What’s the net effect of the internet on humanity?

[RainingFish]

Just curious what people's thoughts are on this.

 

[PyrusMG]

The Internet rolled a 1 vs. Humanity.

 

[Deleted member 84247]

The internet has brought much more good than harm. Were it not for the internet, I'd have never published a novel read by thousands, and I'd have never found this forum where I met a bunch of friends.

 

[RepresentingSilence]

People always focus on the negative and overlook the positive

 

[ConansWitchBaby]

I now know to dig a deep hole to bury bodies in YEARS in advance if I want to get away with anything. Net positive in my book

 

[georgelee5786]

The internet has allowed for the instant transfer of ideas aand data that anyone can access. It has been a force of good overall.

 

[NotaNuffian]

Neutral really.

It is a tool that can let one be heard by many.

Some use it, others abuse it.

Though one thing is for certain, the human mind is too monkey for it.

 

[RepresentingCaution]

 

[KidBuu699]

Depression and porn addiction. Just look what happened to the North Korean soldiers once they got internet.

 

[Santaisblue]

So many crimes only happen because people want the attention that they would only get over the Internet. Additionally, the Internet's ability to connect fring groups has made people forget what the "real" world is actually like, they only see what they want to see, not what is going on around them.

 

[Succubiome]

That it's become super commercialized over the years is not great.

The way most corporate-owned social media are relentlessly promoting "engagement", meaning they consider endless negative interaction is a plus, not a minus, is not great.

That it is a variety of very addictive drugs for people who-- although as is often the case with addictions, it's just as much about the environment they live in as the "drug" itself, I don't think internet addiction would be as much of a thing if the outlook of the future wasn't so dire.

That it allows people to any media or interest group they care to seek out is certainly a double-edged sword, but I think better than very centralized media control.

The internet has allowed a ton of collaboration and ability to share art and information, but all that art and information has been used to create the technology of LLMs-- and modern corporate society is really not set up to deal with LLMs in the long term, since it's sort-of-okayish at a lot of the low level work that is being done, and creating a society based around the concept of "workers" when you remove most possible work doesn't really... work. I guess we'll see what happens there, it's yet another thing that can't continue in the direction it is going forever without society breaking.

AI and crypto are also huge electricity sinks, effectively creating a ton of C02 because most electricity isn't sustainable-- contributing, of course, to another "breaking the world" direction.

At the same time, it's probably a contributing factor to lessening the connections between people on a local level, which is not ideal-- but at the same time, I think it's allowed a lot more empathy and connection and awareness between people outside of things that are usually used to divide them.

I want to believe people will use it to work together and organize to change the world, enough to outweigh it's downsides.

So, I optimistically hope the internet overall proves itself as a force of change for the better, but I think the ship's kinda out on it's effects-- I'm sure historians will have opinions in a few hundred years, if anyone's left to do history.

 

[MasterY001]

The internet has brought much more good than harm. Were it not for the internet, I'd have never published a novel read by thousands, and I'd have never found this forum where I met a bunch of friends.

Am I your friend?

 

[RainyLiquid]

I do not know.

 

[Rezcore]

The internet is the single greatest thing mankind made. It's the Social Media sites that'd doomed us. Algorithms pushing division and hate, all so some tech bro can get rich off subsidies his users are too divided to care about. Yes, Down with the Zuck

 

[BigBadBoi]

I developed a crippling armpit fetish due to "ironic" shitposting so yeah

 

[Hoshino]

Chronic depression and sleep deprivation, lack of empathy, a sense of emptiness, nihilism, and dissociative personality disorder. Yep, it has done much more good than harm

 

[Deleted member 84247]

Am I your friend?

You can be my friend.

 

[Bishop_Quarter]

It surely brought more good to the world. Without it, I might have still been struggling to find a job the traditional way and could not outlet my creative mind.
It's just people like to bring their bad sides to everything that it made internet looked like a bad place.

 

[Navillus]

While the Internet has brought a whole lot of bullshit, its convenience is unmatched and because of that convenience a significant number of positive changes have happened as well and I personally think that it’s more significant than the bad that it brought… after all everything will inevitably have downsides-nyah.

 

[John_Owl]

dumber dumb people, smarter smart people. A much wider gap between the haves and have-nots of intellect.