What are the pro's and con's of an internet society?

Question

Was your life better before or after the internet?

Are you more important than your neighbor?
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AmVDI6REeUE38igT3gz5ttHsy6IX?qid=20070517180431AAUbv2j

What is the price of freedom?
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Do You Miss The Outdoors?
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Is it better to question and wonder, or follow and trust? http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Ar4xtDSuHi2OsZt3CRw7Akbsy6IX?qid=20070516215319AAj1Qvp

Q)How do you define "an internet society?

A)"internet society"= the world wide mass of internet users
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Q)*what do you mean by "better?"

A) was your life more "fullfilling"

Answer 1

Con: first world nations become third world nations.

For example, India does not have the expensive subsystems and infrastructure of North America. In one decade they were able to jump from no telephone and internet connection to cell phone and satellite communication across the country.

Pro: People are exposed almost instaneously to new information that challenges their perceptions of the world.

Con: The sheer volume of information leads to an overload and a state of being overwhelmed. As their is no authenticity check on the content, false information can spread rapidly.

Con: humans loose social skills and non-verbal communication which forms the bulk of how we interact with one another.

Con: Technology promotes isolation which is consistent with lives of depressed states. Technology becomes a substitute for actual individuals.

Answer 2

First, how do you define "an internet society?" Second, what do you mean by "better?" In relation to what? I would define an internet society as a collective in which most of the population has both access to, and a signicant degree of reliance upon, internet communications. I don't know the statistcs, but it is important to note that most of the world does not have access to the Internet. Living in the part of the world that does, the place where the internet is everywhere, I would say that having access to the technology is, in theory, an incredible thing. Everything you need is at your fingertips. Literally. You can do anything from home. That's great--until you stop leaving home. Many have.

Internet technology has a lot of negative effects--it creates a false sense of "reality," it is "addicting" in itself, and has very addictive content (sex, drugs, rock and roll), which makes people less able to and less intererested in communicating live, in real time, in a non-virtual context. It is hypnotic. It makes people lazy (check out the homework page, for instance), it desensitizes people to violence ("bumfights" is my particular aggravation), and it makes us communicate in an entirely new way. Issues of on-line conduct and etiquette, social propriety, ownership and copyright...even the significance of a colon placed beside a bracket are changing the way plugged-in societies operate.
We in the developed world are changing socially, psychically, linguistically, even physiologically because we are now irrevocably entrenched in technology. As a result, it really doesn't matter much what's good and what's bad about living in an internet society.

Answer 3

There is no better or worse; just different. I use the internet in business to perform the same tasks, just in different ways. Ie - instead of leaving a voicemail, I leave an email.

The immediate access to information is a pro, but the imbalance in accurate information is a con.

The ability to connect with a wider multitude of people is a pro; but the fact that fewer people then actually go out to meet people and socialize as a community can be a con.

I think it's quite balanced overall.