Social Networking = Sadness?

[Blerv]

There is merit to social networking, obviously. We are doing it here and I think pretty darn well :D.

Facebook seems have digressed since it's creation. It started for a bunch of college kids to find parties and hook-ups. Now it's just this odd melting pot of relatives, friends, and acquaintances. Add a little electronic news and everyone is only a click away from sharing international sadness.

I don't think there should be censorship. It's great that the internet can tell us when Prince, David Bowie, Gene Wilder, or anyone else dies but do we really need Auntie Ruth helping spread the news? It's not like she heard it down the street...the article was shared from Yahoo News and they got it from the local news.

It's good to know what's going on in the world. There was already enough talk that TV was making the world seem a dark and scary place. Not only in coverage of all the trauma of the world but the general TV news template of repeating the same tragedy over and over the entire day.

It's just a little frustrating because some of these people died of natural causes after long lives of being loved by millions. David Bowie and Gene Wilder for example. I enjoyed their work but can't recall a time seeing/listening to them. Once they pass away everyone jumps to the top of their fan clubs. Others seem unfair; Prince for example who had more to give and Robin Williams who struggled and lost his battle to depression.

For those who remember the age before TV being so prominent do you miss those times? For those who remember the dawn of the internet do you miss it not being a thing? Even if just a little bit?

Personally I know the good outweighs the bad, or at least I want to think that. Being able to shine a light into the world's corruption is a powerful thing. My extremely basic understanding was that TV helped show what the Vietnam War was like and possibly helped cut it shorter than it could have been. I'm just starting to miss the annoying Jibjab videos and baby photos amidst the trove of tragedy.

[Water Bug]

Your point is one of the reasons I avoid Facebook, Twitter, etc... I have no need for these. I get enough "sadness" from the TV news. And, yes, these social networks have changed like MTV and CMT have changed... I missed the days when these two channels only presented music videos and the occasional concert.

Strangely, I miss the days when there were only three, maybe four channels on the TV... sad when today you can't find anything to watch on cable or dish TV in spite of their numerous channels. That's when a good book (and I mean a REAL book with paper pages to thumb through) comes in handy. Or, perhaps, REAL paper and a REAL pencil to draw with... that can still be fun to do. :)

The Internet is primarily a source of entertainment for me... sadly, need to perform a lot of your everyday official business online is slowly being forced upon us, whether we like it or not, because it's more convenient for someone else. I still like using the telephone or regular USPS mail for business and paying the bills.

I say, yeah, social networking can equal sadness as well as a further distancing of us from reality and over reliance of us on technology, which, by the way, may not work without the power being on. The few exceptions for me as far as the Internet goes in terms of what I like about it are E-mail to keep in touch with family and friends, forums such as this where I can enjoy the company of people who share my interest, entertainment and subject research, and the convenience of shopping when I can't find what I need at the local store.

[SG89]

The constant bombardment of tragedy and mayhem by the media is overwhelming at times but if it bleeds it leads and that's how they pay their bills. I try to stay away from TV channels, websites, social media, radio stations, and people that mostly deal in shock and awe. The world is still a great place I don't care what people say. Haven't been on Facebook in 5 years bc it's a treasure trove of awful.

[paladin]

Proud to say I've never been on TwitBook or FaceSpace...guess I'm not successful enough at anything <except accumulating blades> to feel like I need to brag about it publicly. And I'm so good at that-- it's embarrassing! :o :p

No need to stay caught up with my kinfolk since they're not allowed to have WiFi in the Pen.

So my digital footprint is smaller than 99.9% of the public at large. I'm just north of Ted Kaczynsky in terms of personal internet use ranking list. :)

[SpyderEdgeForever]

Did you all hear about the new social networking site specific to Spyderco called SpyderBook? We are on it right now! :)
Or is it SpyderNet?

[Mad Mac]

...My extremely basic understanding was that TV helped show what the Vietnam War was like
and possibly helped cut it shorter than it could have been...

