How do you spend your time online?

[johnroe]

Hello Saracen, I have noticed a certain cynicism amongst some long term internet users and those in related tech industries(tech fatigue). I suppose it must have felt like a revolution was happening in the beginning. Capitalism has this ability to corrupt everything, even that which is revolutionary, or critiques capitalism can be corrupted by it for commercial gain.

I find it hard to believe myself that for decades people were force fed information through mass media. I find tv and the press to be very limited and boring, often just reflecting the views of the state or media owners. At least the internet allows us to research and make our own independent decisions. Obviously 'the right balance' is subjective.

I think the internet has profoundly changed the way we think and interact. I can watch something trivial on YT, or I can access a lecture by a uni lecturer. Whereas before it we would have to rely on the media to tell us what people were thinking and wanted say politically. Now we can talk to many real people and get their actual opinion. And people aren't shy about expressing their opinions online, which I think they would be much more guarded about face to face.

I'm don't know if you know this inspiring story. At an IT centre in India the tutor Sugata Mitra realised that many street kids were being denied an education. So he started the Hole in the Wall experiment allowing the street kids to access the computers. Soon they had learnt to use the computers and were learning and teaching themselves. So it has great potential. As I remember it, the story inspired the film Slumdog Millionaire. So I suppose we have to become adept at wadding through all the BS, and find the hidden gems.

[quinnholbrook]

I'm new to Hexus, but I spend much of my time online participating in forums.

I also spend too much time in email.

I hang out on Reddit. I have a lot of favorite subreddits.

I stay far away from Facebook.

[Saracen]

I perhaps should clarify something about my earlier post.

Part of my attitude no doubt is jaded cynicism. Part is also "corporatisation".

But part is also that what interests me is changing.

Bear in mind, after nearly 30 years in tech journalism, I've had a FAR greater exposure than most to new developments as, and even before, they happened. I've met many of the icons, at least the earlier ones, like Gates, Jobs, etc, many of them a number of times. I've been invited to parties by the CEO of IBM, dinner with the President of Lexmark, and had factory and development lab tours round everything from Epson to Apple.

And this was at a time when changes really were revolutionary, not evolutionary.

So much of what happens now is just so .... ho hum. This processor is faster than that? Whoop de doo.

Oh, there are still some things that interest me, with 3D printing being one of them. But I don't have enough use for it to be prepared to invest either the time or money. It reminds me of the early days of photo printing when the results, by and large, were crappy but the fact that we could do it all all was incredible. Literally.

So it really is a case of been there, done that. Yawn.

Frankly, it all rather bores me now.

And as for "social media", well, <shudder> is my reaction.

Don't get me wrong. For those that use it and enjoy it, as vast numbers evidently do, great, knock yourselves out. The fact that it's not for me doesn't lessen it for those that do enjoy it. And I can see some appeal for keeping in touch with family, friends, etc.

Trouble is, I want to keep in touch with family and friends without the feeling that everything I say or do, or at least huge insights into my character and interests aren't being analysed and archived by Big Data.

So, I'm reaching that point where I'd rather potter in the garden, try some new recipes, listen to music (CD or vinyl, not internet-based), work on my photography, fly helicopters, etc. If I want to read, I'm more likely to want a good old-fashioned book than a website.

In other words, I'm getting old.

I have CERTAINLY had some very pointed reminders in recent years of incipient mortallty. It happens when family and friends of your age, or even younger, start dropping like flies.

And it concentrates one's mind on priorities. It rubs my nose in an old economic principle called "opportunity cost". The cost of doing A is not doing B, C, D etc.

Take tomorrow morning, 9am to midday. That's 3 hours.

Now I could spend it on various websites. But if I do, I can't plant out some herbs or veg I'll enjoy eating, and I can't sit in the sun sipping a cold drink, relaxing. I can't go for a walk in our local bluebell woods, or a hundred other things.

I'm only going to get those 3 hours once, and I feel my supply of available 3 hours ticking away. Health doesn't get better, eyesight doesn't get better, and even my expectations of days, months, years to come gets subject to ever-greater unpredictability.

I mean, I think I've got probably a good 20 years left BUT I've seen enough contemporaries go to bed at night thinking that, only to not wake up the net morning, to no longer take each new day for granted. Which makes every morning far, FAR more precious, and tilts the balance on whether I want to spend it with my nose in a computer screen or not.

