Do you ever think the world would be better without the internet?

I use it loads but when I went sailing for two months hardly used it all. You end up talking to a lot more ppl and reading more, and I felt better for it. People would have to trade more locally ect - I know there would be a lot of disadvantages.
(This is in part inspired by the fanzine thread, I know the fanzines use the internet a bit, but all the parts that ppl enjoy about creating and swapping them and meeting go are what ppl used to do before the internet)

What about if it can only be used for funny videos/pictures of animals? I’d accept that

Every single day.

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No.

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Absolutely not.

Think history will view it as the single biggest accelerant of social progress in the entirety of mankind.

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FM 2017 currently available from the Steam store.

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It’s had a hugely negative effect on my attention span and probably my health to a lesser degree as it’s replaced hobbies that involve exercise…and most of the shagging.

Without wanting to come across as a proper grandad, i can’t see any negatives to not having online access. I literally sit there for hours staring at and tapping screens for no productive reason whatsoever.

When i go without, holidays etc, i feel a lot better and get a lot more done. Maybe most people can dip in and out, i struggle with that. Long-term i’d like to live without a mobile phone, internet access at home and alcohol, which is admittedly something else entirely, but those three things all have the same effect.

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We’re turning into a regular Quinn and Phillips over here!

  • Mark Stein and Paul Furlong
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I’m old enough to clearly remember when it didn’t exist and my considered answer is no, it wouldn’t. Sure, there’s a lot of useless crap that the world could easily do without and it’s given idiots a platform to spout their shite, but the sheer convenience of being able to look up any fact, get directions, buy stuff from your armchair, hear so much more varied music directly from the artists has been revolutionary imho.

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My mum’s a proper Luddite and even she’s caved and “gotten online”, as she calls it, because she was finding more and more things she was locked out of or that were much, much more difficult to do without internet access because it’s now assumed you’ve got it.

Things like utilities stuff, some council services and (more trivially) online shopping. There’s probably something in there being an economic penalty to having to pay high street prices for stuff, too.

While on a personal basis some of us twats might on balance be happier reading a book instead of scrolling through Facebook, that ignores the huge benefits that have come from the internet. Think of things like healthcare, travel, finance, entertainment. It has the capacity to be a hugely democratising force, and even though like all things it’s perverted by the forces of capital, it’s still a net positive.

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Also:

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People would be happier without the internet definitely.

We probably wouldn’t live as long though.

All of the positives are outweighed by the fact that humans are not built to handle this much information.

Specifically, we’re not built to handle this much BAD NEWS.

I feel like the whole world’s working towards a collective nervous breakdown.

Fucking nonsense. The city elders wept about this when Gutenberg cobbled together his printing press.

I’m sorry that you cry in your bedroom because someone did a mean tweet, but on balance it’s worth it if an isolated rural community has access to live video conferencing with a doctor for the first time.

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If anything I think there should be MORE internet, possibly on bigger screens.

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No.

An individual’s life might be better, however, if they used the internet in a more positive way according to their needs. To use the OP example - it’s not the internet’s fault that, say, people read fewer books.

yeah but what if it was just for professionals?

also this is a really mean post, c’mon

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