Burning sense of disgust

[g8ina]

Hmmmm, after reading the various (newbie) posts in here, I'm extremely tempted to say "dont feed the trolls"

[harryslimes]

I think saying don't feed the trolls is a little bit harsh.
I have at least expressed an acceptance of a degree of irrationality on my part in some of my opinions.

Also I am completely willing to change my opinion if people can convincing persuade me.

I think the choice of title of this forum post is too aggressive and makes it difficult to interpret in any other way than being an arrogant and needless attack on people.

Everybody has a different value system and that is fair enough. I feel culture is extremely valuable. I think people need to have engaging and extreme experiences to be really alive.
What makes a life worthwhile? That is a really difficult question. I'm just not convinced that when people are sat down watching Hollyoaks(an insidious English soup for our American friends) they are not genuinely enjoying or engaging with it. Culture is a wonderful way to engage in shared experience. However, surely the quality of the culture that is being shared is incredibly significant. Surely there is a difference between having a shared culture where you bark catchphrases at each and have a chuckle "Yeah, I know" - Little Britain sort of thing. Versus say watching a film you really enjoy and care about and then engaging in a conversation with someone who also feels strongly about it. Through that you engage in analysis and see things you didn't see before. You learn more about yourself and the other person in the process.

Just as an example I was having a conversation with my flatmate last night about a couple of films (Blade Runner and the Godfather Part 2).

I don't want to put these films on a pedestal as bastions of culture or anything. The point being that we both had strong opinions about them.

Here are spoilers...

In Blade Runner we spoke about the role of Gaff in the film. My flatmate has a theory that Deckard is a replicant and is Gaff's replacement(Gaff seems to be disabled in the film). He also thinks that Deckard has Gaff's memories hence Gaff knowing about the unicorn dream. Also he thought you could just see the unicorn origami thing left at the end purely as an indication that Gaff had been in his apartment and could have killed Rachel but didn't(rather than indication Deckard is a replicant). I hadn't thought of that, being so obsessed with the Deckard being a replicant thing.

We also spoke about the Godfather part 2, specifically the attempted assassination of Frank Pentangeli. We were trying to decide if the bungled job was just a lucky break for Roth or whether he had actually planned it all. This opened a whole interesting can of worms when we found out (online) that apparently when the guy shouts "Michael Corleone says hello" it was adlibbed by the actor.

I'm only mentioning these things because they are personal and I don't want to abstract things too much.

People can talk about lots of different things and engage and get value from them. However the more trivialised our shared experience becomes, the less cultured we get, isn't the result going to be a huge loss of something that is really special. I feel like culture may be one of the few things that allow us to have a meaningful existence in a sterile consumerist world. It seems like culture is being attacked left right and centre by consumerism. Books, films and music have being brutalised by being made into commodities.

Where I think the internet comes into things is that it makes certain things too easy. You can send a few tweets to someone to maintain contact with them rather than actually meeting up with them and having a real experience. You don't need to read a book to find something out you can read the Wikipedia page about it.

Don't get me wrong I mess around, waste time play and play video games I just try to keep a check on it and worry about where it is going.

I'm worried that the way things are going it will become more difficult to establish meaningful connections to people and then we will be alone.

I'm sorry if I've come across as elitist and belligerent. Also I know I've done a really crappy job of connecting this to the whole smart phone thing but I think it is sort of tied into via consumerism. Having a smart phone doesn't make you a bad person by the way

[Zak33]

No sympathy, anyone?

no sympathy, but more.. empathy.

I'd have trolled less, and not sworn, but I'm tending to agree on the principle of t.. and that'll be why I don't have a Facebook Account.. nor a Twitter Account... not a My Space account...

I DO have a HEXUS account, and I DO share sme parts of my life on here.. sometimes just to let off the pressure and sometimes just to be social..

but I am certainly not going to post "thinking of having a pooh"

and then half hour later

" tried but it was stuck hard... need a mathmatician to help me work it out with a pencil"

[peterb]

I think saying don't feed the trolls is a little bit harsh.
I have at least expressed an acceptance of a degree of irrationality on my part in some of my opinions.

Also I am completely willing to change my opinion if people can convincing persuade me.
<---snip

snip--->I'm worried that the way things are going it will become more difficult to establish meaningful connections to people and then we will be alone.

I'm sorry if I've come across as elitist and belligerent. Also I know I've done a really crappy job of connecting this to the whole smart phone thing but I think it is sort of tied into via consumerism. Having a smart phone doesn't make you a bad person by the way

Well an open mind is good! And we welcome diverse opinions (now we have the swear filter sorted out ) and lively discussion!

Smartphones and technology are altering the way people interact, but I'm sure the same was sai about the telephone, or the introduction of mass trasport (people could move out of their villages) so it is an evolutionary stage (in communications terms). However I do wonder how people with over 100 'frends' on Facebook can keep up with them all, on the other hand it (and sites like Friends Reunited) have enabled me to get back in touch with friends from the past in a way that would have been impossible 15 years ago.

As to the future - bring on the jet pack!

[Zak33]

I'm sorry if I've come across as elitist and belligerent. Also I know I've done a really crappy job of connecting ...... /snip... zak addition "connecting to the community here"

I think you're quite funny as it goes, so welcome. But... I warn you ... if you're spamming for a freeby.. you'll be bounced out double quick

Also.. if you turn out to be one of our previous trolls... well.. we have Three Billy Goats Gruff to sort ya out.

0iD, PeterB and Saracen

0iD will hit you. Quite hard prolly
PeterB will banzor your sorry ass....

and Saracen will talk you to death.

so behave please

[pipTheGeek]

I could see your point if people were twittering at a party or around friends, but what else are you supposed to do on a bus? How is it different to reading a book, listening to an iPod/Walkman, or staring blankly into space?

Being old enough to remember travelling on buses before mobiles/internet, I can't recall ever talking to strangers (except the occasional "nutter"). People would sit as far apart as possible and avoid eye contact. Nowadays everyone can be productive (or wasteful) with their time, tweeting/surfing/emailing rather than reading the back of the bus ticket for 30 minutes.

I'm afraid I was probably one of the nutters then...
I used to get the same bus (a one and a half hour journey) every weekday. I got to know several people on it, ranging from Nigel who I didn't often speak to but did borrow the bus fare from on several occasions, to a guy who collected commodore 64's and anything associated and few other people. With most of them it was me that started the conversation.
I did also spend some time asleep or listening to the radio on a thing called a Walkman.

I personally am on Facebook, but use it to send long messages to people, I don't use Twitter. Although I am not bothered by people that do use Facebook status updates or twitter, I really can't see the point. I generally have more to say than 100 or so characters.
Talking (or communicating) with people is good. (I'm not saying it is the only good thing...) I don't see that it really matters if those people are the strangers on the bus (who are now trying to slide further away from you), or people that you already know and are using technology to talk to.

Lastly, although I own a smartphone, I don't often use it as a phone. If I make arrangements to meet someone, then I try and be there on time. It also bugs me when firm arrangements aren't made, and I tend to avoid anything that isn't arranged to my minimum standard. Although I wouldn't ever bother arranging a backup meeting place as someone else in this thread suggested.

[roachcoach]

This seems like a good thread to post this

http://www.thinq.co.uk/2011/3/30/cre...-end-privacy/#


/happy to have neither twitter nor flickr account