Reading this article over at the web-page Interesting Engineering.

”15 Examples of How Different Life Was Before The Internet”

https://interestingengineering.com/15-examples-of-how-different-life-was-before-the-internet

Got stuck at point #3

”You had to leave the house to socialize”

It is just a picture but I found myself in just a couple of seconds completely uncheck all the things I do not do anymore. It is years since I participated in social events on public places. Visited a cinema three years ago. It was terrible. All the ”work” doing, driving for an half an hour, parking the car, buying snacks and soda. Getting home. Better just to stream the movie. Tonight it is Daytona 500. Know there are people flying over the atlantic during non-pandemic times watchting oval-races in the states. Do not imagine myself doing such things. It is out of my comfort zone.

I drive a car, to a state park, and visit a couple of libraries to borrow some study books. Visited a book store a year ago and remember that the man that worked there seemed to hate it. That is it.

Distance learning. Normally I take the train and walk through some central parts of a big city to the university. Always tired. Studying is harder.

The world is big and small at the same time. Today.

Decided to get onto a project to try to remember how life was before internet. My experience is that my mental world has reached some kin of limit. Must reorient and find some new paths.

But it is crazy that we experienced the creation of social internet. That is why we are here at the forum right?

I used to read a physical newspaper every day. Now I get my news on TV and some on the internet. I used to read magazines more and books/novels more. I'd like to get back to that.

On a bright note, I keep up with my friends a whole lot better than I used to. I've become a part of a number of communities online, which has resulted in IRL meetings. My work has improved by moving a lot of tasks online, but it was a long struggle to get there.

I like how you can now get pretty much any information quickly and easily.

summer Wrote:
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> I like how you can now get pretty much any
> information quickly and easily.

Except you can't. Some time around 2015, the internet "shrank". I used to be able to find interesting blog posts, forums and personal webpages on all kinds of things. You used to find the opinions of ordinary people, good, bad or ugly.

Nowadays, you get directed to Wikipedia with its badly written/one sided trash, or some major website that has nothing new to offer. If you go to YouTube you often get things which only give a most basic overview of a subject, unless you are willing to put a lot more time in.

Even academic resources seem to be well hidden.

If you think I'm talking just politics, you'd be wrong. I've noticed this across the board. When I look for a B&B somewhere, for example, I don't get their website anymore... I get several of the big booking websites, and I know for a fact they can often charge 20% on top of the real price. And it goes on and on like that. Most of the useful or interesting internet on anything is gone. I've just been looking for an 18th/19th century poet from Germany called Novalis, and I'm struggling to find anything more than a basic overview anywhere. Years ago, I would have found decent material within half an hour. Now it takes days.

Agree, I saw an article about how the "volume" of the internet has shrunk from containing many unique sources to being supplied by a much smaller number of sources, especially as phone apps took over and people were directed to a smaller number of sources of information.
I wonder if changes in Google's search algorithm might have a lot to do with it, where maybe in both youtube and their search engine, they direct people to things produced by big companies, not individuals. So there is much less incentive now for individuals and small groups to produce content, resulting in much less interesting content across the internet.
Just try to search on youtube for a topic like jobs, and try to get an individual's opinion rather than a corporate news outlet. The top search results are all from big companies.
Big companies took over the internet, and now it's not fun or interesting anymore.

Or, as Yogi Berra put it, "nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded."

And yes, I'm being ironic. I vastly prefer electronic versions of newspapers to printed, though I do miss the comics page. Wikipedia is an excellent resource for finding general information about a topic, and links to more detailed information. It is one of Jordan's favoutite whipping boys, but he has fairly bizarre ideas of what constitutes useful information.

I'm pretty certain the internet will do to the 21st century world what printing did to 15th century Europe, only much faster. Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy ride.

Jordan does love his Google Translate, though. Remember the time he copied the Chinese for "Hong Kong" and posted it here to make him appear intelligent? Or the Russian or the Gaelic?

Because there's nothing more erudite than the combination of a strong disdain for Wikipedia and lots of fancy-looking foreign words. Thanks, Google!

One thing I miss about living in London is the variety of morning newspapers available (7 I believe and also a free one). On major stories I was interested in I would often buy two or more diverse papers to read on the commute to work to get different takes on the story. For me, the internet, and certainly not the average TV news broadcast, will not replace a well thought out and well written article. Speaking generally I think we receive an amazing overview of events but our understanding of them is less.

"Life is what's going on, all the time. Life doesn't just happen; either you make it happen or someone will do it for you.

"Most of us live a balancing act, between what we want to have and do, and what we can't have or do. 'Psychology/Psychiatry' exists because the balancing act is stressful.

"I'd tell you the secret to loving Life, except there isn't one. That's a hard lesson to learn."

--Judic West, from his 3-volume work, "Oh, Poop, Not Again!!"

Sometimes I feel like I'd take the internet of twenty years ago over today's. The speeds were dreadful and you couldn't get music or film clips easily, but you also didn't have the thought police breathing down your neck.

After social media the quality of interaction went to Hell too.