Are there good things left about the internet? Absolutrly, yes. Have corporates totally ruibed it? No. Not yet. But the stink is growing.

And, yes, I do still highly value HEXUS. I've got lots of people here I regard as long-term friends, even if we argue about .... well, everything, most of the time.

So HEXUS is still a priority. But almost everything else online has to compete with time in garden, or bluebell woods, or talking to the wife or coffee with real-world friends, etc. And I never forget opportunity cost.

[Millennium]

I dunno Saracen I completely agree and take in what you have posted. I understand the need to spend time away from the keyboard and to prioritise your life's time. I just wanted if you would to take up something in the previous post. Bear with me.

"Health doesn't get better, eyesight doesn't get better"

Are you (..) ******* sure? Modern science is often like a 'miracle'. I'm lucky enough to be in my 30s (late but whatever you know) and I fully expect transplantable made-from-stem-cells organs, nanotech and things like gene manipulation in both eggs and fully grown people to be a real outcome most likely in my remaining lifetime. It's incredible how much progress Humanity has made since say even 1996. It's really the stuff of science fiction or fables in perhaps ?most? ways.

Sure, yes, blue light is bad for our eyes, many will get cataracts etc. and generally people will age. HMM. There is a lot of money science and person power being put into the notion that aging itself is a preventable condition. It's going to be roadmapped or whatever is necessary to ensure a better outcome for all living beings and prolly initially all accessible living Homo Sapiens. >

I don't really want to expand on this much more for some reason I can't pinpoint. My mum is a keen gardener. I wish you a healthy life balance as I do to all readers of this Hexus post.

[Adrian_K]

I do everything and anything online that isn't my coursework or so it seems now that its May

I mainly stick to the standard streaming on Netflix , Youtube etc I use discord a fair amount as I'm an "admin" of a friends server.

[Saracen]

I dunno Saracen I completely agree and take in what you have posted. I understand the need to spend time away from the keyboard and to prioritise your life's time. I just wanted if you would to take up something in the previous post. Bear with me.

"Health doesn't get better, eyesight doesn't get better"

Are you (..) ******* sure? Modern science is often like a 'miracle'. I'm lucky enough to be in my 30s (late but whatever you know) and I fully expect transplantable made-from-stem-cells organs, nanotech and things like gene manipulation in both eggs and fully grown people to be a real outcome most likely in my remaining lifetime. It's incredible how much progress Humanity has made since say even 1996. It's really the stuff of science fiction or fables in perhaps ?most? ways.

Sure, yes, blue light is bad for our eyes, many will get cataracts etc. and generally people will age. HMM. There is a lot of money science and person power being put into the notion that aging itself is a preventable condition. It's going to be roadmapped or whatever is necessary to ensure a better outcome for all living beings and prolly initially all accessible living Homo Sapiens. >

I don't really want to expand on this much more for some reason I can't pinpoint. My mum is a keen gardener. I wish you a healthy life balance as I do to all readers of this Hexus post.

I grant you that medical technology, and understsnding, is coming on leaps and bounds. I'm personally a beneficiary of that.

And it's good.

BUT .... to your point .... I said health doesn't get better. Medicine can help prevent some damage/degradation, for example, early diagnosis of cancer. It csn repair some damage and leave the individual better off in a specific way, for example, cataracts or corneal replacement. Some treatments, like laser retinopexy, can prevent what a few decades back, would have been incipient retinsl detachment and blindness but the treatment itself causes damage (cell destruction) resulting in a patient with worse vision than before, but FAR better than it would be without treatment.

But in all these cases, it's necessary because the body ages, and deteriorates.

I don't intend this to sound patronising, though it probably will, but I don't think anyone really understands what I'm on about until you start going thfough it.

Oh, you can be told. I was, years ago. And sure, intellectually, you can understand it. But you don't really understand it until you start finding that things you automatically, evety day, start getting harder, or painful, or tiring. Things yiu take for granted, do without thinking about it, without realising what you body does on autopilot without you explicitly thinkjng about it. For example, the doorbell goes and you answer the door. So do I.

The difference is that you probably (assuming normal fitness for a fully able person in their 30s) think "go get the door", and do. I think "how best to get out of this chair". Doing so in any way hurts my knees. But in addition, getting up straight then turning doorwards results in sore knees and me facjng the door.

