Poll: Is the internet a good thing for humanity?

[uchytjes]

Self explanatory thread titles, gotta love em.

So, is it a good thing that humanity has so much knowledge at its fingertips and can communicate so effortlessly?

edit: remembered this little video from cracked. fits well in this thread in my opinion.

http://www.cracked.com/video_18400_why-scariest-sci-fi-robot-uprising-has-already-begun.html

 

[Rawne1980]

Of course it is.

Information about anything whenever you want it. Free porn. Games. Social type things.

Now just to wait for the self diagnosed depressives to chime in with the "but it's full of bad things".

 

[tippy2k2]

The internet is neutral.

It's a tool. You might as well ask if a hammer is good for humanity. I can use a hammer to build a house or I can use a hammer to murder my neighbor.

 

[Living Contradiction]

Yes, it's quite good. Not perfect, but then again, it has people on it so you're not going to get perfection no matter how you slice it.

I love this place. I love that not only human knowledge but human ignorance is brought right out into the open by the Internet where we can see it and actually do something with/about it. I love that I can watch discussions happen about any topic I can dream of and several I couldn't have contemplated in my lifetime. I love that humanity is forced to move at the speed of thought and deal with all the thoughts that appear here in a forum that anyone can reach. It has changed our language, our ethics, and our awareness, all for the better.

Oh, and I love that it provides me a means of chatting with a woman I love (who happens to live in another country) without breaking my wallet into tiny fragments. Skype. What a wonderful word.

*glances at the clock* Happy New Year for Eastern timezone residents.

 

[Vault101]

was technological advancement good for humanity? thats pretty much the core question here

the internet has had such a profound effect on my life mostly for better, a little for worse so I find it hard ot say the internet is a bad thing

eather way its not disapearing anytime soon

 

[Keoul]

A medium to allow every single human to communicate with each other in real time regardless of location is a great thing.
Everything else that stems from it that you might deem "bad" is because of people not the internet.
At it's most basic, it's just a bunch of networks letting people communicate with each other.

 

[Living Contradiction]

I can counter that with one word. 4chan.

Heh. Let me redirect: 4chan has always existed or at least the mindset that goes along with it. We have always had folks who are willing to tap dance on a coffin, giggle at a porn shoot, and mock the agony of the world. They've always been around but they've had to channel their impulses into forms of expression that don't last or can't spread beyond an urban legend or, if that person was particularly daring and had access to a fax machine, a typed page of joke. Today, we have not just 4chan but a host of sites that poke fun at everything that our cultures can't or won't disparage and can't or won't discuss.

Being aware of 4chan has improved us. We can't deny that these ideas exist anymore. We can't say, "Humanity is free of vile impulses and has grown beyond childish and base humours" because there's proof of those impulses right here online. As well, it has shown us that even the dark clowns, even the ones that lampoon terrible tragedies and insult the righteous, can be made to recoil in horror. More self-awareness, more knowledge for future denizens of this planet to draw upon and build their perspectives from, is always a good thing. It can be saddening, but it still has merit.

 

[Nazulu]

Every thing has it's up's and down's, especially something as powerful as the internet. Me personally, it's one of the greatest things ever, finding so much information on things I never knew existed, discovering groups of people you can get a long with, learning how to do certain things I could only learn by seeing, fucking online gaming! I believe the positives out way the negatives.

 

[Lucyfer86]

One of the key factors to humanity's inevitable downfall.

 

[Andrewebyy]

I think it's first of all a very powerful tool. It can used both for the good and for the bad.

 

[chadachada123]

snip

Actually, we allowed poking fun at our culture and disparaging the untouchable.

But unlike 4chan, you actually had to be clever about it, and entertaining about it.

Lewis Carrol poked fun at culture. "DESU DESU DESU DESU DESU" and "Jews did 911" is not.

snip

Problem is, thanks to 4chan, they've been validated. They've been made cool.

I've been hearing kids call each other "newfag" and "oldfag" in movie theaters. I've heard girls willingly refer to themselves as "cumdumpsters" or told "Tits or GTFO", all in real life. 4chan is no longer a sideshow exhibit, it's becoming a cultural paradigm of behavior...