I also remember when search engines used to return useful results rather than just spam and Wikipedia articles. That was before Google took over nearly everything.

Regarding the "thought police," you are welcome to start your own website, blog and/or message board on whatever topic you wish. You could do that a quarter century ago, and you can still do it. You just can't post whatever you want in someone else's space any more than you can walk into someone's home and trash it. Their space, their rules.

What are the odds that Fey Wray and The Hurdy Gurdy Man are the same person?

I just did this search:


caterpillar to butterfly

About 29,400,000 results (1.05 seconds)


29 million, four hundred thousand results...

Wikipedia was not on the first page. I haven't the mystic sense he/they apparently possess, so I could not ferret out behind which result the thought police were lurking.

I guess I'm lucky, ensconced in my ignorance, happy to be alive and being able to enjoy what I consider to be the benefits of the internet.

Good luck staying out of thought police jail, Fey Gurdy! If they catch you, I know a good attorney!

A person has to think before the thought police will go get 'em, so I think Fey and her memory-deficient uncle in the attic are safe.

Did I mention that Fey Wray was born just over the river in Canada?

Have you not noticed at all how many people have been censored and deplatformed off of Youtube?

weqew Wrote:
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> Have you not noticed at all how many people have
> been censored and deplatformed off of Youtube?

It started with demonetization of independent channels years ago. Google-YouTube often did it without warning for spurious reasons. Then they started to manipulate search algorithms. Then mysteriously crappy videos by big media companies started popping up on recommendations. Almost like they were paying for it instead of being paid.

The only independent channels Google-YouTube is interested in are the likes of Pewdiepie, SSSniperWolf and other such morons.

Mumble mumble . . . war on cash. . . mumble. . .

Trapped in the elevator, not wishing to socialize, just pull out the phone, look intently at it, and start poking furiously

(If additionally mumble everyone ends up on the other side of the elevator)

I try to remember to relieve myself before getting in an elevator lest they get stalled and....

GNPE Wrote:
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> I try to remember to relieve myself before getting
> in an elevator lest they get stalled and....
===============================

Nah, I'm talking like just between floors ;-D

God caused the Internet to be created specifically to demolish the Mormon church’s bogus narrative.

Do you think that the church ever created troll farms? It is a big issue here in europe. Some states are pointed out as troll farmers. They recruit people to do undercover public relationship work on social media.

Cauda Wrote:
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> Do you think that the church ever created troll
> farms? It is a big issue here in europe. Some
> states are pointed out as troll farmers. They
> recruit people to do undercover public
> relationship work on social media.

Missionaries are currently doing most of their work online.

PR Companies do this kind of thing. It's sent up in "the Office" (US version) when they set up fake social media accounta to "like" their company.

I think the role of Russia in this is way overblown, but China is a big culprit. If you post anything criticizing the Chinese government or discussing Tibet/Uighurstan etc on YouTube, up they pop. They're called the "50 Cent Party" and either push the official line, or use whataboutism. They're painfully obvious, and are basically students who are paid a few pennies for their trouble. The biggest culprit is the USA, although it tends to be more subtle about it - they usually push extremist ideas like Flat Earth Theory on a thread to discredit the wider idea.

Read your observation and had it in my memory. Made the observation yesterday when I saw a youtube-video of a chinese car - Tugella - made by Geely. The comments under the video really commented the car in a biased way. It stood out.

Nice car. But looks like a BMW-rip off.

I don't have the time to sum it up, but here you go:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strengthening_Church_Members_Committee

Tyson

What are the odds that Fey Wap, Hurdy Gurdy Man, Ἐλευθερία, and Jena Weimar are the same person?

Note the repetitive words, the combination of a pretentious denunciation of Google, Facebook, and nameless AI that has reduced or "shrunk" this person's search results and curtailed the flow of what he perceives as accurate information.

Note also the juvenile complaints about trouble with Bed & Breakfasts and internet stars like "Pewdiepie, SSSniperWolf and other such morons." I mean, what other adult even knows the names of those "morons?"

Going a bit further, what single individual is constantly complaining about AI, social media, thought police, and the war on cash while also whining about the concerns of a normal 12-year-old? What single individual would present under several different monikers on the same day and use Google Translate to come up with some that make himself appear intelligent?

Yeah, that's the guy--although I'm told he's still afraid to wade across the eponymous river. Ironic, isn't it? Selecting as a primary moniker a small creek, maybe two feet deep at its greatest, because it sounds important?

No Mississippi River, not this poster.

That it was a quarter of a century ago is mind-blowing.

For me, the internet felt more open with greater possibility. There wasn't as much uniformity of thought, and frankly, the quality of deep scholastic material was better.

Nowadays, there's more material, but a lot of it is siloed and harder to get at.

I frankly find the internet rather boring, if more ubiquitous in my life.

I've set my bills to autopay. I do some online learning. Occasionally, I post here and a few well-chosen blogs with active but small communities and well-curated niche content. Otherwise, I find the internet tiring.

I learned early on not to bother with social media, and I do think I'm happier for it.

Tyson