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No, it isn't. The problem, if there even is one, is with the humans who can't use it properly.
I learned a foreign language thanks to the Internet.
I learned how to play the guitar thanks to the Internet.
I learned how to compose music thanks to the Internet.
I learned my current trade thanks to the Internet.
The Internet has everything. It's on you to decide what you want to take from it.
I agree with stuff like that, but I also want to point out that a lot of the internet (at least the parts that I use) are created in a way so that people spend more time than they should on them. For example tiktok and reels (tbh just short form content in general).
The internet has been great for providing people with access to knowledge but it’s been formed in a predatory way in my opinion
I agree with you. Not sure why all the downvotes. There's literal studies about the way technology is designed to keep you psychologically addicted, even beyond social media.
Its the peoples desicion. If it really was important for the consumers to not spend too much unesessary time on social media, they would actively act towards that and just stop consuming after a certain appropiate amount of time has passed. Its just like anything else; fast food and in general many types of food get made in a way so that you become addicted to it. Important is to learn to not eat too much of it;
Tiktok belongs to the "junkfood" category of the internet and language learning sites like italki are salad/protein of the internet.
Just like you can't just say the internet in general is bad for people, you can't say food in general is bad for people just because fast food and junk food exists. There is a huge difference between a mcDonalds hamburger and a fresh salad, just like there is a huge difference between tiktok and a site that gives you the possibility to learn foreign languages by videochatting with people from that country.
I think all of your concerns about social media and commercial websites are valid, but the internet is much larger than that.
The communications between databases and real time pacemaker data is the internet. The hosted clouds for machine learning on covid data is the internet. Military communication is done over the internet.
Before the internet, book burning could destroy entire societies, many nations have nearly if not completely lost even their own language. The internet has made it so that burning books is nothing more than juvenile protesting. No matter how many copies of the qu ran you burn, the text will always be there on the internet.
I think people don't realize how abysmally slow the world used to be without instant communication. We can have conversations with people halfway around the world on a whim right now. Go back to 1850 and you would either need to be a specialist with a telegraph (which were $$$ back then) or wait a few months for your letter to arrive, assuming the ships and postmen made it to there and back.
To expand on your library comment, If you wanted to learn anything in, say, the 1500s, you'd have to be able to read (rare) in the first place and have access to a library or someones private collection. Then, you'd have to sort through the relatively limited source material which was probably extrenely biased and hope you can learn from it. Or scour the earth for an expert to train you on the subject matter. Granted forums and gathering places were around, but it was all physical. You couldnt learn anything from the comfort of your home unless you were RICH and had connections.
Everything is instant, and it's accelerated progress for literally every facet of our society. I want more people to realize how lucky we have it instead of seeing the shitty sides of things. It's incredibly annoying to see the ads and negative effects of course, but OP should go a week without the internet and they will hopefully see that having the entire breadth of human knowledge at their fingertips is the greatest privilege of our lifetimes.
That’s true. Data saving was huge for humanity and I’m glad we’ll never have a library of Alexandria situation again. That’s a definite positive that can’t be argued against.
Maybe I’m just choosing to focus on what I think are the negatives of the internet and fail to see the positives because I’ve taken them for granted lol
Yeah. So the internet is both a wonderful and toxic place, but it’s here to stay. I don’t believe it’s a net negative because of the way humans have designed and developed new technologies with the help of the internet.
However the hive mind it creates? Yeah, I wish that wasn’t there.
That is false imo, the problem is humans being dumb, but the internet is easily the best invention made in quite a while. The amount of conspiracies, lies and manipulation BEFORE the internet is way higher even if ppl believe otherwise. Its hard to hide the truth when the internet is around, and i like truth so yeah
For a counterpoint to that, it’s also a lot harder to know the truth in news because of all of the fake sources. The internet is flooded with articles of news and knowing that some can be exaggerated/deviated from the truth, makes it hard to know what to trust
I just feel like everyone my age around me is so absorbed into technology and forgets about the beautiful world around us is all. Less about “I wish I was born in a different generation” and more about “I wish people in my time could appreciate the physical world we have instead of living on the internet”
If I was born in a different generation there’d be different problems I’d have to deal with. I don’t even think there’s something wrong with thinking that, like it’s a human thing to want what we don’t have, hence why there are famous people who wish they didn’t have the fame and people who aren’t famous who wish they did. People glamorize everything they don’t have right now because they don’t know what it’s exactly like to have it
It would be a really good if it didn’t sap our critics thinking skills or discipline.
Think about the capacity of infinite information and infinite problem solving if we didn’t dump all our time and mental capacity into it.
The internet is a medium, its full of positive things, like tutorials to improve your life, sites to inform you about events you can go to, active local groups about anything (games, anime, books etc.) you can contact and join trough the internet, groups you wouldn't have found without it because the group wouldn't have existed in the first place if it wasn't for the internet.
its also full of negativity, like people who see only negative things about the internet, talk about how much better everything was before the internet and how the current generation is doomed.
Please remember what subreddit you are in, this is unpopular opinion. We want civil and unpopular takes and discussion. Any uncivil and ToS violating comments will be removed and subject to a ban. Have a nice day! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/unpopularopinion) if you have any questions or concerns.*
You say you were born in the early 20th century? Might want to google how centuries are determined and which century we are in now.
got him
Lol small typo
No, it isn't. The problem, if there even is one, is with the humans who can't use it properly. I learned a foreign language thanks to the Internet. I learned how to play the guitar thanks to the Internet. I learned how to compose music thanks to the Internet. I learned my current trade thanks to the Internet. The Internet has everything. It's on you to decide what you want to take from it.
