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I'm asocial to the point of outright antisocial, so I've no real use for social media. I dipped my toe into FB a couple of years back and found only two acquaintences; both tend to post between 3 and 4 times a year. At FB's "urging" I sampled some others. Frankly, I was appalled. Why would someont think the world needs to know what they ate last night/this morning? Or what they looked like at 10:00, 10:02. 10:05, and 10:12 in the evening?
Maybe it's because I'm old (69); maybe my borderline Asperger's Syndrome plays a part. I dunno. If SM works for you, fine. Me, I socialize at the local coffee joint from time to time.
You sound a bit like me ;). I'm not a hermit by choice tho, but of circumstance. Years of illness and now severe back issues keep me at home 99.9% of the time (other than doctor visits). And while I don't do Facebook and Twitter and other social media sites, I DO chat regularly with folks from Rendo and here and yes, they are real people and very nice and feel they are as much my friends as people I've met face to face. I have an online friend that I've talked to almost every day for at least 8 years until very recently...and because I don't get out much and because he has similar interests to mine, he is a very good friend indeed :). In fact, it if weren't for him, I don't think I'd have ever taken the step to try modeling and have things to give away to you folks. LOL
Laurie
All this. The internet has been as revolutionary as the printing press, and it's at _least_ as beneficial. Things change. (And smart malls still exist: they rebuild themselves as community centers. And so do buggy whips. In case you were curious.)
But every close adult relationship I have that wasn't formed in college was formed through initial online interactions. Social media (and online games and youtube) are such a huge boon for people who, for whatever reason, can't get out and do things in person, or who get overwhelmed easily by crowds. Real relationships can be formed online, and they extend past whatever software you favor for interacting with those friends. I'm not saying everybody on a 100+ person 'friends list' is a friend.... but I do have real friends. :-) And people do know things in detail.... they just get to focus on what they actually WANT to know in detail, and are able to offload the rest of that knowledge to google or youtube, and that's AWESOME.
Also, I know what TinyMUCKs are. I met my housemate of 20 years on a TinyMUSH.
well I'm a geeky nerd so yeah I''m in on or been connected to a lot of different ones with facebook I post a lot of geeky nerdy stuff anything related to films, tv, comics, gaming, funny stuff cute stuff try to keep my page light fun entertaining don't like the posts you see filled with hate, anger, negativity you see a lot of try to avoid that. Friends well personally my closest and best friends are there many I have never met and probably never will and we do have a lot of the same interests real life ones know personally not so much and it is thanks to my online friends I have opened up more and more sociable
Arcades peacefully co-existed with home consoles all through the 80s and 90s. The event that single handedly killed the arcade was X-Box Live coming into existence. It was sad watching it happen, all my favorite arcades getting quieter and quieter then eventually closing down.
also in rl here for the most part if your not part of the in crowd/cool no one will have anything to do with you and most here only want to get drunk and party and some drugs and I've never been any of that so I've never fitted in always been an outcast oh and this is all ages btw
I'm reminded of the fact that you'll find 'X was here' graffiti going back millennia.
Humans do a lot of the same stuff regardless.
https://www.thedodo.com/9-touching-epitaphs-ancient-gr-589550486.html
But Cypherfox, aren't you doing the exact same thing but in reverse?
Aren't you assuming, (based on the fact that you and your wife and maybe some other people you know use the internet for honorable intellectual endeavors), that the vast majority of the billions of YouTube users around the world are doing the same, and using it for honorable intellectual endeavors? I'm just looking at the facts and statistics and questioning whether that assumption is really valid for the majority of users. I'd be happy to believe otherwise if I saw some significant data to support it
On a side note (in response to some of the implications in previous posts) has anyone else noticed the tendency for many to assume that the older generation is, by definition, stuck in the past and hates anything new, and dismisses all this awesome new technology? I find it kinda funny, considering that all of this technology was invented and designed and developed back in the 70's and 80's by, you guessed it, the older generation. Recent advances are arguably nothing more than incremental improvements on those basic technologies. Seems strange to assign this "get off my lawn, and take your internet with you" type of attitude to the older generation. Personally I love the technology, and I've been using it since, well, the 80's when I first built a computer and did assembly language programming.
But I do think the older generation does bring a perspective from all of those years of watching the technology advance and change, and seeing how the culture has changed along with it. And some of that perspective can be beneficial to at least consider before you make blanket accusations of "millenial bashing" or living in the horse-and-buggy days and so on.
Personally, I've noticed a tendency for what I call "insta-click" attitudes. Since everything internet is click and go, it seems to foster an attitude of immediate evaluation of issues and discussions and people. As a result, discussions and issues aren't about really understanding issues, they are about good and bad and right and wrong and like and dislike.
