25 ms·

At this point in time I think I am comfortable saying the web is more detrimental to humans than Television ever was.

capableweb 4y ago
It's almost like tools/technology comes with both good and bad sides, TV and other things included. Internet has made humans more connected than ever, which means both the good and the bad from being connected becomes amplified.
breck 4y ago
If you just stick to the sites that are public domain without ads, it's an amazing place. And of course the "purple app" that everyone is talking about (https://www.farcaster.xyz/ https://www.farcaster.xyz/) is incredible.
- pc86 4y ago
  I mean that's sort of like saying that TV is great as long as you stick to public access channel available over-the-air from 10:30AM to noon. Isn't that describing an extremely small niche of website? Almost everything has ads. A lot of sites have login walls, many (maybe even most?) have paywalls, especially once you step away from personal blogs.
- djbusby 4y ago
  You are the first person I've heard mention FarCaster.
  - breck 4y ago
    Disclosure: I'm often wrong about these things. user: breck created: August 24, 2007
    - djbusby 4y ago
      What? I don't care how old your account is. It's still first I've heard of a thing "everyone" is talking about. Which is a surprise right? Given how popular it is on HN: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=FarCaster&sort=byDate&type=all https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...
      - NoGravitas 4y ago
        Looks like a solution to the problem that ActivityPub doesn't do enough to enable blockchain scams.
- viridian 4y ago
  Why not just use something running on the activity pub protocol? The fact that farcaster isnt even interoperable with various fediverse projects makes me doubt their intentions in this space.
z9znz 4y ago
It's going to take a lot more time and a lot worse crap on the internet to have a greater negative impact than FoxNews has had over its last 10 years. So for that reason, TV is still far worse for humanity. On the positive side, internet has given us access to a lot of valuable information (for those who seek it out), whereas TV only makes available what the media companies want you to have access to.
- Krustopolis 4y ago
  I am always amazed when I see (justified) criticism of Fox News without mentioning CNN and MSNBC as equally culpable for a decline in American society. To not see this has to be the result of political partisanship or willful ignorance.
itsamoreh 4y ago
"Television is more detrimental to humans than telephone ever was." "Telephone is more detrimental to humans than radio ever was." "Radio is more detrimental to humans than telegraph ever was."
- Huh1337 4y ago
  How is telephone and telegraph detrimental?
  - anotheraccount9 4y ago
    I guess courriers and letters are next? Excess is detrimental.
  - chipotle_coyote 4y ago
    I believe the OP's point is that almost every new technology is greeted with accusations of being worse than what came before and what it's assumed it will replace, whether or not that actually proves to be the case. The examples may seem facetious, but they're all real. I do think a case could be made that the changes in communication driven by the internet actually are different, but it's not the change itself, per se, as much as the speed of change. Pre-internet these changes were generational, and they generally took a generation (or more!) to be fully adopted and integrated into society. Now they're coming every decade or less, sweeping through the world in a matter of years.
    - Huh1337 4y ago
      My point is, I don't think people really said that about telephone and telegraph. Not every new technology was taken as being worse, so dismissing problems of Twitter just because it's new and "people hated everything new" isn't really good.
      - itsamoreh 4y ago
        > I don't think people really said that about telephone and telegraph A quick Google search will show that they did in fact say these things about the telephone and telegraph > In 1858, People Said the Telegraph Was 'Too Fast for the Truth' https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/07/in-1858-people-said-the-telegraph-was-too-fast-for-the-truth/375171/ https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/07/in-18... > “The telephone is the instrument of the devil” https://www.ericsson.com/en/about-us/history/communication/how-the-telephone-changed-the-world/the-telephone-is-the-instrument-of-the-devil https://www.ericsson.com/en/about-us/history/communication/h...
ipqk 4y ago
I remember when Arab Spring was happening and thinking how amazing social media was going to be.
- marcosdumay 4y ago
  And then Facebook started taking money from governments, and the messages organizing grassroots movements became extremely short lived and started to lose reach.
- rchaud 4y ago
  I certainly remember waves of American newscasters declaring Twitter as a force for democracy when regimes were falling in Egypt, Algeria and Tunisia. America again leading the way in global freedom, etc. They weren't as enthusiastic on January 6th, 2021. That was Twitter-led too.
  - DonHopkins 4y ago
    Twitler-led.
rchaud 4y ago
The web was great back when it was mostly read-only. You could comment and share, but only via email, so only to people you likely knew. Yes, I remember chain mails from 1997, but those were rare, maybe 2x a year. You probably saw that many dumb posts in the last 5 minutes of scrolling Twitter/FB/IG. Once social media replaced bookmarks, people went there to find new links. And eventually, when SM de-ranked posts with external links, more and more of the feed became about exclusively in-app material, which was echo chambers and arguments and abuse.
- adolph 4y ago
  > The web was great back when it was mostly read-only. ??? Justin Hall's call to arms "HTML is easy as hell"[0] was written nearly 30 years ago. The cycle Hall promoted is non-centralized, noncommercial and read-write. 0. http://www.links.net/webpub/ http://www.links.net/webpub/
  - rchaud 4y ago
    By read-only, I mean sans the comment sections that turned into outlets for mass spam, verbal abuse and misinformation.