Some people believe TV extended the war by showing the North Vietnamese our anti-war demonstrations.
After the Tet Offensive, Walter Cronkite opined that we had lost the war when in fact we had won that battle.
My father did two tours and though I never served there I am a veteran of the Vietnam Era, and still bitter.

If there had been TV in the 1860s, would the Civil War have ended before the lives of more than 600,000 Americans were lost; nearly half of all the Americans killed in all the wars in the history of our country.
Would Lincoln have been able to withstand nightly broadcasts of bloody battlefields. Should he have cut it short?

Even though we have an all volunteer military now and no demonstrations like we had during Vietnam,
warped broadcasting by the left leaning main stream media facilitated our reckless retreat from Iraq.
Now that same media ignores Islamic Supremacist atrocities all over the world.

At least with cable news and the Internet we have more choices. You've probably guessed that I watch Fox News
which would be true but I also use the Internet for the Drudge Report and British tabloids. So there.

[anagarika]

I'm also not fond of the degradation on current social media trend. Like Paladin, I have nothing I want to share to public, other than like minded people here. I found it interesting some of us avoid social media like I do. Does it show we're really like minded?

[Evil D]

It's basically a heightened awareness of the world beyond your "bubble". When we were kids, you only heard about things through the news or newspaper or word of mouth, and that news seemed to flow a lot slower. The internet has made it so that we get news **** near the instant it happens and not just what the local news shows us. When a riot happens in a little town 5 states away, the local news back in the day may not have mentioned it but now it's just a click away. I think what you're feeling is something that society as a whole is learning to cope with, and that's an overall increase in our perception and awareness of our world. I think years from now there will be studies about how having so much access to information and news has effected our brains, for good or bad. It would be nice to think that as we become more aware of all the bad things happening around us, we become more compassionate and work to improve those things, but I fear as time goes on society will become more and more calloused and desensitized to it all. There will come a day when apathy is a far harsher mentality than racism/sexism/etc.

[The Deacon]

I'm not much of a "social media" person. This forum, one other knife forum, one non-knife forum, and a Facebook account that's pretty much only used on my HOA's page are the extent of my internet interactions. As for the rest, hard call.

I know folks my age with large families spread out all over the country and beyond, who find Facebook a boon and others, both my age and younger, who see it as a curse.

I want to think that travesties like the Vietnam war would be less likely today because the government and mainstream media would be unable to keep us from seeing what was really going on there. And yet, we still get bogged down in wars that serve corporate interest rather than noble purpose.

I'm pretty sure that the internet was the single largest contributor to the fall of communism, but I'm equally certain it's also responsible for the meteoric rise of Islamic terrorism.

I find it amusing that some of the same groups that demanded body cameras for cops are finally beginning to realize that, in all but a few cases, they'll "violate the perp's civil rights" by making his guilt easier to prove.

Six years ago, when I started looking to buy a house, I appreciated all the information, from taxes, to weather, to crime stats for neighborhoods I was considering that the internet placed at my fingertips. OTOH, it bothers me to know how easy it is for a criminal to find out the address of anyone who has bragged online about owning nice things.

[OldHoosier62]

In the past 8 years I have spent a great deal of time in hospitals, sometimes for extended periods of testing/treatment...the internet has often been my only outlet for entertainment, contact with friends/loved ones, work, etc. In those respects it has been a great thing, but I have watched a coarsening of human interaction that has truly bothered me.

I like a good rough-n-tumble argument as well as the next guy but the level of vile, hateful and disturbing things said to people/strangers being disagreed with often shocks me speechless. And the fact of folks actively seeking out those they disagree with just to harass and disrespect them instead of having a reasoned, logical debate on the issue does not bode well for for our so called "humanity". People hide behind a keyboard and say things they would never have the guts to say to others faces for fear of an old-fashioned punch in the nose. And now we see that behavior starting to bleed into the real world more and more as those folks computer personas take more hold on their real world lives.

