Is the internet turning us into Cynical, Negative Armchair Know it alls?

[saganista]

Originally Posted by Angorlee

The internet is the greatest thing that has ever happened. Before the internet the main news sources would give us only the issues that they wanted us to view(or hear) and then give only their side to the issue.

Apparently, you are not old enough to have known the media in the time before the internet. Network news bureaus were not run for profit. They were run in the public interest as a public service, subsidized by the profits of the programming division. They had news bureaus and correspondents all over the world. Issues and stories were aired because senior news people (not accountants) believed they were compelling and important. Many sides of issues were explored.

All this has changed. Deregulation brought (as it always does) increasing concentration and decreasing diversity. Broadcast news is now a product that must be pitched like corn flakes and must be profitable in order to survive. Being of good and valuable service to the public isn't reason enough for survival any longer. Investment in news gathering and analysis has been slashed to next to nothing. The White House press corps is there because they are telegenic, not because they are in any way especially knowledgeable, energetic, or insightful. Briefly put, what passes for the media today is a cheap and pale immitation of what not all that long ago preceded it.

Originally Posted by Angorlee

All media was controlled by a small group of higer ups. They controlled everything including newspapers, book publishing houses, TV, hollywood, etc. The internet leveled them darn good.

You have it exactly backwards. Both print and broadcast media were once quite broadly held enterprises. Today, it is all concentrated in the hands of little more than a dozen very large corporations who have no interest at all in you or me or anyone else. Their concern is for ratings and profits. Nothing more than that.

Originally Posted by Angorlee

What makes me happy is the fact that the WWW was first used for scientists to communicate.

No, that was arpanet and then bitnet. Particularly the latter was used by all sorts of scholars, experts, researchers, and educators, all over the world, not just scientists. WWW is the new kid on the block -- the worldwide web -- which is more or less bitnet switched onto a TCP/IP platform and run by web servers and web browsers utilizing hypertext transfer protocol. At the end of 1992, there were only about 50 actual web servers anywhere in the world.

Originally Posted by Angorlee

So the big media heads payed no attention. Then computerw went into business--remember all the computer programming jobs in the 80s. It was a runner up to the internet. But then the internet gradually went public and about 1995 it started to become a real big thing.

The web became a big thing because of the development of graphical support in web browsers. The text-only environment of the internet suddenly came alive with pictures, and anyone at all could drive that whole ball of web wax with a simple dial-up connection and a few dozen SGML-based tags called hypertext markup language (HTML). As "home computers" became common, businesses began to leverage their investments in B2B applications to invade retail and then entertainment markets. The rest is history.

Originally Posted by Angorlee

But by that time it was too late for the media heads to get their hands on it. So the big headed media bosses screwed up. They weren't as smart as they thought they were and they are now paying the price.

The internet is not the "everyman", democratic platform that some once envisioned. Occupy the Internet would actually be a worthwhile effort of there were actually any way to pull it off. The internet is meanwhile a wonderful thing because it gives nearly everyone access to all sorts of information, nearly all of which is wrong. And most of that, deliberately wrong. Mind your P's and Q's online, or you'll be taken to the cleaners by some disinformational special interest or other. This is one reason why all those scholars, experts, researchers, educators, and scientists rely more heavily now on things like virtual private networks. The internet that you know isn't really of all that much use to them anymore.

The internet has a vast wealth of information and most of that matters a lot to the World.

Computers and the internet are easily some of the best inventions of all time in recorded human history and that is something to respect and appreciate.

Someone’s personal experience with the internet is based on what they choose to focus on the most, the websites they go to most frequently, and what they decide to read and post on the internet.

My experience with computers/internet is mostly positive/optimistic, very valuable, and essential to my life. Most people have a much better and very different experience with computers/internet compared to the OP.

I find computers/internet to be infinitely better than the television, and cell phones. The OP’s impressions for the internet is my current opinions for the television. I am surprised how horrible, negative, and mediocre/bland the t.v. became in the USA in the past 5 years, and I started to ban watching the t.v. since 2 years and a half ago. There was a time when my home did not have a t.v. for 1 year and I never missed watching the t.v.

I feel much better, more clarity, optimism, and peace of mind when I use the computer a lot and when I don’t watch the television.

However, I realize a significant amount of other people don’t have the same experience with television and it is up to an individual to decide if they want to watch tv or not. They have the freedom for personal choices such as that.

I need the computer/internet in my life and depend on that a lot. I would never give up such a magnificent, impressive, helpful, and excellent source of entertainment.