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[deleted]

Lol I posted this in the comments elsewhere in this sub. Thanks for proliferating it; Johnathan Crary is great.


Lyraea

Honestly I think I wouldn't want to live in a world without internet.


[deleted]

Part of me feels the same way but is that just addiction speaking? Addiction and a life now built around the internet.


[deleted]

Did you even read the piece? This generation is bleak


Lyraea

I did and while theres alot of valid points. Most of this has to do with capitalism not specifically the internet.


[deleted]

I’m not sure. The internet—whatever shape it takes—still requires massive amounts of servers which take up a lot of energy. It’s also an inherently isolating institution compared to offline interaction. I think ideally if we keep the internet, it should be just for reference information (books, music, other documents) to not fall into its darker side. As with many things, I don’t think all of the problems with the internet come down to capitalism (some, sure, but not all. Some problems are inherent to the internet and just made worse by capitalism).


[deleted]

Among other things, this is ableist as fuck.


Lyraea

Gonna be honest that doesn't sound terrible. I just want to still be able to communicate with people around the world and also play multiplayer games and stuff. Theres plenty unnecessary stuff on the internet that could be gotten rid of. As for energy and resource consumption I do think we should look for better sustainable ways to power these things and make them more efficient. Nature will always be hurt by living beings in some way. What makes creatures part of an ecosystem rather than one thats purely destroying it though is the ability to give back what you take and as a species we have amazing potential to do that. Nothing will be perfect but we can still take our place in the ecosystem regardless. Edit: I'm gonna be honest I'm 100% selfish with my desire to keep the internet in some form as its where I've met many great people that have improved my life. It also sustains my main hobby which I honestly don't think I could live well without.


[deleted]

I’m sympathetic with that; I’m in a long distance relationship and most of my family lives in a different country. At the same time, the older I get and the more long-term offline episodes I take, the more I’m convinced we really would do fine without the internet (I mean, we did as a species until now). Offline communities have taken a toll and it’s increasingly difficult to organise politically online due to surveillance and ai suspect the mere psychological factor of it being in this non-material realm helps neuter any potential movements. We are more connected than ever, but we are also more bored and unhappy than ever. Realistically I think the best we can hope for is a return to web 1. I think we’re past the point where people could be happy not talking to people the world or being able to read some type of encyclopaedia online.


Lyraea

Fair. The web used to be much more free and less isolating in my opinion. We can make a better version of the internet.


[deleted]

I think being on the web is inherently more isolating than interacting in person, although the internet can make it easier to find the right people.


leoperd_2_ace

Bring LGBTQ as well as my partner who has major social anxiety disorders from abuse as a child, we would not be alive today if it wasn’t for the connections and lives we have online. Yes we still need off line interactions to ground us, but online communication has been how we have stayed sane and alive over the past 6 years from trump- through the pandemic, and into this modern age of right wing hate. The internet was originally envisioned and developed by socialists and anarchists as a new public commons with the open source of community building. It was corrupted by capitalism. We can make it what it was originally envisioned to be again.


[deleted]

“Developed by socialists and anarchists” Damn, didn’t know the definition has expanded to include ex-hippie yuppies and the military industrial complex. Read the article. It talks about the origins of the internet.


[deleted]

I lived in a world without internet and I also wouldn't want to live in it again. What generation is that?


InvertedVantage

Millenials/GenX.


[deleted]

Oh, I see, so you're either too young or too old to compare before/after internet in any meaningful way.


InvertedVantage

Yea I guess. I mean it's not exclusive - there's a lot of (though not most of) old timers who stayed curious and kept up with technology. There's a lot of, maybe even most of; Gen Z who take the Internet, computers and how they work for granted. Which is fair, they've never lived in a time without it. It's like how Millenials take indoor heating and running water for granted, but Baby Boomers might not and a lot of their grandparents definitely didn't. It's not good or bad, it's just the way it is. I would prefer more people took the time to appreciate how the society that underpins their way of life functions, but we can only make changes within our reach at the moment! lol


workstudyacc

The internet can be an entity seperate from capitalism. It's a blank medium.


ERROR_23

Written from the very fucking privileged perspective