In the SST forum, users are free to discuss philosophy, music, art, religion, sock colour, whatever. It's a haven from the madness of Bulldrek; alternately intellectual and mundane, this is where the controversy takes place.
How important do people think broadband, or even just access to the Internet, is? Now with the people round here you could probably expect a fairly skewed/biased, but I'm hoping to look at it objectively.
Now over here in the UK, and in quite a few other European countries from what I've seen, there have been real drives to get people hooked up at least to dial-up, and also to broadband. You have politicians and internet sites lamenting the fact that Europe has some fairly low take-up levels compared to other countries and how something must be done! about the state of affairs.
But really, is it all that important?
The 86 Rules of Boozing
75. Beer makes you mellow, champagne makes you silly, wine makes you dramatic, tequila makes you felonious.
I think it's like any other piece of technology.... It's not required to live, but it's becoming more and more difficult to interact with society without it.
Example: The folks in the downtown office of my company send out e-mails for most everything. If someone calls in sick, if someone is out of the office, etc. Additionally, they send out e-mails for little industry events that company people are going to. Before I got my office e-mail forwarded to my home computer, I missed all of these announcments. The only time they send out hard copy invitations is to the Christmas party and the mandatory meetings.
I've had net access since '94, with the exception of about one year when I came back from college. I was lost without it then, it'd be even worse now. Most of my social life is online, as well as most of my information sources. I spend between 40-50 hours a week online, when I don't have net access, I drive everyone nuts around me. Since I've switched from dialup to broadband, I know I would never willingly go back to dialup.
As for the benefits the net has, well, it has alot of things out there, entertainment, information, schooling. I think it is beneficial for people to have the access to something that can be so useful in so many ways.
I think internet access, objectively, should be looked at on a need-basis by an individual person. A large amount of my own personal education, enrichment and resources are on-line, not to mention my social interaction.
On a need basis, one only needs food, clothing and shelter, all of which are usually accomnplished by employment.
But, we as human creatures need more than that. My father gets along just fine wth no internet access. I did not have internet access or a cellular phone prior to 1993. Since then, I've had uninterrupted service of both. It'd be hard for me to go back, but I don't believe my life prior to being online affected me negatively in any way.
Many people, particularly baby boomers and generations previous to them show significant resistance to computers and the internet. If they get along fine without such things, I say, let them be. Just don't try to take it away from me. But back on track...
In the grand scheme of things, I think that the internet is very important for the advancement of humanity. It is yet another thing that has made the world a smaller place, thereby furthering education and exposure to a variety of cultures. If fear is based on a lack of understanding and acceptance, then perhaps the internet helps break down those barriers. Which, in turn, helps stop aggression based on cultural, educational and religious differences. This, in my opinion, is important to the advancement of humanity on an evolutionary scale.
Now, with all of that said, I do realize that there are many MANY ways that the internet can be used for negative harmful things, just like any form of media or communication.
UJ
If you take away their comforts, people are just like any other animal.
Generally? Not earth shatteringly important. Personally? The only thing more important than net access is a place to connect it. New clothes and food other than, say, rice and butter aren't as important as net access. Its my directions, its my job search medium, its my friends, most importantly, its my way to learn pretty much everything these days.
10:41 Kai: Ohayou minna
10:42 Adam: ENGLISH MOTHERFUCKER!
10:44 Kai: Fuck off, how's that? ;P
10:45 Adam: Much better.
Before the year 2000 I didn't have an internet connection, I usually got online from school... maybe an hour per week, maybe less.
But lately, I don't think I could live without the internet... for my work.
I need to get in touch from people from people who live very far away and I need to share files with them, and the internet is the easy way to do it.
Also, I juste recently buyed a broadband connection, I have used dial-up for almost 2 year and a half and I would never return to dial-up... If I had the choice. But I can live with dial-up, better than nothing I guess.
In Québec, maybe 3 year ago the governement had a project for family to buy low cost computer and have a low-cost internet acces, so internet acces among homes is frequent. But most it is dial-up, since when your not in a town, you don't always have acces to dial-up.
<hr>The lesson here is that dreams inevitably lead to hideous implosions.
That's bullshit, of course. There are thousands, if not millions of people with no real hobbies or a significant amount of friends that survive perfectly well without the Internet. There's always television.
I need it for my job, although I wish people could learn to reduce the noise to signal ratio in their mails.
On a personnal POV, I use it, and the faster the better, cause i like to be able to look up info anytime I want to, but I could very easily do without it. It's very quite low in my life-priorities list. I probably spend too much time on it as it is already.
--- It's not that I disagree with Bush's economic policy or his foreign policy, it's that I believe...he was a child of Satan here to destroy the planet Earth
Bill Hicks
--- It's not that I disagree with Bush's economic policy or his foreign policy, it's that I believe...he was a child of Satan here to destroy the planet Earth
Bill Hicks
Now, speaking of ways to use broadband, anyone have a link to a current hosting-place for K-Lite? Or has it been completely wiped out? Or something better/equivalent?
Spiral wrote:And just think of the vast potential for your sex life.
What's a sex life?
Must...keep...mouth...shut...[/quote
to you also.
I have yet to meet a guy that is willing to be anything other than my friend in far too many years. And the ones who did seem willing, they were too easy going and had a tendency to let me run over them without saying a word.
DV8 wrote:That's bullshit, of course. There are thousands, if not millions of people with no real hobbies or a significant amount of friends that survive perfectly well without the Internet. There's always television.
Watching television is a hobby. You can't sit anyone in front of TV and expect them to be entertained.
DV8 wrote:That's bullshit, of course. There are thousands, if not millions of people with no real hobbies or a significant amount of friends that survive perfectly well without the Internet. There's always television.
Watching television is a hobby. You can't sit anyone in front of TV and expect them to be entertained.
Hmmm, this would be true for you and I, though I think the vast majority of the people who could move down the digital highway suffer from the same thing I suffered from back in '93/'94: Where the fuck do I go? How do I find anything worth while?
A lot of people are still stuck at what they can find with google, which, if you're an average user, really isn't all that much. Hell, some people still type in what they're looking for in the address bar and stick a ".com" behind in the hope they pick something up. Interactivity goes a step further entirely.
DV8 wrote:Hell, some people still type in what they're looking for in the address bar and stick a ".com" behind in the hope they pick something up.
There's nothing wrong with that! It usually works, and if it doesn't, it auto-directs you to the real site or comes up with search results for what you wanted.
My internet requirements are akin to broadband, which is why I just appropriated a 256k connection at my new apartment/condo/thing.
Coming from a T1 at work and school (dorms as well), I lived on the Internet from about '98-'02. Moving to a place that didn't have technophiles in charge of the utilities forced me back to metered dialup at 24k, which isn't cost-effective for the amount of time/content I download in even a normal session. I was forced to do all my surfing at work (where it's monitored/censored) or school (where I really don't have enough time). Getting the 'phat pipe' at home will greatly relieve my internet lack.
Do I need it? No. Not really. I enjoy it. Kai's example of a job-search medium is moderately correct. The Uni's carreer office is much more efficient (get to talk to a person), but most of the people you talk to say "go to our website, I'm just a recruiter".
I could get by without the Internet, I nearly do so now. In the height of my Internet-to-the-Brain, I played a MUD for a minimum of 6hrs/wk up to 20hrs. Not EverQuest, but close. Now, I've got a character that gets deleted every 2 months because I don't play it enough. Phat-Pipe will probably get me in trouble (more surfing than working), but it'll make me feel like I'm part of my own industry (telecommunications) than I do now.
to you also.
