7 Ways The Internet Is Ruining Your Life
Needless to say, the Internet is here to stay. It’s integrated into every aspect of life, from keeping in touch with friends to sealing business deals to finding the love of your life. It helps you do your homework, throw a party, figure out how to build a gravity bong – for anything you can think of, the Internet is there. But the Internet is also completely changing who you are. Here are 7 Ways the Internet Is Ruining Your Life.
1. It’s making you stupid
Before the collective idiot-savant brain, Google took over 90-percent of your thinking task load, you actually had to, you know, learn stuff. If you had a question you needed to answer, you’d have to go to the library to look it up. Not anymore.
Now, because of the instant gratification of “Googling” something, we have nearly zero attention span needed to study, and really learn something (especially something that won’t make you money.) Not to mention all the things you used to have to remember, like addresses or who your friends are, that are now just stored somewhere online. Seriously, you’re about one iPhone app away from scrapping the whole thinking thing altogether.
2. It’s warping your sense of reality
While the Internet does a great job at connecting people from all over the world (usually in order to have regretful sex), it’s not so good for figuring out how people actually operate. In other words, just because you’ve met people from all over the world doesn’t mean you have the same wisdom as someone who’s actually traveled all over the world. You may have plenty of information, but without the context of experience, it means very little, despite the feeling that you know how things really work.
3. It’s ruining your social skills
Despite all the additional etiquette rules we’ve all had to acquire for things like sending an email, “Facebooking,” posting in forums or chatting online, the Internet is actually making you worse at real socializing by the day. Why? Because every second you spend on the Internet is a second not spent interacting with someone face-to-face. Now, when people could talk face-to-face, like at an office, they email or IM each other, instead of just turning their chair 90-degrees and saying, “Yo where the f**k are your TPS reports?”
4. It’s making you fat
I’m sure this one needs no explanation, but just to be safe: If you spend all your time sitting at a desk or on your couch with a computer on your lap, you’re going to get fat. Period. Along with making you fat, the Internet is also making you lazy, both mentally and physically. (Seriously, when was the last time you walked to a book store?) Plus, the lazier you get, the fatter you get. And the process just spirals out of control until you’re too obese to masturbate. What then?!
5. It’s turning you into an douchebag
Besides keeping you from getting laid and making you suck at small talk in the real world, spending too much time online slowly turns anyone into a complete dick. That’s because people aren’t programmed to speak anonymously. When we do, we start acting like complete dipsh!ts every chance we get. And before you know it, you’re screaming at someone in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS about which cute cat video is better. I mean, c’mon – have some self-respect.
6. It’s stealing your privacy
Just FYI: You have zero privacy. Everything you do online – I mean everything: the emails you send, Websites you visit, what you write, even what your mouse scrolls over – everything is recorded, and kept in a searchable database. Not only that, but because of ubiquitous Internet access, people are now constantly available, which makes the concept of taking a vacation practically non-existent. Your bosses can now check your Facebook page to learn personal infor-mation about you. And God forbid you upload naked pictures of yourself – because that sh!t is never going away. Ever.
7. It’s making you boring
No matter how entertaining, engaging or informative the Internet can be, it’s making you boring as all hell. To not be boring, you need to actually do stuff. Go out into the world, travel, explore, drink, fight, f**k – just do something interesting that doesn’t involve a keyboard and a screen. That way, you’ll actually have some good stories to tell, some scars to show, something interesting to say. Twittering links and regurgitating ideas you read elsewhere does not make you a full, well-rounded person. It just makes you the same as everybody else…
Follow this author on Twitter: @blottsie
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@Andrew Hunter-College
Sorry to burst your bubble, but I am not just some troll, I am some one who understands that technology, especially the Internet, is not a bad thing and is not “ruining” anyone’s life.
The Internet is a tool, just like everything else created by humans. Just because there is a noticeable (but still small) percentage of people who show signs of “abuse” of such a tool, doesn’t make the entire entity a negative aspect of society.