If I like something, then the response is to "like" it, and by implication "like" the poster (even if you've never met).
If I don't like something, the response is to immediately label it (and the poster) as bad, click somewhere else, or express my "dislike".
The art and acceptance of discussion and understanding of core issues seems to be fading. When people say something we disagree with, it's immediately labelled as a personal attack by a bad person, rather than an opportunity for discussion and understanding. Of course, people have always been that way, but I think the internet culture makes it much easier for that attitude to flourish.
Anyway, I guess time will tell. I sure hope the optimistic views expressed here win in the end. I just hope we don't lose the ability and desire to take a rational, considered approach to issues and look at facts and figures rather than solely what we want to believe.
Apart from this forum and a couple of others I rarely contribute to, I stay clear of all social media - although I watch tons of You Tube, more than I watch television in fact.
I'm happy that others who use social media get positive benefits from it but my own feelings have always been negative.
Young people of school age can be offended and bullied so much that they go so far as to kill themselves. Hundreds of thousands of others must endure extraordinary misery. Predatory adults as well as their peers entice some of them to shame themselves with previously unheard of activities such as 'sexting'.
The foolish behaviour of young and old alike is recorded and accessible for eternity. The stupidities of my youth happened on the day and are now forgotten (I hope!)
What worries me for the world is the poor attention span of whole populations. Governments, even in prosperous nations make sweeping changes to the rights of individuals or make appalling economic decisions but the population - and even the press - forget it all happened within a couple of days. "War has been declared - heaven help us - excuse me a moment, my online friend just tweeted".
I get very annoyed when I can't avoid giving over an email address - my home address is public domain but I pay an internet provider for an email address and don't agree that anyone can just take it and sell it on along with everything else about me. If the local authorities, for example, want to contact me they can write to my home address - that's what I make them do.
Edited to add a sentence
https://xkcd.com/1227/
Indeed; I'm a licensed Amateur Radio operator (which can be just as expensive as this can be) and I just helped a guy in his 60's get his digital voice radio working last night. In person, at our radio club meeting. A bunch of us are getting them and most of us aren't exactly spring chickens (I'm actually not that old as far as I'm concerned, but I ain't a millennial either).
I have observed ,over the years that humans at, least here in the western culture,
seem to have a need for external validation of their personal choices.
The various social media outlets and even web forums such as this provide
people with this external validation.
That said I am Glad I lived to see the internet /smart phone era
overall I have found it very empowering for aquiring technical skills
I may have never learned in the non internet era.
I use Facebook a lot to keep in touch with family and friends, as well as learn and converse with fellow authors and artists. I have met so many great people there. Some of the art groups are a lot of fun. It's great to meet fellow artists who may not come to the forums. I split my time equally between FB and DAZ forums. I also use Twitter and Instagram somewhat. I use a variety of social media platforms to promote my writing and art. I live in a rural area, so technology is a great way to interact with people I'd never run across in person, and also a great opportunity to work from home in my bunny slippers.
Sorry, I respectfully disagree with you Pam. These forums can be quiet anti social as we are limited to what we can discuss here. Facebook all bets are off and you can discuss ANYTHING with anyone that's in your circle. These forums a VERY close to a social media circle gathering as one could imagine but with Fb there are no "threads", you just scroll, find something a friend is talking about and if you have an opinion you can post there. You are AUTOMATICALLY subscribed and as it is here, you can have email notifications turned off or on in your prefs.
I've actually met (and dated 2) quite a few folks I met on Facebook. For all the years I've been on the DAZ forums never met anyone from here....
I second that. I've also had a positive experience, and it lifts my spirits to have so many 'friends' even if they are online. Positive human interaction is good on any level IMO.
Hmmm... I would never say that out loud although I might feel that way in my darkest moments. We all have the freedom to choose what we do
with our lives. Personally I don´t think technology leads to salvation, looks like a dead end to me, but I guess in our case evolution chose this route to see
what happens. Or even more scary: It´s all part of The Big Conspiracy aiming to keep every human brain occupied while preparing for the Final Countdown
Ah, Well I have met and had fun times with people I first talked to in the Bryce forums here, or over on the other site. In fact I have also just recently had a visit from a friend that I first met here in the NU forum. Came to visit with his other half and is even more fun in real life than he was on the forums.
When I first started in game development and modding I met soo many like minded people in the forums and online in the game they became like familiy since I talked to them daily. I remember creating an Xmas themed addon for the game as a present and I had so many users from all over the world email me to say thanks and wish me a happy holiday or Xmas that it just blew me away at the time that I had touched people from so many places. Of course that is pretty much the norm now with the technology we have, but 20 years ago, it was a big deal for me.
