Slashdot Mirror
Social Side-Effects Of Internet Use
venicebeach writes "The World Internet Project has released its third annual report on internet usage. It contains few surprises, but lots of interesing stats - for example the most experienced internet users spend an average of 15.8 hours online per week. CNN is running a story on the social findings - "New study shatters Internet 'geek' image." Apparently they are suprised to hear that internet users are more social than non-users: internet users watch less television, read more books and engage in more social activities."
Considering that the average American watches four hours of television per day, I'm not sure the average person has much time left for socializing. Anything that reduces the amount of TV watched, including using the Internet, is likely to improve how social that person is.
SLASHDOT FP TROLLING!!!!
That's more like my daily Internet use :-)
/.er is in?
I wonder what percentile the average
John.
Amateurs! I know people who are on for longer than 15.8 hours per day!
People say I'm crazy, I got diamonds on the soles of my shoes...
I multitask between a TV-card window, IRC, web and xterms.
I bet this is yet another of those "if you drink more than 3 beers/day you're an alcoholic" crap studies.
internet users watch less television, read more books and engage in more social activities.
Next week, we'll hear that it's recently been discovered that internet users simply lie for the purposes of polls and statistics more than non-users do, and those that don't lie outright simply know how to crack the World Internet Project's records and alter their annual reports to be more favorable to the 'net-bound...
"Linux doesn't exist. Everyone knows Linux is an unlicensed version of Unix"- Kieren O'Shaughnessy
word is bond
The credibility of information published on the Internet also received a surprising boost.
Despite the existence of countless spoof Web sites and message boards that carry oddball political rants, more than half of Internet users surveyed said "most or all" of the information they find online is reliable and credible.
New medium, same gullibility.
Sent from your iPad.
My worldview is shattered!
...because when you spend 15.8 hours a week dodging The Hole, you tend to want to leave the house more often!
I got a wife and kid now. :)
Met my wife on IRC 6 years ago. We now have our first kid and have been married 3.5 years.
And I probably spend 10 hours a day online. :P
Sugapablo
How is this a troll? I'd say it certainly qualifies as a "Social Side-Effect Of Internet Use".
do D&D sessions count as social gatherings, cuz if so then sure, this works.
"I only speak the truth"
Karma: null(Mostly affected by an unassigned variable)
I watch less than 1 hour of TV per week. Unless I or my wife are not feeling well. Then it goes up to an hour or two per day.
Most of the rest of the time we are working, sleeping, cleaning the house (laundry etc), hanging out with friends, reading books, watching movies, pusuing a hobby or playing games.
The Internet gives us the content we want, when we want it, where we want it. TV just can't do that.
42 - So long and thanks for all the fish.
I believe this to be true in MMORPGs. People seem to be more social, granted you have to sift through the... "1 4M L33T H4X0rZ!!!!! STFU n00b!!!!" types. If we could just to away with those people the internet would be a much better place.
- It is easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them. - Alfred Adler -
Geeks run the Intarweb. Everyone else is a "user".
"15.8 hours online per week" I spend that amount of time a day reading slashdot!
world's biggest red bull drinker
Hmmm. I guess computer geeks still sit in empty darkened rooms. It's just that they're in contact with hundreds of others while they're sitting there. Counterintuitive but makes sense.
Pretty cool.
I used to be an anti-social geek until I discovered the internet. Upon discovering how easy it is to communicate with people when not face to face, I learned to like people and interact with them. I was able to hide any apprehension, and by subverting this I gained real confidence in myself. This of course translated over well to the real world, and now I consider myself a people person. And no one thinks I am a geek. So this article comes as no surprise to me, and I'm sure that I'm not the only person in this boat.
So do internet users read more, or do readers watch less TV?
What a surprise. Some people want more intellectual stimulation than TV provides. Not that South Park and the Daily Show aren't intellectual, but they aren't exactly on the same level as Jared Diamond's "Guns, Germs, and Steel".
I would be really interested to see a study seeking to find a link between internet usage and awareness/involvement in current events.
Many of my friends who aren't on the internet very much are always asking me what's going on in the world. Though I am not sure if it is internet users or memigo users.
-Jackson
Apparently they are suprised to hear that internet users are more social than non-users: internet users watch less television, read more books and engage in more social activities.
Ummm... duh? Internet users = people who have enough money to afford a computer and internet service. Internet is no longer some kind of geek activity, everyone uses it these days. It's no surprise.
Quick, slashdot them before the general public finds out that all of our geek stereotypes are false!
How does long internet use makes the user more social? On what? IRC chatting? I would only consider social activity as something physical or face to face, not just stting in front of computer typing away.
If you think internet or anything cause bad social-side effects to society, you simply have to improve the education level about the "problems" in the schools, at every levels. It may not be easy, but why not fix the problem at its root? Lets adapt us to the changes.
If the 'most experienced' internet users spend an average of 15.8 hours a week online, what the hell does that make me? (Most Experienced)?