Now, back to your response:
1. “because it’s all so effortless, we now have zero attention span for everything. ” –Show me scientific proof how having easy access to the worlds information creates zero attention span for “everything.” Why do you assume ease of access = low intelligence? Have you ever read a wikipedia page on a subject you thought you knew well? Guess what? You will learn something new after reading the entire article…OMG LEARN SOMETHING NEW and then, like any good human, retain the info in the brain for later use.
2. I said I have “yet” to meet some one like that. I am sure there are people like who exist, but “numerous?” How many? ONE? You mean to tell me that ONE person claims to be experienced in other cultures just from interacting with other people from different countries?
3. “I wouldn’t personally include TV or movies in that list…” — Why not? When you sit and watch a show/movie for 1 – 2 hours, you are glued to that screen when you can instead be talking to everyone face-to-face. My point being that your social skills are just fine. Humans will always want a time to themselves. The Internet is just one of the many.
4. I get that you are trying to be sarcastic, but think back to the 80′s, and all the fat kids you knew then. Why were they so fat? Why were adults fat back then? It wasn’t the Internets fault then, it’s not the Internets fault now. So just because people who have lazy personalities use the Internet, it’s the Internet that causes them to be lazy? Great logic there!
5. You missed the point, name calling is an automatic invalid argument. Aside from that, what if I ACCIDENTALLY TYPE A NICE MESSAGE IN ALL CAPS, YOU LOOK GREAT TODAY. Am I still a douche?
6. Oh wait, so though I debunked your argument about facebook you reject it? Ok, I’ll bite, the U.S. Gov’t and that darn PATRIOT ACT. Yeah it’s bullshit. But the Internet is the reason why you don’t have privacy? That’s not true. You choose to use the Internet and just because someone is uninformed, doesn’t make the Internet the bad guy. If you don’t know how to drive, but you get behind the wheel and crash, is it the cars fault or your own?
7. It was boring because every babyboomer (aka my parent’s generation) blames the Internet for everything (so your argument is not new or (factually backed up)), when the real problem is the people.
Basically, this article should have had a little sentence in the beginning saying “this is an editorial” or a “personal opinion” as opposed to trying to sound like Cracked.com where they actually back up their facts.
"#1 It's making you stupid"
I agree. Take #5 for example:
"It's turning you into AN douchebag."
Nice.
even though i am a self confessed geek , screen addict and internet junkie i generally agree with the author. The internet has created a social paradox, it enables us to be more social and in constant contact with people yet at the same time it makes us very unsociable as we spend time away from talking to our families so that we can talk to people online.
I am doing this at this very moment as i could be downstairs talking to my family but instead im on here talking to you guys!!!
The anonymity of social sites and forums whilst being advantageous in the sense that people cant make judgments about your appearance (unless you have a photo up) is also a negative aspect as it has been scientifically proven than most human communication is non verbal and you actually have to be speaking face to face in reality to experience this.
The internet along with other technologies such as video games is creating a nation of antisocial socialites who will in time become too scrared to go outside where its cold , rainy , dirty and dangerous and would rather stay in the warmth and comfort of their own homes thus cutting them off of vital life experiences which include unpleasant ones such as getting cold , wet , dirty or hurt.
This is starting at an earlier age as parents dont let their kids outside to play games instead they put them in from of the wii to play virtual tennis!!
this is terrible and will produce children with distorted mindsets.
The point i am in most agreement with is how the net is affecting our intelligence.
Whilst i believe the net is one of the best inventions we have come up with as it democratizes information and is an incredibly useful knowledge tool it really is all too easy to gain that information.
I am only 22 so i vaguely remember when i used to go to libraries to research on school projects . i would write letters to people to arrange interviews with them.
nowadays you can find out anything you want from a 5 minute google search.
Little information will be retained by learning this way as the act of acquiring knowledge is as important as the knowledge itself.
Like i said i am a self confessed screen addict so i am just as guilty as any one else which is part of the reason i have spent 10 minutes writing this article !!
I will however spend less time inside looking at screens and more time outside where its cold , wet and most importantly real and fun !!
cant forget my phone though so i can update my facebook status to let everyone know how much fun im having : P
lol the author's on twitter.
