My love/hate relationship...
I want to share with you my never ending love/hate relationship.. and that special someone is called "the internet".
She is the only one that can make me love her and absolutely hate her at the same time, there is times I literally feel like Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde at the same moment. I actually want to throw the the computer out the window because it can't get a good connection and then 20 minutes later I am back digging in the bushes trying to proclaim how sorry I am... (don't picture that, haha)
She is like a drug to be honest, the most addicting one ever. I mean if you thought pot or beer was addicting at times, then obviously you have never been stuck without your internet for longer than a day or 2. Seriously try it, I bet you will realize how much you need her. (or him for the girl readers)
I love the speed somedays and I how well I can navigate from page to page with ease, then other days I can't even look at the weather page and it just so happened to be the day that I left my jacket and gloves at home as I was out for a jog, yeah shitty... Gotta love when she plays a trick like that on you.
I can literally find everything and anything through her, she can tell me my aunt's long lost cousin who's father was a convict... what?!? We are related... thanks alot for letting me know. I mean the possibilities are endless, especially with that these 'speed of light' search engines, I mean really who brings back results like these? 1,660,000,000 for the word love in the super slow speed of (0.16 seconds). Really? wrap your mind around that..
The internet is great, little guys who have small.. err umm packages, (for the lack of a better word) can hide behind the screen in their cubicles at work or at home and act like they have the biggest "you know what" of them all. Unreal, you don't even know how many times I would have loved to have met that 10 year old boy typing words like "pee-pee head" at me through the internet.
The internet can be too personal as well, I mean now everytime I hear someone say, "you got a myspace page" I think to myself 'must be a pedophile.' I know that is sterotyping but I am just saying...
I mean I can connect to anyone at anytime, anywhere. Thats sick. But at the same time I have friends all over the world which can only be described by one word "AWESOME!"
One last thing I wonder about is the fact that it isn't personal enough at times, where are the humans? I think this is taken for granted at how nice it is to talk to a normal human. (Believe me I love the affair I have with the internet) But sometimes it's too much.
Either way, I don't know if I will ever stop my love/hate relationship with the internet, I just hope my wife doesn't mind.. haha!
Posted in: computer, hate, internet, love, relationship on Wednesday, February 25, 2009 at at 11:44 PM
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The internet, how I love thee and hate thee in equal measure. You're certainly right there, Luke. It's like a library in your pocket and the biggest entertainment complex you've been inside. But you're right... where are the people? We use it to contact others, yet often it just makes us feel futher away. It stops just short of the vital things we need to survive, like hugs and touches and human contact.
I couldn't give it up, it is a million good things, but it stops just short of that most important 10%. The internet is the ultimate tease - alwyas giving but never quite delivering on the prommise...
I love it, but I hate it, because of that. And I probably always will.
Where are the humans.. thats exactly what I think about sometimes. There is NOTHING in this world that can replace a touch of the personality of a person.
The ultimate love/hate IMO.
So what, then, would you say about the other forms of communication? Essentially, how is the internet fundamentally that much different than, say, a library? Except, of course, that it is so much MORE... interactive. information. communication.
Books, it seems, were just the beginning. In the last century, communication technology raced headlong into the future, and people all over the world share life's most important moments in ways they couldn't in the past. Instant communications create an ever-increasing flow of facts and figures. To manage this growing storehouse of information, we invented the computer -- a revolutionary tool made practical by the tiny transistor. Today, we're merging the technologies of Communications and computers to store, process, and share information, and we've created a vast electronic network stretching from our homes to the reaches of space.
We've entered a wondrous new age -- the age of Information. A time of new promise and new hope for ourselves and the global community. Today our search for understanding is unbounded by space and time. Centuries of information stand ready to greet us in an instant -- a link to our past, and our hope for the future. In the Information Age, our knowledge and tools of Communication will continue to grow and improve. We'll discover new ways to share our ideas and dreams in order to create a better world for today, tomorrow, and tomorrow's children. The technologies of this era have already extended our reach, have expanded the capabilities of the human mind, and will continue to do so.
The problem you describe isn't with the medium. Before the internet, people lamented about the same things, but the problem was television. Before that, radio. These were all "one-way" forms of communication. People used to lay around in front of those things too, and didn't form bonds with others. Through the internet, we are actually able to interact -- this is truly profound, and we take it for granted! However, if you can't pick yourself up from the monitor, screen, or radio, the problem isn't with the medium, the problem is with the person. Blaming the medium for people's problems is attacking the symptoms of the problem, and not attacking the source. It reminds me of the gun control argument. Guns don't kill people, people kill people.
I'm ready to shape the future for the next generation. Who wants to help?
I am already trying to shape it.
In fact, I don't know where I am going, but I'll lead.. ;)
Well, I've had my own love/hate relationship with the Internet for several days. Instead of clacking away from behind a computer screen, I was out-and-about, volunteering my time and effort towards my church and Minnesota Without Poverty. I also took some time to spend with a friend that I rarely see anymore, and went to my parents.
And during that absence of just a few days from Cyberspace, I got a couple calls from people asking if I was "alright" since there was nothing new on MySpace. Someone else asked if I was "upset" over things that had been said somewhere else.
Ummm.... no.
It reminds of the days before Facebook Chat, we had AIM. I remember forgetting to leave an "away message", and someone would try chatting, only to get no response. And then they'd start getting upset that I wasn't talking. It would spiral downward from there just for not being online.
As cool as the World Wide Web is, it just doesn't beat time spending REAL TIME with people instead of staring at a monitor. During time when I normally am clacking away on my keyboard, I had the pleasure of helping raise $1200 for a great cause. I attended some Lenten Fellowship. I clogged some arteries with friends at the Flameburger.
And it was tons o' fun.
No computer necessary.
So long after you originally posted this blog, I keep finding more to say! Shortly after typing this, I suddenly thought of "Twitter".
Twitter takes the Facebook status updates to a whole new level. This is more insidious than even the AIM away messages were ("awaaaaaaay in the shower ;) ;) ;) ").
Twitter allows you to let everyone know your mundane thoughts and goings-on and let them in on how insipid your life truly is. You could let everyone know that you are taking a shower, and hope that someone will twit back asking you what the temperature was. Maybe later you could twitter that you ate a sandwich. Oh, joy.
Lately it seems that the Facebook is an excellent way to harass your "friends". Whenever you get a notification that they post something, you can look at it and reply with a snide comment. When they send you fake "gifts", "drinks" and such or ask you to join a group or fill out a dumb survey, you get to ignore them. And if you don't go on for a few days, people work themselves up!
MySpace is definitely the most narcissist of the sites. You can post all sorts of things that show that you are truly unique, just like everyone else. You can make it blare and use bad language to show how cool you think you are.
People get going with this stuff, tire of it, and then abandon their page for long periods. I am contemplating doing the same.
I'm getting tired of all this stuff. Give me my good ol' discussion board that I've been involved with since 2001. Good things never die.
Good ole discussion board eh?
Well thats what this blog kind of is. I just give you funny things to read while you think of other things to post underneath them. :)
Believe me I love to get away from the keyboard more than most but at the same time it's hard to deny that I am and always will be an 'internet baby'.
Much like most of the people around here. :)
Good to know you are getting out and helping people Gust.
Bamer-