I don't watch much TV anymore, as I spend time on the net and watching DVDs. But it seems that worktime lunch conversations always start up about some TV show and how funny it was. Shows like ...shudder... Friends.
It's sort of fascinating to see everyone light up and talk about something familiar such as last night's TV programs...
Mostly this article just reinforces what I already knew about myself and my online associates. Honestly, the whole geek image has been one of stereotype since the beginning. Not everyone who uses computers and goes online frequently has thick glasses and no girlfriend, sitting around playing EverQuest all day. (This isn't an attack on EQ players, I am one.)
Most of my friends who can be found sitting behind their computer all day watch little to no television, and spend a great deal of their time reading (I personally find e-books easier to read than real books, and do so often.) I would say the internet is a far better medium to immerse yourself in than television or radio.
I got the fever.
Walken
Teh Spoke.
Boo-yah.
Out.
Who is really going to answer 'I sit unwashed in a darkened room masturbating and hitting refresh entirely too often.'
P.S. Reading books is not a social activity. What exactly are these unspecified 'social activities?' Is posting to message boards considered 'social.'
"internet users watch less television,"
Download the episodes...
"read more books"
And/or lots of Linux docs...
"and engage in more social activities"
Do LAN Parties count?
Who doesn't like free music?
What is the definition of a "the typical Internet user?" Seems like if they define it as people who have regular access to the 'net, then they're talking about people working in offices rather than, say, at McDonald's...
Everyone uses the internet. This includes both social and unsocial people. The internet has a much wider and broader appeal than say, reading books, which may not appeal as much to kids and teenages.
Unlike TV, you have to at least be able to READ to get much out of the Internet. :)
the most experienced internet users spend an average of 15.8 hours online per week
I read "offline" the first time. I thought it was an okay average...
And actualy, I think the it's the time we spend offline that socialy affects us. I mean, how can your friends contact you if you're not on MSN??
You are more than the sum of what you consume. Desire is not an occupation.
Apparently they are suprised to hear that internet users are more social than non-users:
.. True
... True
... Definitely false. Unless IRC and Instant Messaging is now considered a social activity.
internet users watch less television
read more books
and engage in more social activities.
I'm just curious -- unless you're, say, a parent reading to their child, how exactly is book reading a social activity?
May we never see th
I watch very little tv (no pre-set shows i watch/like)
I read books often (1 every month or so)
I only "go out" on weekends
I spend the majority of my time at work chatting online and surfing the net, then I come home and play FFXI.
Why should I go outside? I get hay fever or cold or could get in an accident. It's not warm enough to use the pool yet, and the jacuzzi is nice, but I get cold when I get out.
I think i'll just stay in and continue my life.
Ave Molech Setting
does EQ count as socializing?
Net users aren't lusers! Multinational study confirms what most everyone already knows! Overrated geek stereotypes shattered! Everyone will forget this shortly however!
Frivolity aside, I am confused by the increase in 'trusted' content perception of most people surveyed...as the 'net has grown larger, most geeks trust less and less of the content, in my experience. The more that any old Joe is allowed to just throw online, the higher the signal to noise ratio goes...
http://thechubbyferret.net - Ferret pictures and informative links.
...and the other 10% are so busy masturbating to the internet that they couldn't be bothered to respond to the survey.
If anything since I was first "online" in 1993-4. I've slowly become less social. Of course, aging from 18-28 can do that also I guess.
Anyone else think the internet in general has made them less social?
hmmm how do they figure in all the time I spend watching Internet TV stations while on the web? I may only watch 1 hour (or less) of regular TV every few days, but i easily log 25+ hours of Internet based TV a week. does that count as TV time or Internet time?
"why don't you just slip into something more comfortable...like a coma!"
I read through the article but didn't notice, Is this on personal time, or does this include all the salary time spent on sites like /. appearing to be the productive worker?
I had a great sig.. then I lost my penmanship.
34% of the survey respondent's palms were so hairy, the #2 pencils could not be properly gripped. Velcro pens were substituted in those cases.
This is the same effect that has been discussed here often. Heavy internet users are likely to be people who are interested in life. They want to learn, do new things, try new things, know how things work..
postmodernsideshow.com
...so that it goes numb and feels like someone else's hand count?!
Blar.
It merely suggests it. This is becoming an all-too-common scientific "proof" today. Just because 2 things occured at the same time doesn't mean that one caused the other. This is as ridiculuous as finding out that 30% of people who are depressed use social drugs to cope with their depression and then reporting that 30% of drug users are depressed. The misinformative part of this kind of reporting is in that the depression caused the drug use not the other way around.
How is this at all related to this article? It is entirely possible that people who are already social use Internet as a more effective way to communicate with people they would socialize with ragardless of whether the Internet was there or not.
News reporters (read communication: majors who couldn't hack a real degree) love these kinds of reports since "gluing" two types of events with a simple correlation statistic prevents them from having to actually research and try to understand what are the real roots of the problem/behavior/event that they are reporting on.Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
I wonder if they considered people who both surf the net and watch tv at the same time?