It's almost like tools/technology comes with both good and bad sides, TV and other things included. Internet has made humans more connected than ever, which means both the good and the bad from being connected becomes amplified.

breck 4y ago

If you just stick to the sites that are public domain without ads, it's an amazing place. And of course the "purple app" that everyone is talking about (https://www.farcaster.xyz/ https://www.farcaster.xyz/) is incredible.

pc86 4y ago
I mean that's sort of like saying that TV is great as long as you stick to public access channel available over-the-air from 10:30AM to noon. Isn't that describing an extremely small niche of website? Almost everything has ads. A lot of sites have login walls, many (maybe even most?) have paywalls, especially once you step away from personal blogs.
djbusby 4y ago
You are the first person I've heard mention FarCaster.
- breck 4y ago
  Disclosure: I'm often wrong about these things. user: breck created: August 24, 2007
  - djbusby 4y ago
    What? I don't care how old your account is. It's still first I've heard of a thing "everyone" is talking about. Which is a surprise right? Given how popular it is on HN: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=FarCaster&sort=byDate&type=all https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...
    - NoGravitas 4y ago
      Looks like a solution to the problem that ActivityPub doesn't do enough to enable blockchain scams.
viridian 4y ago
Why not just use something running on the activity pub protocol? The fact that farcaster isnt even interoperable with various fediverse projects makes me doubt their intentions in this space.

z9znz 4y ago

It's going to take a lot more time and a lot worse crap on the internet to have a greater negative impact than FoxNews has had over its last 10 years. So for that reason, TV is still far worse for humanity. On the positive side, internet has given us access to a lot of valuable information (for those who seek it out), whereas TV only makes available what the media companies want you to have access to.

Krustopolis 4y ago
I am always amazed when I see (justified) criticism of Fox News without mentioning CNN and MSNBC as equally culpable for a decline in American society. To not see this has to be the result of political partisanship or willful ignorance.

itsamoreh 4y ago

"Television is more detrimental to humans than telephone ever was." "Telephone is more detrimental to humans than radio ever was." "Radio is more detrimental to humans than telegraph ever was."

Huh1337 4y ago
How is telephone and telegraph detrimental?
- anotheraccount9 4y ago
  I guess courriers and letters are next? Excess is detrimental.
- chipotle_coyote 4y ago
  I believe the OP's point is that almost every new technology is greeted with accusations of being worse than what came before and what it's assumed it will replace, whether or not that actually proves to be the case. The examples may seem facetious, but they're all real. I do think a case could be made that the changes in communication driven by the internet actually are different, but it's not the change itself, per se, as much as the speed of change. Pre-internet these changes were generational, and they generally took a generation (or more!) to be fully adopted and integrated into society. Now they're coming every decade or less, sweeping through the world in a matter of years.
  - Huh1337 4y ago
    My point is, I don't think people really said that about telephone and telegraph. Not every new technology was taken as being worse, so dismissing problems of Twitter just because it's new and "people hated everything new" isn't really good.
    - itsamoreh 4y ago
      > I don't think people really said that about telephone and telegraph A quick Google search will show that they did in fact say these things about the telephone and telegraph > In 1858, People Said the Telegraph Was 'Too Fast for the Truth' https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/07/in-1858-people-said-the-telegraph-was-too-fast-for-the-truth/375171/ https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/07/in-18... > “The telephone is the instrument of the devil” https://www.ericsson.com/en/about-us/history/communication/how-the-telephone-changed-the-world/the-telephone-is-the-instrument-of-the-devil https://www.ericsson.com/en/about-us/history/communication/h...

ipqk 4y ago

I remember when Arab Spring was happening and thinking how amazing social media was going to be.

marcosdumay 4y ago
And then Facebook started taking money from governments, and the messages organizing grassroots movements became extremely short lived and started to lose reach.
rchaud 4y ago
I certainly remember waves of American newscasters declaring Twitter as a force for democracy when regimes were falling in Egypt, Algeria and Tunisia. America again leading the way in global freedom, etc. They weren't as enthusiastic on January 6th, 2021. That was Twitter-led too.
- DonHopkins 4y ago
  Twitler-led.

rchaud 4y ago

The web was great back when it was mostly read-only. You could comment and share, but only via email, so only to people you likely knew. Yes, I remember chain mails from 1997, but those were rare, maybe 2x a year. You probably saw that many dumb posts in the last 5 minutes of scrolling Twitter/FB/IG. Once social media replaced bookmarks, people went there to find new links. And eventually, when SM de-ranked posts with external links, more and more of the feed became about exclusively in-app material, which was echo chambers and arguments and abuse.

adolph 4y ago
> The web was great back when it was mostly read-only. ??? Justin Hall's call to arms "HTML is easy as hell"[0] was written nearly 30 years ago. The cycle Hall promoted is non-centralized, noncommercial and read-write. 0. http://www.links.net/webpub/ http://www.links.net/webpub/
- rchaud 4y ago
  By read-only, I mean sans the comment sections that turned into outlets for mass spam, verbal abuse and misinformation.