bags to avoid looking confused, but I never remember to take them with me.
Now I toss it back to them. When they ask me, "Paper or plastic?" I just say, "Doesn't matter to me. I am bi-sacksual." Then it's their turn to stare at me with a blank look. I was recently asked if I tweet. I answered, No, but I do fart a lot."
P.S. I know some of you are not over 70. I sent it to you to allow you to forward it to those who are.
......Not me I figured your sense of humor could handle it....
We senior citizens don't need anymore gadgets. The TV remote and the garage door remote are about all we can handle.
+1 Even after carpal tunnel operation, polyneuropathy is still there... (forever). Sneaks up on you... first, pins and needles in the fingers at night, then eventually loss of sensation that makes you feel like you're wearing gloves all the time.But there are some downsides. I have had to be careful that my wrist doesn't get injured from overuse of the mouse, needing a thumb/wrist guard for the last 10 years. My eyesight has not been as crisp as before although how much of that is due to simple aging I can't tell. I get a stiff neck once in a while. But I have enough non-computer things to do to keep me off line. Still, have to be careful.
+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...
It almost certainly does ... but that is not the same thing as the question you posed in the title of this thread.I think it hurts our productivity
Unlike other media formats - television, radio, newspapers, magazines? If there's a fault with the internet is there is so much information to wade through, you definitely have to be selective with sources, not unlike television, radio, newspapers, magazines...Putting on my big fat whiner hat, I'd say the internet is terrible for promoting junk science, misinformation, and enabling confirmation bias to an unprecedented degree.
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.
My DH is always telling me to txt the kids to come to the dinner table from a different part of the house. I refuse and insist on using an old fashioned dinner bell. I hate anything that makes people more disconnected with the real world.We recently traveled by train. In the dining care the tables are set for four so one is obliged to share. We had a similar experience: mother and son shared our table. They both had smartphones and actually spent the entire meal time texting each other!