Is the Internet destroying our sense of discovery?

Fuck no, browsing for videos with a crew of 3-4 mates was always total shit.

  On 12/15/2009 at 12:54 PM, keltoi said:

kids today will never experience the excruciating slow death of the plague... they just don't know they're born.

I think there's a lot of truth to this though, good health care has deeply changed the human experience. I suspect life looks quite different to you if you are used to being near death. In some cultures with high infant mortality they don't even name their children until they are several years old...

  On 12/15/2009 at 1:26 PM, lumpenprol said:

  On 12/15/2009 at 12:54 PM, keltoi said:

kids today will never experience the excruciating slow death of the plague... they just don't know they're born.

 

I think there's a lot of truth to this though, good health care has deeply changed the human experience. I suspect life looks quite different to you if you are used to being near death. In some cultures with high infant mortality they don't even name their children until they are several years old...

actually i watched an interesting program last night about the state of the planet from the point of view of different cultures across the globe.

this poor starving, diseased, african woman said that if she had the privaledged life of a european (as in clean water, food, shelter, medicine - never mind the luxuries) she would never want to die, but couldn't wait til her miserable life was over.

Id have to say my answer is no. Im not that old, I bought CD's before I did a vinyl. But Id have to say that having the internet makes my sense of discovery greater. Sometime I just like to search a particular genre of music, sample anything I can find and if I like it I buy an album. The album I buy IS usually based on reviews but thats natural to want to get their best album.

As for opinions. Yes some people take it to far and adopt someone else's opinion as their own. But if your smart you'll realise that buy hearing someone elses opinion on something it helps you get a better understanding. You gain a different viewpoint and you can make your opinion more rounded.

But I know what you mean, really. If a movie comes out in the cinema, Ill see a trailer and think "hmm that looks good", then Ill ask my mates if they wanna go. One of my mates is a rotten tomatoes whore. He HAS to check the reviews of it to see wheather its worth his while going. That pisses me off to no end, if we go and its good, great. If we go and its aweful, that better cos it gives us something to complain about and everyone loves complaining. At least I made up my own fucking mind.

  On 12/15/2009 at 1:39 PM, chassis said:

But if your smart you'll realise that buy hearing someone elses opinion

there's too much I've discovered on the internet to make it ruin anything

  On 12/15/2009 at 1:38 PM, keltoi said:

  On 12/15/2009 at 1:26 PM, lumpenprol said:

  On 12/15/2009 at 12:54 PM, keltoi said:

kids today will never experience the excruciating slow death of the plague... they just don't know they're born.

 

I think there's a lot of truth to this though, good health care has deeply changed the human experience. I suspect life looks quite different to you if you are used to being near death. In some cultures with high infant mortality they don't even name their children until they are several years old...

 

actually i watched an interesting program last night about the state of the planet from the point of view of different cultures across the globe.

 

this poor starving, diseased, african woman said that if she had the privaledged life of a european (as in clean water, food, shelter, medicine - never mind the luxuries) she would never want to die, but couldn't wait til her miserable life was over.

heh, I just realized that "being near death" can be read two ways. I meant more being around death, like having your kid brother or sister die of this or that, whether polio, TB, plague, flu... It's very strange to think that through much of human history, that was the norm. But yeah, being the poor lady you describe doesn't sound like fun either.

  On 12/15/2009 at 11:20 AM, karmakramer said:

Making this quick, can't be assed to fully express what I am trying to get it, but hopefully this makes sense... By having access to all the information in the world, you essentially have all the answers at your finger tips... wanna know what movie to watch, but can't think of any... hmmm well "i'll just search the top 100 movies of all time and pick one of those"... "sweet, this is the 30th best film of all time, I am going to watch this... this is probably most likely one of the best movie of all time"...

 

Now sure its great having this knowledge, but doesn't this create a sort of hive mind...? will people never experience the concept of going out to the video store, browsing endlessly through shelves... reading the descriptions... looking for some mysterious wonder, some lost treasure... something absolutely brilliant that you have never heard of... because now... now I can just search specifically what I want... I can ask opinions about it on forums with thousands of members. I am essentially told what to explore... and the reality of a new frontier is lost... because anyone who wants to take a few seconds of their day, can now know the world's "top 100 movies" of all time"... and with this knowledge what is an opinion worth anymore... if an opinion about anything can basically be read at anytime, there is no such thing as individual conclusions anymore. When you have conversations with people, you don't know if this is the conclusion of this person, or if its the conclusion of a majority or critic.

 

Most importantly, I myself have felt a sense of loss.... looking back to the 90's I sense culture has too. Driving up to the video store back then, it felt like I was traveling to uncharted territories. I was going into the unknown. And this can be said about most things. Music, Books, TV shows, etc... most forms of media/entertainment/art.... It is now all neatly ranked somewhere on cyberspace.

So what you are basically saying is that because things are easier to find, that people don't appreciate them as much or at all. This is kind of a grumpy old man argument and I fully support it.

yeah this woman was near death in both conotations. i found it interesting that her whole life is basically spent waiting to die and her wondering what it would be like to live (like us) without this impending doom was pretty moving.

  On 12/15/2009 at 2:53 PM, keltoi said:

  On 12/15/2009 at 1:39 PM, chassis said:

But if your smart you'll realise that buy hearing someone elses opinion

Im super happy thats what you took from my post.

i'm super happy that you're super happy

maybe i don't know but the nostalgia value is through the roof gentlemen through the roof you can find all your childhood favorites for free and so on

  On 12/15/2009 at 5:47 PM, keltoi said:

i'm super happy that you're super happy

Then shall we?