The article is not clear about it, but I would guess they did not adjust for Socio-Economic Segments (SES). SES would reflect mainly an individual's income and education level.
Internet usage of course begun in the higher SES levels (having started mainly in the academic world) -- and has ever since penetrated more the top levels than the bottom ones (this has in turn given risen to the term digital divide). On the other hand, guess which SES reads more books and has a richer social experience ?
Quem a paca cara compra, paca cara pagará.
All of us Dorks on the internet need to unite -- form a union or something -- lest we suffer the same cruel fate!
New study shatters Internet 'geek' image
Let's get one thing clear right now... if you researchers think that's going to stop or even slow down the tide of 'virgin comic book guy living in his parent's basement' jokes around here, you are sadly mistaken!
We won't let you destroy our beloved tradition!
It seems like any time I have a couple of people over to hang out at my apartment, at some point everyone whips out their laptops to check email, livejournal, slashdot, IM other people in the room suggestively and surreptitiously, etc. I guess this could be considered a LAN party, though we're not playing Quake...
||:|::
Is it a problem when I have spent more time online than that, just today?
An optimist believes we live in the best world possible; a pessimist fears this is true.
Let me break down further: /.
0.1 hours shopping on eBay
0.2 hours deleting spam
0.4 hours reading
15.1 hours spent looking at pr0n
"Ain't I a stinka..." - Bugs
Instead of "read more books", shouldn't it say "read books"? I'm not an avid reader but I've managed to read at least 1 book per month for the last few years. (A few years back I set that as a goal for myself after realizing I hadn't read a book in years.)
But most people I know (including my past self) don't even read 1 book in a year. They aren't illiterate or anything. They read bumper stickers, billboards, and the menus at a fast food place, but actually picking up a book and reading it for "entertainment" is unthinkable.
Yeah, I am in the same ball-park.
16hrs per day (sitting in front of a PC)
= 112hrs/week
I wonder if that includes all the remote boxes I have going at once.
4 SSH sessions to other servers running 24x7
2-3 ftp sessions d'loading shareware ~ 12 hrs/day
NewsBin D'loading newsgroups = 24x7
BitTorrent = 24x7 (x 3 computers)
email client is running 24x7
various coding and design stuff = 4hrs/day
All total I am responsible for 232Hrs/day of computer use. Man, I need a nap. =)
"The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." ~Plato (427-347 BC)
Its in my opinion a internet user is more socialy inclined then a non-internet user because of the popularity of IM Chats and IRC.. There is more of a personal social life on the internet nowadays then before and that is carried to the real life too.
A binge-drinking frat-boy regurgiating (=spouting, for you low-brows) a joke you heard somewhere?
Space: The Final Frontier or What's Between
G. W. Bush's ears.
Thanks in advance,
Kilgore Trout
now, if that doesn't explain a LOT :)
I hope I didn't brain my damage.
There are only two types! Internet users and TV users. Aren't you paying attention?!!
;-)
Quack, quack.
That should be G. W. Bush
Again, thanks,
Kilgore
I guess that means we /.ers are in a whole league of our own... we are off the chart of internet use!
15.8 hours a week?? Yup that sounds about right... if the world ends at midnight one Monday that is.
... because I have a speech impediment so I can't communicate verbally very well. Internet and BBS were a big welcome to my life. I rarely even use telephones and don't need TDD devices anymore.
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
What I read in the article is pretty dead on to who and what I am, since becoming an active member of the 'net community. I don't watch much in the way of TV anymore as most of it is crap. I read books (John Ashcroft would be shocked). I have an active social life.
I do performing arts, I'm in the SCA, I 'hang out' with my friends.
Thus stands the reason of the difference between the concept of the 'nerd' and the 'geek'.
-- Wiccan Army, 13th Airborne Division "We will not fly silently into the night"
"Apparently they are suprised to hear that internet users are more social than non-users: internet users watch less television, read more books and engage in more social activities."
Since when is reading books a social activity? Also, just because you watch less television doesn't automatically make you more social. There is definitely a disconnect in the logic of that statement -> 2/3 of supporting statements don't have anything to do with the original premise.
A number of years ago in a statistics class, we discussed sampling methods. When a completely valid sample of users were asked how often they brushed their teeth and how much toothpaste they used, the extrapolated result would have almost doubled the actual sales of toothpaste. We really want to brush twice a day with a big gob of Crest (and read two books a month and watch less TV - I won't go into how Tivo might affect these numbers - and socialize with our friends, neighbors, and families for two hours a day, etc.), but good studies have ways around these "rate yourself" responses and "adjust the numbers." I can't tell if this has been done for this study.
I read the article on cnn earlier today. I was especially surprised at the gender gap in Italy. I could just picture an Italian guy chasing his ragazza away from the computer while shouting "Cara, perche vuoi romperi i coglioni?"