But getting up and twisting doorwards as I do so results, about 10% of the time, in a severe backpain and severwl days of severe pain just tryng to get out of bed.

There are so many things like that that, even if the NHS wasn't stretched to near brakinv point, they're unable to do anything about.

Oh, and I've had a headache for about 25 years. And I mean, non-stop, for 25 years. Numerous doctors, hospital trips, etc, have resulted in two outcomes :-

1) They don't have a clue, not a hint, of what the cause is. Zilch, zip, bupkiss. Nothing. They there's quite a few things ruled out.

2) Treatment = painkillers or put up with it. The painkillere are increasingly strong opiate-type painkillers, from codeine (in prescription-only strengths) upwards. Trouble is, such painkillers are highly addictive, and can have unpleasant side-effects all by themselves. Taking them is a kind-of Russian roulette.

So, while I get your point, I'd say no, in general, medicine doesn't, currently can't and may well never hold off "aging". It may slow it down, or deal with SOME aspects. But it's fighting a rear-guard action, not winning a war.

Sure, some things that were killers 30 years ago csn be treated, evdn cured, today. And some of today's worst illnesses might be preventable or curable tomorrow ... if you live that long.


My point, however, was that growing awareness of this process results in anybody with an IQ higher thsn a turnip accepting that each day only comes once, and what you can to today may be much hardet, or not possible, in 5 or 10 years.

And that causes you to re-evaluate priorities. I know that the list of things I'd like to do very likely exceeds the time I have to fo them, so every hour I spend on a computer is an hour I can't spend doing something else. Hence, priorities.

HEXUS matters to me, hence priority = high.

But MOST of the rest of the net doesn't matter enough to put it above other things.

So, I visit HEXUS, one or two other places and of course, use the net as a research tool when I need to. But, face-in-screen just to rummage around 'exploring'? Nah, not me, not any more.

[johnroe]

Yes I can see from what you say Saracen that you deserve a good holiday from much of the nonsense online, corporate and otherwise. But I would be interested to hear more about some of those people you've met at some point. I obviously get what you are saying about health deterioration, but it's actually my mind that I think the internet will help to keep fresh. I do various exercises and take a few supplements that regenerate cells. I think they can just about replace any part of the human body with tech parts, but heck, who wants to live forever.

Can I just say that Harry Caul is my favourite film character. It was all that mixing of recorded sound loops to create and audio of his subjects' conversation, that got me into sound recording and manipulation. The film itself asks some interesting questions about surveillance, and Harry(I think Gene Hackman is underrated) knowing what he does, from being on the inside, ends up having no trust in corporate America.

Generally> on a separate note; forums are an interesting cultural form in their own right. They often act like small niche worlds of their own, with their own cliches, references, etc. That point that Zizek makes about comparing your gaming character to your real personality has a parallel on forums. From the name we choose to represent us, to how we relate to others on the forum. On one of the political forums I was on a guy was attacking me quite virulently(I've had them come at me ten at a time, because I usually refuse to kowtow to the consensus, ie: if everyone is thinking the same, no one is thinking), anyway after questioning him as to why people acted like that online, and would he act like that in real life. I broke through his forum persona and we got on really well, accepting our differences. It's all fascinating to me.

[Saracen]

Agreed about forums, johnroe. Some of the people here that I argue with most comprehensively are the ones I get on best with, because we challenge each others views, wuthout attacking/insulting the holder of the views. Or that's what quite a few of us aim at, anyway.

As for keeping the mind sharp, I agree entirely. I believe the mind, or rather brain, shares some characteristics with muscles, including that exercising it strengthens it. I use a variety of methods, from Sodoku and crosswords, to some quiz shows, to reading, and I mean both fiction and non-fiction. I think forcing the brain to work out helps keep it fit.

BUT .... only up to a point. If you lose the mental lottery and get one of several debilitating brain disorders (like Alzheimers) no amount of Sodoku and reading is going to save me. Fortunately, so far at least, I've been spared that, and short of unpredictable and sudden events, like a devastating stroke, I have measures in place to ensure I never do suffer to much from that. But that leads directly to a discussion on voluntary euthanasia, and that's a different thread entirely.