#8 should be "Internet Lists are fuckin gay"
i.e. Cracked
You've summarized just about everything I've been thinking for years! Glad I'm not the only one. Here's a good article on this: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/google. Ironically, it's very long.
"This article sucks" – just go to yahoo questions, or a similar site, to help get over your issues with point #1.
personally, i'm most concerned with the bastardisation of the english language, as a result of SMS & internet communications. that is definitely a fair thought to toss into the argument.
all the points in the article are valid observations. of course, when the author used the term 'you' don't take it literally as being a personal attack. if you choose to, make sure to read point 5 again. and again.
Besides the glaring irony of using the internet to disseminate your mindless drivel, I'll point out some other things that make this article awful.
1. The author writes at a 5th grade level.
2. The author took 30 seconds out of his day to steal pictures from around the internet and reposted them without credit or sources.
3. There is not one original thought in this entire article.
4. His points are rehashed, unsubstantiated, without direction and generally incorrect. For instance, I use the internet. I'm not fat. I don't have a warped sense of reality. I'm not boring. And I live a very private life.
The point is, don't waste your time reading this negative, pointless garbage. Keep searching other areas of the internet for someone who can actually write something useful and interesting. There's plenty out there.
I think the only real problem with this article is the title is very assuming and my initial reaction was umm the internet is doing none of these things to me, I read books for knowledge, am hardly ever at home, always socializing, oh I could counter each point but you get the idea. Not everyone who reads this does it apply to.
If it were me I'd have titled it "7 Ways The Internet Is Ruining Some Peoples Lives".
Today my mom referred to her sister as a "walking Wikipedia" filled with misinformation and B.S. I thought that was clever.
Its making you fat is the one thing that i have personally noticed. The rest are also true.
http://www.hindlist.com
See, you guys assume that the internet is causing this, when the people who are the boring, fat, douche bags aren't that way just because of the internet. There's always been people like that. That's why everyone hates America.
I don't think the internet is ruining lives. Maybe some, but not the majority. I use the internet a lot, I have online friends, but I also go out daily and socalise, etc, etc. But it's nice to spend alone time, nice to not have to talk to people face to face.
This article is well written, but I think the guy who wrote it thinks he knows everything when really his sense of reality is just warped.
Author got owned
@ the author: Please don't write a response to anyone, it'll just make it worse.
I actually walk up to the library every Friday xD
Is there anyone else out there that thinks they wasted their time? Ho-hum. Yawn.
It's funny, the short attention span is the only personal one that applies to me, and that's not the internet's fault, I've had that since before the internet existed. Yay ADHD. Of course, the privacy thing still applies, but who cares? No one has ever had *real* privacy unless they lived in a cave alone with no contact with the outside world. It's really just a matter of more people invading your privacy than there used to be, but most of them haven't met you and won't ever meet you, so them knowing anything about you doesn't matter.
I love love love the hypocriticalness of this article. Not in a mean way, just stating that fact.
I liked this:
"Twittering links and regurgitating ideas you read elsewhere does not make you a full, well-rounded person. It just makes you the same as everybody else…
——————–
Follow this author on Twitter: @blottsie"
While I do see what your point here is, I disagree with your conclusion. True, if you just sit around and look at stupid stuff on the internet all day; I doubt that it will get you very far. For people like me, the writers of the world; the internet provides us a venue through which to share our thoughts and ideas with the rest of the world. I think it also has to do with how you choose to use the internet. You can find all kinds of information on the internet. You can use the internet for good, to gain more knowledge about a subject, and communicate with people around the world. Whether you like it or not, the internet is here to stay and I think that it would be best that we learn how to use it resourcefully.
Let me be the first chick here to post a porn link ;0)
http://www.thepornsite.com/
You need think about it. Despite the emails, the overwhelming evidence showing global warming is happening hasn't changed.
"The e-mails do nothing to undermine the very strong scientific consensus . . . that tells us the Earth is warming, that warming is largely a result of human activity," Jane Lubchenco, who heads the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told a House committee. She said that the e-mails don't cover data from NOAA and NASA, whose independent climate records show dramatic warming.