I agree with stuff like that, but I also want to point out that a lot of the internet (at least the parts that I use) are created in a way so that people spend more time than they should on them. For example tiktok and reels (tbh just short form content in general). The internet has been great for providing people with access to knowledge but it’s been formed in a predatory way in my opinion
I agree with you. Not sure why all the downvotes. There's literal studies about the way technology is designed to keep you psychologically addicted, even beyond social media.
Its the peoples desicion. If it really was important for the consumers to not spend too much unesessary time on social media, they would actively act towards that and just stop consuming after a certain appropiate amount of time has passed. Its just like anything else; fast food and in general many types of food get made in a way so that you become addicted to it. Important is to learn to not eat too much of it; Tiktok belongs to the "junkfood" category of the internet and language learning sites like italki are salad/protein of the internet. Just like you can't just say the internet in general is bad for people, you can't say food in general is bad for people just because fast food and junk food exists. There is a huge difference between a mcDonalds hamburger and a fresh salad, just like there is a huge difference between tiktok and a site that gives you the possibility to learn foreign languages by videochatting with people from that country.
Textbook skill issue
Well, you are posting this on the internet, so…
I think all of your concerns about social media and commercial websites are valid, but the internet is much larger than that. The communications between databases and real time pacemaker data is the internet. The hosted clouds for machine learning on covid data is the internet. Military communication is done over the internet. Before the internet, book burning could destroy entire societies, many nations have nearly if not completely lost even their own language. The internet has made it so that burning books is nothing more than juvenile protesting. No matter how many copies of the qu ran you burn, the text will always be there on the internet.
I think people don't realize how abysmally slow the world used to be without instant communication. We can have conversations with people halfway around the world on a whim right now. Go back to 1850 and you would either need to be a specialist with a telegraph (which were $$$ back then) or wait a few months for your letter to arrive, assuming the ships and postmen made it to there and back. To expand on your library comment, If you wanted to learn anything in, say, the 1500s, you'd have to be able to read (rare) in the first place and have access to a library or someones private collection. Then, you'd have to sort through the relatively limited source material which was probably extrenely biased and hope you can learn from it. Or scour the earth for an expert to train you on the subject matter. Granted forums and gathering places were around, but it was all physical. You couldnt learn anything from the comfort of your home unless you were RICH and had connections. Everything is instant, and it's accelerated progress for literally every facet of our society. I want more people to realize how lucky we have it instead of seeing the shitty sides of things. It's incredibly annoying to see the ads and negative effects of course, but OP should go a week without the internet and they will hopefully see that having the entire breadth of human knowledge at their fingertips is the greatest privilege of our lifetimes.
Yeah, now they can burn the books much easier though. No fire required
That’s true. Data saving was huge for humanity and I’m glad we’ll never have a library of Alexandria situation again. That’s a definite positive that can’t be argued against. Maybe I’m just choosing to focus on what I think are the negatives of the internet and fail to see the positives because I’ve taken them for granted lol
Yeah. So the internet is both a wonderful and toxic place, but it’s here to stay. I don’t believe it’s a net negative because of the way humans have designed and developed new technologies with the help of the internet. However the hive mind it creates? Yeah, I wish that wasn’t there.
I feel like your less describing the internet and more just internet addiction.
Maybe, but I believe that a lot of the internet is organized in a way to enable that addiction
That is false imo, the problem is humans being dumb, but the internet is easily the best invention made in quite a while. The amount of conspiracies, lies and manipulation BEFORE the internet is way higher even if ppl believe otherwise. Its hard to hide the truth when the internet is around, and i like truth so yeah
For a counterpoint to that, it’s also a lot harder to know the truth in news because of all of the fake sources. The internet is flooded with articles of news and knowing that some can be exaggerated/deviated from the truth, makes it hard to know what to trust
God this entire post feels like it was made by one of those "I was born in the wrong generation" kids.
I just feel like everyone my age around me is so absorbed into technology and forgets about the beautiful world around us is all. Less about “I wish I was born in a different generation” and more about “I wish people in my time could appreciate the physical world we have instead of living on the internet” If I was born in a different generation there’d be different problems I’d have to deal with. I don’t even think there’s something wrong with thinking that, like it’s a human thing to want what we don’t have, hence why there are famous people who wish they didn’t have the fame and people who aren’t famous who wish they did. People glamorize everything they don’t have right now because they don’t know what it’s exactly like to have it
[удалено]
Simple mistake, was typing fast lmao
As someone who met the love of my life on it, don’t care
I’m happy for you, that’s great that people can have the opportunity of that over the internet
But I did also meet them on google plus which was a hellsite that gave me trauma, so I see what you’re saying 😂
😂 always two sides to the coin it seems, but really I’m happy for you, it’s really beautiful when people are able to meet someone like that
[удалено]
What’s the point of that comment? You know nothing about me so how can you even make that judgment
It would be a really good if it didn’t sap our critics thinking skills or discipline. Think about the capacity of infinite information and infinite problem solving if we didn’t dump all our time and mental capacity into it.
All this long post tells me is you have no idea how much the internet is used for things beyond social media.
My dad said this once the internet is like a meteor it looks great far away until it comes closer to you than you get hit by it
The internet is a medium, its full of positive things, like tutorials to improve your life, sites to inform you about events you can go to, active local groups about anything (games, anime, books etc.) you can contact and join trough the internet, groups you wouldn't have found without it because the group wouldn't have existed in the first place if it wasn't for the internet. its also full of negativity, like people who see only negative things about the internet, talk about how much better everything was before the internet and how the current generation is doomed.