I used to be really social, could not stay home at night and always out with friends, meeting new ones, But since I have been working retail management the last 18 years I have seen more than my fair share of bad behavior from customers on top of talking to people all day long, I am very content to stay in now, LOL. Luckily my GF, who is quite a bit younger than I, helps keep me from becoming a hermit, LOL
One thing I think we miss about the internet is truly COMPETITION.
Everything is competing with something else.
And any person posting content is competing with similar content.
4 minutes is probably not so much about a short attention span, but more likely about that's how long it takes for a person to decide they want to see something 'better'. The internet remains a reflection of society and I think a person's outlook on 'social media and the internet(s) is a reflection of them.
Yeah, if you are a loner or only care about yourself (aint that most artists? lol) you DON'T care about what other people are doing.
Some are carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders and can't imagine (or respect?) anyone who isn't.
How can you sing and dance through life and dare to be happy while the whole world is going to Shhhhh.
Some are into politics and think politics is the MOST IMPORTANT thing to discuss.
Some...relationships...Some sports....and some Daz.
As we sit here, nitpicking products, Daz's business model and banners and..and..
to an outsider, it seems really banal and a waste........
But here we are, caring about each other (hate is still caring), interacting, helping....etc....
THIS is social media at its best.
I wouldn't know any of you in real life or interact..
But here we are connected. That's the point.
I get to decide if I watch MSNBC, FOX, CNN or some fringe news site or a conspiracy theorist or..or Sports,...or I can gamble...or stalk my ex-girlfriend...or bully someone...or make racist, misogynist remarks or....creep and cheat on my girlfriend....or......watch sermons.....give to a charity....shop....get into petty text wars..twitter battles......create empowering memes...reinvent my image...lurk...etc,,,,
Stop saying "The Internet" or "Social Media" is this or that.
The better question is Who are you, on the internet?
Well said.
I had a Twitter account, but it got hacked, so I closed it. I don't do Youtube (although I have an account).
I've got a Facebook account, but I'm getting a bit sick of it. I hate seeing trending, there's too many ads/sponsored posts, the attitude of quite a few people is just disgusting. From what I've seen and experienced, I think Facbook is the true face of the human race. The only reason that I'm still there is because I follow A LOT of cat pages
I didn't touch my Facebook account for several years and considered just closing it many times. Then I dusted it off last summer when my puppy's breeder wanted to set up a group page for all of the puppy owners to connect. I've been on it regularly ever since, as it's great for sharing my puppy's antics with family and friends. That's about all I use my Youtube account for, too, other than a half dozen subscriptions to artists I love and a couple of beauty bloggers.
My best friend is someone I met online in an MMO, and I've never actually met in person as we're in different countries. My longest friendships have all come from my MMO gaming years, even though I've never physically met them.
A few years ago I went to the wedding of two people I met on the DAZ forums, and who had met there too. One was from UK and the other from USA, and they would probably have never met without DAZ. They had ceremonies in both countries, I went to the UK one from France, and met a few other forum friends in person at that time.
I use Antisocial Media...
Basically, I just yell at squirrels in the yard.
The great part is I don't have to "Like" everything and nobody judges me... Except of course the judge in that "disturbing the peace" misunderstanding...
avxp, after re-reading your post maybe 4 times I *think* you're saying basically the benefit of the internet outweighs the cost...I think. Yeah, it has bad parts, but it gives us access to lots of choices of stuff and allows us to connect with people we wouldn't otherwise connect with, so don't sweat it. I think that's what you're saying?
Well, yeah, but I think the bigger question is do we really know, or even care to know, the REAL costs over the long term. Is it warping our culture in a bad way over the long term, in a way we might ultimately regret? Are we really become more shallow and less interested in depth and less knowledgeable outside of what we see on the surface? It seems like there are a lot of indications that the benefits you mention come with a big cost, and I'm sure much of the cost won't be known for years.
I suppose we'll know better if we come back in 20 years and re-assess where we are. But personally I have come big concerns. I just hope we don't just go ahead mindlessly and ignore the bad stuff without really evaluating. Seems like we keep getting these wakeup calls (like this Equifax insanity), and I hope we really do wake up.
No. People said these same things about easy access to magazines, newspapers, telegrams, radio.
There was something about how writing letters would lead young women to ruin and end traditional marriages.
Those things never gave people anywhere near the power to do things that the internet has given. A kid sitting at a computer across the globe can now hack the SSN's and credit card info from every person in the US.
Again, REALLY consider the bad stuff and potential bad stuff and then make a decision.
I'm only referring to the "is access to more knowledge somehow making us shallower" aspect I quoted. Obviously easier access to information also means less privacy and security and yes it has to be taken into account.
EDIT: I gave a talk at a tiny math conference about using statistics specifically to investigate how companies use collected user data behind the scenes to target advertisements. I HAVE done some consideration on this topic. ;)