Besides, there are so many other social consequences to the Internet, or as farkers call it, teh Intarweb. For example, how many of us would have ever heard of The Shocker were it not for our beloved Internet?
Ask me about The Shocker!
I think this requires a nice "Kiss my Ass" to any who used to mock us that spent a large amount of time on the net.
Unlike you sheep, I watch a lot of television, print is dead, I never leave my apartment and I have no friends.
In your *face*, you frauds!
The good and new comes from no quarter where it is looked for, and is always something different from what is expected.
i told my parents i'm way more social locked in the basement on the computer 16+ hours/day but they didn't believe me!
Then it's not just a clever name? (with apologies to Wayne's World).
Slashdot is proof that Sturgeon's Law applies to mankind.
As an average Internet addict i must say... Please tell me where can I download social life!!!
Sigs are for morons... Wait a minute...
"Most Internet users generally trust the information they find online," he wrote via e-mail... I guess should've ordered that official MIT nuclear engineering diploma for $14.95 offered in that email a couple a months... But damn I must've deleted it. I guess now I'll have to go back to class next week. So much for the easy way...
Don't be caught napping this November, people!
lol. me & my ppl are on da net 24/7. I nevar notice no effect (IMHO) ;-)
"We shall party like the Greeks of old! You know the ones I mean." - HedonismBot
I get so tired of this assumption that just because a person reads a lot, they are automatically more intelligent. I happen to read quite a bit, but I know people who spend way more time than most people watching TV, yet are very intelligent. Specifically, I know of a college professor that could out debate anyone on Crossfire, and does nothing all evening but watch History and PBS.
Also, what's with the assumption that any reading material is automatically more valuable than any television show? I can learn more watching 30 minutes of TLC, Discovery, A&E, Biography, History Channel, or PBS than I can in spending three hours reading whatever trash Oprah is recommending this week. I do agree that reading increases vocabulary, but I would also argue that television is much more conducive to other areas of learning, as it delivers its message via sight and sound.
As for the social aspect, many of us are forced into social situations all day long. We do not need to spend our times outside of the office, carpool, school, college, whatever to increase our social skills. However, we do need "alone time" so that we can regroup and prepare for the next day.
Public use of any portable music system is a virtually guaranteed indicator of sociopathic tendencies. -- Zoso
When I was on a metered dial-up, I would (a) connect, get email, download usenet news, (b) disconnect, read and respond to email and news, gather URLs for some sites I wanted to browse, (c) reconnect, send email and usenter f-ups, download and save web pages, (d) disconnect...
How long was I "online"? Does the time reading and responding to email counts? Or was it just the relatively short time I was physically online?
Now that I have cable, I am physically online as long as I'm awake. But I spend more or less the same amount of time reading and typing up email and news, or reading web stuff.
Am I "online" while wget is spidering a website for me, does that count? Or does the time I spend reading some of the already-downloaded stuff count as me being "online"?
Other than that... what's this "television" thing? I wish articles explained terms that might be new to people.
"Only the small secrets need to be protected. The big ones are kept secret by public incredulity." - Marshall McLuhan
De novo, given the penetration of the Net into most of the countries surveyed, I'd say the results as presented would mean nothing.
... will transform our social, political and economic lives"), I'd say the results mean even LESS than nothing. I doubt such a group would put out a study saying "heavy net users are social outcasts".
But given that the survey comes from an Internet advocacy group (from their site : "the originators of this project believe that the Internet
- it's nearly obvious that a person who spends 15 hours on the Net a week would spend less time watching TV - if only because that person has less hours in his day to do so. Let me see TV-watching statistics as a proportion of free time NOT spent on the Net.
- it's also obvious that Net users are more affluent, which correlates strongly with having better paying jobs and with having higher education levels, just like say, owning a BMW. So it's more likely they're going to spend more time reading, because i) they're more likely to be literate, ii) they're more likely to need to read as a function of their work. Let me see what Net usage looks like for owners of different cars, and then let's argue about what these statistics mean.
- because of an nearly implied level of affluence, people who can afford a Net connection are also likely to have more leisure time in general than non-Net users. It's hard to be out there socializing when you're a blue-collar joe working two jobs to make ends meet for your family of six. Do you think such a person spends much time on the Net ?
This study is useless as presented, and I frankly don't believe it. Just look at all the TV-related love-ins (Farscape/Tivo/STTNG/Futurama/etc.) here and ask whether you really believe Net users watch more TV ON AN ADJUSTED BASIS than non-Net users. The problem is that specification of a Net user is confounded with all sorts of variables.
What I want to see are numbers that show hours of "social" activity related to leisure hours NOT SPENT ON THE INTERNET. I bet they'd tell a different story. I'd bet that heavy Net users spend FAR less time doing socializing/exercising/being outside than people who use the Net moderately or less.
John Bender: So it's social then. Pathetic and sad... but social.
I'm not sure how that makes your point. If you replace an hour of TV with an hour of the Internet, you haven't exactly gained time for social activities...