That's not really the fault of 4chan, though. Kids are stupid and will co-opt many things that they don't understand, like the fact that internet-speak should basically never be repeated in real life. Additionally, 4chan is only for people 18+, and I'd be infuriated if I heard some teens (anyone for that matter) spouting internet-speak in public. It isn't just 4chan terminology, though, it's this whole new "meme culture" that's being regurgitated by annoying fucks.

Besides, ignoring that 4chan is composed of a hell of a lot more than /b/, most adult posters on /b/ are pretty normal members of society. Me included. I go there to get some jollies from sick humor, sure, but outside of that site I act as kind or more kind than most of the internet, and like a goddamned saint in public.

4chan is even right along with the rest of the internet in terms of broadening true acceptance of others. When someone tries to seriously say that transgendered/etc people are fucked in the head, 4chan as a whole now generally responds with hatred/dismissal towards the hater.

I suppose I shouldn't even bother, what with the largely untrue or hyperbolic negative stereotypes against 4chan held by most posters of this site. Sure, 4chan IS the "asshole of the internet," but it's not too unlike posting here except for anti-formality in place of formality. Since most-everyone there is an asshole (Edit: At least as far as their choice in language goes), you get a very thick skin very quickly. It's pretty nice to have.

Edit: Crap, I forgot a very important piece of information. It's really nice having a place where you don't have to worry about politeness or formality, where you can be a dick and not have to worry about it, since they'll be a dick right back at you. It's calming to have a place to unwind after a large amount of time dealing with 'real people' and the rest of the net.

 

[Esotera]

You get whatever you put in out of the internet. If you just use it to browse pictures of cats and stale memes all day, then I'd say it's probably not a good thing for your life, but if you use it to learn about new things or create/sell stuff, then it's very useful.

 

[bigfatcarp93]

Yes.

For all the depravity, E-Crimes, nastiness, porn, etc., all that is irrelevant in the face of the advantages of instantaneous information across the entire planet.

 

[Breywood]

The internet is neutral.

It's a tool. You might as well ask if a hammer is good for humanity. I can use a hammer to build a house or I can use a hammer to murder my neighbor.

This has to be pretty much my opinion. It's a tool, and you can use a tool for everyone's benefit or everyone's detriment. The internet makes it easy to share information and opinions, but it's also the ability to share that information that can be harmful, especially on such subjects as harassment and racism.

 

[chadachada123]

4chan is even right along with the rest of the internet in terms of broadening true acceptance of others. When someone tries to seriously say that transgendered/etc people are fucked in the head, 4chan as a whole now generally responds with hatred/dismissal towards the hater.

You....you can't be serious.

I've seen more more elaborate diatribes supporting white supremacy on 4chan than on websites that actually devote themselves to racial supremacist movements. Barely a night went by without someone posting "The Color of Crime, the reality of race in criminology" or similar. 4chan is the whole reason why those old racist political cartoons are still seen.

And women. You want me to start on what stuff get's posted about women?

Crap, I forgot a very important piece of information. It's really nice having a place where you don't have to worry about politeness or formality, where you can be a dick and not have to worry about it, since they'll be a dick right back at you. It's calming to have a place to unwind after a large amount of time dealing with 'real people' and the rest of the net.

If you desire to be a dick, you are one, and you should be treated by the rest of the world as such.

Did you only go to /pol/ or something? Because no one can tell if they're being serious or not with the whole race/racism stuff.

Regarding women, most of that shit on /b/ is joking, and doesn't denote actually feelings or real life behavior. I'm not about to be super defensive about that part, though. That's in regards to threads specifically about women. The standard "Tits of GTFO" or "GB2Kitchen" is a part of the culture that evolved from when attention-whores used to spam /b/ with threads seeking attention. It just stuck around and later got applied to all women. As a joke. For laughs. Haha. Ask any girl that frequents the site, and they'll assure you that it isn't meant to be taken seriously.

Thanks for calling me a dick without knowing anything about me, though. Yes, because going to a site centered around dickery and essentially playing along necessarily makes me a dick, just like enjoying a rape roleplay necessarily makes you a rapist. Great logic.

Edit: DAMMIT. I forgot something once again. I do not "desire to be a dick." Were it my choice, politeness would be reserved only for the workplace, and most social interaction would be as impolite as it is on 4chan. It makes context and the ability to read others very important, and also means that people will have thicker skins overall and not get offended over trivial things. The "dickishness" isn't true asshole behavior, it just seems like it to an outsider, the same way that you may call your best friend an asshole.