[AzureTai]

Usually for me it's some form of online chat, rangin from IRC, Discord, to Skype or Teamspeak. having a laugh with friends and generally just playing some game to amuse ourselves, other than that reading articles and doing online courses to further my interests and knowledge.

[johnroe]

Agreed about forums, johnroe. Some of the people here that I argue with most comprehensively are the ones I get on best with, because we challenge each others views, wuthout attacking/insulting the holder of the views. Or that's what quite a few of us aim at, anyway.

As for keeping the mind sharp, I agree entirely. I believe the mind, or rather brain, shares some characteristics with muscles, including that exercising it strengthens it. I use a variety of methods, from Sodoku and crosswords, to some quiz shows, to reading, and I mean both fiction and non-fiction. I think forcing the brain to work out helps keep it fit.

BUT .... only up to a point. If you lose the mental lottery and get one of several debilitating brain disorders (like Alzheimers) no amount of Sodoku and reading is going to save me. Fortunately, so far at least, I've been spared that, and short of unpredictable and sudden events, like a devastating stroke, I have measures in place to ensure I never do suffer to much from that. But that leads directly to a discussion on voluntary euthanasia, and that's a different thread entirely.

Although I'm not keen on the muscle comparison, I agree the mind needs to be challenged. Forums do challenge me to go and find out more. Before I would be reading a book(mostly non fiction, but lot of classic fiction) and pick up several lateral references, which I would then try to source. Now I can do it instantly, watch a film about, or an interview with the author, watch a lecture. So I suppose what I'm aiming for is continually rebuilding neural pathways and connections. A favourite story of mine, Poincare had a 500 cc brain, and we have two litre version. It just depends what we fill it with.

I think gaming keeps my mind and reactions sharp. So I take it you didn't meet Zuckerberg? Again I think those guys have a sort of mythology around them(Jobs in particular), but I think the interesting guys would be the ones that make it happen, but I suppose they won't get films made about them. Oh and the off grid/online balance just shifted heavily to the former until the winter. Went out to some lakes yesterday, stunning.

[Saracen]

.... So I take it you didn't meet Zuckerberg? ....

No. He's too recent. My flying round the world for business days have been over for quite a while. Also, if you're going to meet and/or interview business people, it helps to be fairly knowledgeable about their business, and I'm not about social media.

Frankly, I wouldn't catch a bus to the next town to meet Zuckerberg, let alone a plane halfway round the world. And I can't imagine him coming to me.

Furthermore, I have no interest in him. I don't like what he's done. Not one incy-wincy tiny little bit. Along with Eric Schmidt, I regard him as something of an internet AntiChrist, and am not interested at all in talking to him.

[jerry10]

Blogging is my passion and spends time finding amazing blogs related to the tech niche, The creation of Niche Technology blogs have been really helpful as they share useful information regarding Tech gadgets, How-Tos Tutorials, Social Media and Lots More.

[johnroe]

Saracen> I had picked up on your opinion of Zuckerberg. He's portrayed to many through Jessie Eisenberg's version. He's obviously a shrewd businessman, who some say has no ethics. Also those recent interviews about data being sold, his responses were strange(but to be fair so were the questions).

I think in terms of political power from the internet, I tend to rely on investigative journalists. I have a feeling it's a dying art. Most journalists now just seem to be part of a circulating partial truth-fake news happening on social media. So I'm not sure how their thoroughness will be replaced. Seymour M. Hersh is one of the few I trust. https://www.lrb.co.uk/v35/n24/seymou...sh/whose-sarin

[Millennium]

as it's been 16 months I thought I would bump this to ask - anyone found anything new?

I am impressed with caffeine.tv and twitch is looking super slick these days.

[Saracen999]

I'm actually finding less. More or less monthly, my daily online time is decreasing, as I increasingly find less things enjoyable online, and more from 'real' life, be it gardening, other hobbies, cooking, going away for short breaks, or whatever.

[Dareos]

pornhub.com

that fills about 5 minutes or so

reddit, facebook, BBC

Netflix, Prime, iPlayer

the usual suspects

what I do use religiously tho, Skyscanner - I have a house in Tenerife, I visit it as often as possible, Skyscanner has saved me a fortune

hotukdeals.com - I do love a bargain, not sure whether this site has cost me a fortune or saved me one.

Other than that its Destiny on the xbox, or whatever game currently suits