If I want to find out what is happening in the world, it takes half an hour of CNN headline news to find out. The remaining half hour might be spent looking for something else to watch. It takes less than five minutes to catch up on Slashdot, CNN.com, Plastic, Kuro5hin, Metafilter, and Fark. Give 10-15 more minutes to read some articles and I still have half an hour to send email and instant messages to my friends.
The key here is the email and instant messages. With TV, there is no bidirectional communication. On the internet, I'm often messaging people who live across the street and across the world while I'm browsing CNN.com or slashdot.
Apparently they are surprised(sp) to hear that internet users are more social than non-users: internet users watch less television, read more books and engage in more social activities."
Is it fact that Internet users are more sociable or is that just how people filled out their questionnaire?
The problem is that internet access is correllated to education level. Furthermore a person with a high education will tend to read more books. In other words it is not very surprising if internet users read more books. Similar arguments can be applied to many of the other conclusions in the report.
In conclusion this report does not tell us if internet use changes the life style of a person.
Pretty obvious isn't it? Wankers wrist!
Sitcoms are populated by people with a dizzying array of strange and/or disturbing personality traits. Most regular folks are...well, regular folks. Once you get away from the barrage of inanity that is regular network (and to some extent now, cable) TV and start participating in and paying attention to the unfiltered goings on of the REAL world (NOT "REALITY" TV, FOR THE 'TARDS AMONG US), you gain a much more well-rounded perspective on nearly everything. No wonder it seems like internet users appear more knowledgeable and sociable.
When Dan Rather tells you George Bush is a homicidal maniac bent on purifying the world in holy nuclear fire so he can buy more oil for his deer-antler-adorned SUV fleet, what other TV channel will present the opposite viewpoint? [crickets...] That's what I thought. On the internet, however, a quick Google search will turn up any number of alternate viewpoints and probably evidence to support each of them.
How much more popular radio was with experinced users than non users, in almost every case, radio was much more commonly used, more important to older (been online a long time not age) interent users than noobs. Either the old guard loves Rush, or it's just something that doesn't require eyes, but that is odd. Who'd have thought that an older technology would benefit from the rapid adoption of a newer one leaving the middle tech aced out.
Degaussing scares the bad magnetism out of the monitor and fills it with good karma.
A study of the social side-effects and environmental impact of commercialism and capitalism.
Somehow, nobody is suprised that internet users can't spell.
It's a global community! Full of online dating junkies, IRC whores, AIM whores, Yahoo whores, ICQ whores, and MSN whores. Thanks to these great people I still have a social life while working third shift! God bless the internet for helping my social life!
Wonderful how our wonderful new language is able to handle these situations, isn't it?
I think it IS a social activity, because you're not just talking to yourself... Well... Unless you're logged in twice on your IM client and talking to yourself...But then you're just weird.
Ah, but not as weird as I am, because I'm actually talking to myself!! Bwahaha.... yEs.... o_O
Apparently they are suprised to hear that internet users are more social than non-users: internet users watch less television, read more books and engage in more social activities."
That's because I can find out anything RIGHT now by clickety clicking....rather that sitting in front of my TV and listening to the sound bite commercials from the news channells all night waiting to "find out at 10..."
(+1 Funny) only if I laugh out loud.
I use feedster to search for Nashville (where I live). It has become part of my daily browsing. I learn all kinds of things about what is going on in my area this way.
Hint: Add a google news feed of a search for your local to feedster and you get all the google news stories too. Don't know how to get a RSS feed of Google News? Check out gnews2rss.
-Jackson
Even discounting work-time (8 hours of internet per day, 5 days per week), I spend 5.5 hours per weekday and about 8 per weekend day. That makes 27.5 + 16= 43.5 hours!
Keerist I'm a geek. I need to get out more.
...unless you're hopelessly addicted to the Internet, like many people are with the Boob-tube, the one hour is less likely to translate into two, three, and so forth. With TV, people tend to veg-out and keep watching and watching and watching.
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
I was one of the people arranging social events via Chrysalis, one of Dallas' premier bulletin board systems in the days before the Internet took over.
:-)
Met my wife that way...
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
Well, the Internet is sort of a good news/bad news situation when it comes to communication and being social. The good news is that it allows you to do it far more frequently. The bad news is that it doesn't allow you to do it terribly well.
If you actually break down communication, only about 25% or less is actually verbal. This makes it very difficult to tell the subtext of what somebody is saying.
For example, let's say you're chatting with somebody and they type "I REALLY like you." It could be enthusiasm...or it could be sarcasm. The two would look identical on the screen. Inflection becomes very important (and makes up about another 25% of communication).
To make matters even worse, another 50% or more is body language. If the body language isn't there, even the inflection can fail.
When you're on the 'net, all you have is the verbal component. So, you can communicate with far more people than you would be able to otherwise, but the odds of making a true connection are actually quite slim - you just don't have enough information to really do it.
(Aside from which, when it comes down to it, when you're chatting on the 'net, or typing something into a forum, you're still sitting by yourself in front of a keyboard. There is something missing.)
