Debates of all sorts discussion

I'm more optimistic when it comes to technology. It is quite fascinating how far we've come. I mean, just a few decades ago, no one thought there would ever be a computer that weighed less than a ton––and now we have things like iPods and laptops ... It's amazing how much information can be squeezed into such a small space.

I admit, I probably spend too much time on the Internet when I could be hanging out more with my family, or exercising or something. But on the other hand, I've learned a lot and met a lot of awesome people on the Internet.

The other problem is that there is so much information on the Internet that I think everyone is losing patience when it comes to reading. We go to something like Google, we're usually only looking for one small tidbit of information. So that means skimming a lot of sources and only finding what we want to find.

I agree with Brigid mostly^ I love technology (hell I have an Alienware!) I love the advancement we have, it fascinates me. I mean just look at people 100 years ago, that's really not that long ago and look at us now.

I doubt that. Online communication may be convenient, but it can't replace communication with people face-to-face. I mean, I spend a lot of time on my computer but I spend a significant amount of time with my friends and family; I would never give that up.

I'm not denying that nowadays, almost everyone does use the Internet a lot––often for hours on end. I just don't think there are enough people in the world who would be willing to give up real-life communication completely. The Internet might be a nice distraction when your real-life friends aren't around, but I doubt most people would give up their family/friends for a life completely ruled by online communication.

I guess it depends largely on how our generation raises our kids. I see myself probably being one of those parents who limits my kids' technology use. I don't have anything against technology, but going outside and interacting with people face-to-face is just as important.

Only fear about technology is a robot apocalypse.

Or that the internet will crash worldwide or something and humans will panic and kill each other because everything is now unable to retrieve.

I have some faith in humanity...I mean, if I'm sick or something and spend a day or two just reading and surfing the Internet, I'm pretty much desperate to see my friends (face-to-face) the next day. We're social animals; we need physical interaction with each other to remain mentally healthy. We wouldn't give that up...I hope. :P

Well, the physical interaction part is not just me...I think it's like 3 months you can go without it, then you start becoming severely depressed or something.

Some people won't see themselves becoming depressed? What?

Maybe the outside bit could possibly happen...although probably not, that would require a whole turnabout of cultural values and all...but not noticing yourself becoming depressed? How would that work at all?

I don't think it's all that uncommon for depressed people to have difficulty shaking behavior that they sub/consciously know contributes to their depression...I know I've been guilty of that before.

But for a society as a whole?
And what I'm saying is that you know if you're becoming depressed...heh, lots of people assume they are even if they're not nowadays -.- I wasn't talking about if you would or wouldn't try and fix that.

But we currently don't usually become depressed by watching TV or going on the Internet. They take our mind off our actual problems. If you're depressed from those, doing anything else - and life basically forces you to do other stuff, at least going out to do grocery shopping or something - will distract you and make you feel better, so you'll enjoy that and try to do stuff like that more.

Evolution takes forever :P But if we do evolve to that, it wouldn't be a problem really.

With modern medicine and all that?

I meant that we wouldn't really evolve much, there'd just be fixes to any problems that come up...so we would take forever to evolve to be suited to a lifestyle of constant technology.