Robert B. Marks
Author, Demonsbane in Diablo Archive
Does that count as being online 168 hours a week?
If Im working on some programming project for, say a 4 hour streach, and Im flipping back and forth to a browser pointed at some online documentation, does that count as 4 hours online? Or (pulling a number out of my ass) is only 10% of that online?
... doing a survey of the population of Internet users is more than a little selective. I'd guess Internet users are probably also better educated and more affluent. Does that mean the Internet *made* them more educated and affluent? No. It means more educated, affluent people use the Internet. The same goes here. *shrug*
You mean to tell me that you can use the TV for something *other* than videogames?!?!? Non-interactive television... now who's sick, twisted idea of fun is that? %lt;/sarcasm>
Religion is not "officially banned" in China. OK, you're only allowed to follow one of the official state religions, whose institutions are all politically neutered, e.g. the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, which has no links with the Vatican. But that's different from saying religious conversations can only be had online, however repressive it may be.
perl -e 'fork||print for split//,"hahahaha"'
"internet users watch less television, read more books and engage in more social activities"
No I don't. But, this would have been true had you asked me more than a couple months ago (started a new job).
-CPM
---You're all I need, When the water runs deep, You're all I need, Now I cry my soul to sleep -- Collective Soul, Needs
Wow, you created that account just to make that joke. My hat is off to you, sir.
I've had a permanent connection for many years - back as far as permanent dialup. I've long stopped thinking in terms of online or offline, Internet use is just another seamless part of daily computing.
Trying to count how long geeks spend online daily would be as stupid as trying to count how long non-geeks spend using electricity each day.
Opportunity knocks. Karma hunts you down.
95% of television out there is mindless garbage. I don't mind watching tv so much, but it sure does seem like it makes time go too fast. I mean I sit in front of a show or two, and boom and hour is gone.
I'm hitting in my late 20's and see the days going faster and faster. I'll quote Outkast: "I'm just looking for something to slow things down."
As much as I hate most of what tinsel town puts out (see the abominable writing of the television version of My Big Fat Greek Wedding for a prime example), commercials are what really get to me.
I have given up on TV completely and only use my idiot box for DVD content.
Best thing I've ever done BTW. Sure, my idiot friends can't "watch the game" over at my place, but that's what bars are for, right?
I'll get off my soapbox in a sec, but I'm sure I'm not telling
BTW, "Repo Man" adds another quote:
"I get all my best thinking done on the bus. The more you drive, the less intelligent you are."
1'v3 b33n us1ng th3 1nt3rn3t f0r 10 y34rz and l00k 4t m3, 1'm f1n3!!!!!!!!!
>2-3 ftp sessions d'loading shareware ~ 12 hrs/day
Shouldn't that be more like:
2-3 ftp sessions d'loading 'shared'wares ~ 12 hrs/day
I mean common, there isn't that much shareware out there to consistantly have the level of downloading, unless you are redownloading a new copy of the software daily.
I stare at my computer screen for scores of hours a week. I spend lots of time reading documents pulled from the Net, either webpages or downloaded docs (apt-get install ; man ). The actual Net transactions are very short compared to my reading time: I read at about 4800bps and download at about 3Mbps. When am I online? What is "offline"?
--
make install -not war
Pure and simple. It is the news, where they spin everything then change the facts without acknowledging an informational screw-up. It is the stupid "reality" show crap, where NONE of it is reality. It's all scripted theatrics, anyone that has watched a lot of television and knows how shows are put together knows this fact. Ever watch the Crocadile man (that silly man who held his baby's hand while feeding the aligator) show on Animal Planet? It's scripted. The aligators are real, but the crowd and his exaggerated commentary are all scripted. Every show has a gozillion commercials. You can't even watch a sports event on television now, without 20 freaking television timeouts. So, other than "Everybody Loves Raymond" and "King of Queens" and watching my UK Wildcats (men's college hoops), I stay away from the television as far as I can.
real geeks hate soap operas.
Not every human enjoys the company of other humans. Some humans think that most humans are annoying as hell and don't want to be around them. Why is being social so important that its worth ruining your life just to be popular?
People don't exist to serve systems, systems exist to serve people.
Of course.
=)
"The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." ~Plato (427-347 BC)
Needless to say, I was a wee-bit paranoid.
But after I discovered programming, in order to get my fix, since I could not afford a programmable calculator, much less a minicomputer (micros were unheard of yet), I had to develop the social skills to enable to leech some device access...
And it's very interesting because you do lots of stuff with your companions : Kill dragons, explore bothomless pits of hell and meet cute elven chicks!
Colosse.
but i can't.
see, i think that pretty much a reader is by default stimulating parts of the brain that rarely if ever get touched by tv viewing. i'm not saying that there aren't a lot of crap novels out there, but reading is uses more interpretive skills, grammar, and imagination. even crap novels.
that being said, there are worthwhile things on tv you won't find other places. tv, when used properly, provides a format that nothing else available does. it's very transparent and because of its simplicity can present complex ideas in an easy to digest manner.
Please stop stalking me, bro.
>>I'm too goddamn stoned and drunk to comprehend...
You'd think that would help.
you're not going to shower before you masturbate at your computer. it's twice the work.
Please stop stalking me, bro.
Hello! Welcome to 1992.
don't you get the sociopolitical significance of kenny dying EVERY episode?
geez.
[answer: it's kind of funny]
Please stop stalking me, bro.
"Apparently they are suprised to hear that internet users are more social than non-users: internet users watch less television, read more books and engage in more social activities."
apparently the authors are a little confused about causality
Skimming over this (and maybe that's where I made my mistake: not reading thoroughly enough) all I gathered was the argument that television can enhance children's lives and teach them responsibility, tolerance and how great PBS is. But what I'm wondering, and call me an idealist, is why the hell aren't people instead spending that television time to directly and personally teach their kids these values rather than leaving it up to shows involving big yellow muppets? I don't even let my children watch the TV unless I am there, talking to them and teaching them about every little thing that goes on. I'm not saying that you implemented that you sit your kids in front of the TV and let it raise them - I'm just suggesting that that hour watching Sesame Street and Caillou should be spent otherwise, with parents and people they can trust and really learn from. There are much better and more interactive ways, ways that stick with children better, than having Chloe and whoever else tell my dear children about morals. Elmo doesn't know my Jane, and she doens't know the best way to teach Jane how to be a responsible citizen like I do. Don't "leave it up to" anyone! Village or TV! Do it yourself! Television has its up and downs, but they've got nothing to do with raising our children if we do it right. I see so many children raising themselves and doing a real shitty job. There is no excuse.
question... since when is reading more books being in any way sociable? its just goes further to push the geek issue into the spotlight... sure there are many people who use the net to socialise (students using im's etc...) but true "internet users" shouldnt be considered part of that...
I am very sucseptible to "let's have another drink"
Mark Twain may have said that, but he wasquoting English statesman Benjamin Disraeli http://www.bartleby.com/66/99/16799.html
"Statistics are like bikinis. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital." ~Aaron Levenstein
There's good stuff out there. But like good software, most of it is provided by a socialistic approach than a capitalistic one.
Capitalism is unparalleled at developing resources, not good at lots of other things. Modern TV is the science of developing the resource -- you -- into a commercial-watching fear-based consumption machine. The customer is the advertiser, not the viewer.
The traffic on my web site and the amount of (non-spam) email I get are less than half of what they were a year ago. The topics I'm interested in (hash functions, regression testing, voting, orbital mechanics) are mentioned on Usenet less frequently than they were a year ago.
What's up? Is there less software being developed now than a year ago? Has spam made the internet yucky? Has the internet fad passed? Or is it just me?
In your face! Conventional Wisdom! Take that! And that!
Update to your sig -
"All great truths begin as alt.blasphemies posts" -George Bernard Shaw 2.0
Just be sure to leave enough time before you die so you can look at, read, listen to, and/or play with all of that stuff!
I know that, to some people, this might go without saying, but what about the lessons that you, yourself teach your children? What you write seems to imply that the bulk of how kids learn to be social comes from either the television or from hanging out with their racist friends. I'm not entirely against TV but if you have little social interaction outside of it, you're going to make your own prejudices against people; not necessarily about race, but definitely about other things.
For example, why don't the boys/girls at school look nearly as attractive as the ones on "Friends"? And while we're on the subject of "Friends", how about lifestyle discrimination (I'm not referring to homosexuality, but general lifestyle decisions)?
Kids need a fair balance when it comes to learning behavior, but I believe that the majority of it should come from the parents. I plan on taking my kids to social events with me so that they can see real life examples of social behavior. I'm not just going to leave it up to their friends and I ESPECIALLY will not leave it up to Barney.
Those who can, do. Those who can't, go into business for themselves.
Of course I don't watch TV. That time can be spend on the internet.
Cheers,
RoadkillBunny
this should have been moderated as funny..
After spending all my money on computers, I have to leave _something_ to my kids in the will. ...To my wife, I leave all the Celine Dion mp3's ...To my kids, I leave all the games. ...To my brother I leave all the p0rn.
"The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." ~Plato (427-347 BC)
for a moment there, i thought you were describing my little sister, and family. because that's exactly how things are here.
she thinks' shes stupid. she's the younger sibling of a family of three...i'm a 2nd year CS student (and honestly, am kind of bright. Underacheiver, but bright nonetheless), my brother is a punk-musician who may or may not be touring the province at any time...but either way is extreemly talented...she was cut from the same stone as we were...yet she thinks she's a talentless slob that has nothing better to do with her time than watch television. granted, she's a 16 year old girl, who is in good shape(because of my family's barbaric metabolism)...but this firm belief is about to no doubt become self-fufilling. it's so sad. especially considerring that if she needed help with some things she has two brothers to help her (ie maths, or whatever) whereas i (the elder child) got to struggle awkwardly through the mazes of thought afront of me.
but generally, take the above poster serious, this is a definitely noticible phenomenon.
GENERATION 26: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation.
but it's interesting nonetheless. do you have a source?
GENERATION 26: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation.
if i were 5-10 times cooler, i could get and keep a girlfriend. i can say the same for many other geeks out there. we *need* all the help we can get.
:P
it's not like *oh but we are going to lose the girls as they find someone and can't resist the temptation* as much as it is *i would have never of met my last 3 girlfreinds, and i would still be a virgin if there were no internet*
besides, why be so greedy? women should be free to sleep around, shouldn't they? break free of the love meme, don't let it do to you what it's done to me
GENERATION 26: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation.
>2-3 ftp sessions d'loading shareware ~ 12 hrs/day
Downloading shareware, my ass!
I read plenty of books, not all sci-fi or fantasy(and no porn). I have an active social life and I maybe watch abou 2-4 hours ot TV a week(sometimes none). I'm on the net around 15-20 hours a week. This article sounds like me.
But!
Both my friends(inc. GF) and myself consider me to be a Geek.
I guess the image really is changing.
So what do we start calling the people who spend all their waking time in a dark basement on their computers, either gaming or otherwise distracted? What about the difference between ones makeing money(or not needing to make money due to previous wealth(no mommy and daddy)) and the ones who are leaching off society(mommy and daddy or the government)? (Yes I live at home, and I pay rent to do so, my parent profit from me being here, and I really want out but have to kill debt first)
We need a better term for those who used to be what we called Geeks, as Geeks are becoming too much mainstream. Everyone needs to feel special.
On Arrakis: early worm gets the bird. Magister mundi sum!
In all seriousness, does anybody else feel they've become addicted to porn because of the net? I definitely do, and because i'm on a high speed network, I tend to browse through the TGPs very quickly....and I've in fact found I get very tired of the same girls very quickly, and am always in need of a fresh new face.
I've started to wonder if this affects my social life, because I start getting bored with a girl right after I start to get to know her. This isn't meant as a funny comment...and I would rather have your comments than your mod points especially if you have any resources for me to look into about this issue.
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
Considering that the Zoo system on /. seems to allow people to filter out what they do and don't want to hear, there's probably some socializing going on that would or wouldn't otherwise happen. It would be interesting to see what effects /. itself has had on the social aspect of its readers. I find myself interacting a little too much with people here some times. :)
Un-news
Hmm? What are all those letter shaped things on the screen? I click on the bright underlined thingies and the screen changes, cool. Look at all those flashing banner ads, pretty pictures, ...ohhhh...a flash movie.
Are you sure you need to be able to read to use the internet?
I can't afford a sig!
Apparently they are suprised to hear that internet users are more social than non-users: internet users watch less television, read more books and engage in more social activities.
Surprised ! That's often the case when something is actually researched, instead of just being made up on the spot to meet some stereotype.
No but, yeah but, no but...
Yeah, whatever. Leave me alone, I'm on the computer.
"Smoking helps you lose weight - one lung at a time" -- A. E. Neumann
Boob tube? If only! I could spend ALOT more time in front of this boob tube!
but you have more at stake if you are directly lying, than google does if it's results are skewed. i like my oponents made of flesh, not straw and or silicon.
GENERATION 26: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation.
i run a internet cafe 12 hours a day.
...
very interesting what kind of people you get to
meet. also it is very educational because you
get the uber geek user ("hey have you tried
this program? do you know this game?") to user
with no clue AT ALL (sitting at the XP welcome
screen which says "click your user name" and
they would ask "what do i have to do?")...
but since i'm a kid that grew up watching cartoons
on sunday morning starting 7 a.m. i'm addicted
to TV for life.
i can't however watch regular TV shows or news
anymore. the use of the internet has "broadend"
my horizon and i just plain simply get paranoid
after watching 5 min of CNN.TV ("Is the news
girl acctually talking to me?"-kinda thing).
but after i get home i still watch a good movie
on DVD or plain ol' VHS until 4 in the morning.
this and a couple of beers let me sleep thru the
night
Probably they are still mindful of the Swedish Lemon Angels recipe cited as an example of untrustworthy web content. (Idiot ZDnet broke the link to the article: see here instead.)
-- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
STOP!
Just STOP already.
I'm sick of these articles proclaiming that you are going to be a social person because you use AIM. I'm also sick of those people who say "The Internet is wonderful, it taught me how to talk to people because I used AIM."
Give me a break. When you rely on instant messaging as the means for communicating about important issues with someone just leads to a lack of social ability in the real world. Do you think your boss is going to IM you if you mess something up at work? How about if you get in a fight with your significant other? They aren't going to send you an IM, they are going to say it to your face.
Interacting with people is not that damn hard. Grow some courage and learn how to talk face to face. You'll be better off in the long run.