I see trollish behavior on even several professional level forums I use/visit, Facebook is a cesspool in large part because of this behavior, purposeful misinformation is published everywhere to goad arguments..either to entertain the trolls who posted it or to influence opinions on specific topics for whatever purpose....I could go on but wont as many/most here get my point. Civility is a dying art.

I'm old enough to remember the birth of the internet as we know it, it was touted as a way to share information, end stereotyping, help eliminate most of the "-isms" through intelligent, reasoned interaction for/with everyone....and all the other altruistic hopes of its creators. Well, the truth is that in general "the monkeys have taken over and are slinging poop all over the place". And I can't think of a way to correct the trend that doesn't end up at either the Facist or Socialist ends of the scale....and either is unacceptable.

Hope you all have a wonderful day.

[Pinetreebbs]

Sadness is part of life, a sexully transmitted terminal disease. Facebook is a great way to keep up with family and friends as well as people that have a common interest, e.g., Spyderco. True, there are Facebook users that just cannot mind their own business and those cannot avoid drama and indeed seek to live in a cesspool of drama, but easy to ignore.

If you don't like Facebook, don't use it, the same thing for all sorts of Internet 'communities.' The last thing we need is some sort of controls or censorship, leave that up to the provider of that particular service, just use them with your eyes wide open.

As for information, the more sources of information the better. It makes it much more difficult to control information and if you think that is being paranoid, check out Operation Mockingbird, a secret campaign by the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to influence media. Getting all your news and information from one source makes you vulnerable to manipulation. Before rolling your eyes, please know that I am a lifelong skeptic and dismiss most conspiracy theories as nonsense.

[The Mastiff]

As for information, the more sources of information the better. It makes it much more difficult to control information and if you think that is being paranoid, check out Operation Mockingbird, a secret campaign by the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to influence media. Getting all your news and information from one source makes you vulnerable to manipulation. Before rolling your eyes, please know that I am a lifelong skeptic and dismiss most conspiracy theories as nonsense....

It's certainly not just the CIA doing it now. This election is seeing the most blatant abuse of truth I've ever seen. It's truly astounding how much of the media is well and truly globalist supported and fronted. Now instead of lying and twisting truths it's just "parsing" and certainly not worth getting upset about. It's unusual to see the " correct " ideology questioned and when it does occur it causes the media to circle the wagons and attack rather than inspire more questions or give time to others views. One recent poll had only 6% of Americans having trust in our journalists.

We would be clueless without alternate sources of information. As Paul stated that can have bad consequences.

:)

[OldHoosier62]

As for information, the more sources of information the better. It makes it much more difficult to control information and if you think that is being paranoid, check out Operation Mockingbird, a secret campaign by the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to influence media. Getting all your news and information from one source makes you vulnerable to manipulation. Before rolling your eyes, please know that I am a lifelong skeptic and dismiss most conspiracy theories as nonsense....

It's certainly not just the CIA doing it now. This election is seeing the most blatant abuse of truth I've ever seen. It's truly astounding how much of the media is well and truly globalist supported and fronted. Now instead of lying and twisting truths it's just "parsing" and certainly not worth getting upset about. It's unusual to see the " correct " ideology questioned and when it does occur it causes the media to circle the wagons and attack rather than inspire more questions or give time to others views. One recent poll had only 6% of Americans having trust in our journalists.

We would be clueless without alternate sources of information. As Paul stated that can have bad consequences.

:)

In my consulting work I deal with folks of all political stripes. Two months ago, at a dinner party (back yard BBQ) with around 30 of them and of course politics came up...after lots of good natured "cussin' and discussin' " I issued a challenge. I had 14 of those involved, 7 from each side, post 5 pro and 5 anti memes for each candidate (Trump/Hillery) each on FB, Reddit and some other forums both local and national and then make simple complaints to the moderators/staff of those venues about each others memes...no raving crazy claims, just that they were offensive and untruthful. And that we would get together again last weekend to discuss the findings.

On the 27th we had lunch together and looked at the findings.....Within 72 hours of being posted

All pro Trump memes were deleted by the moderators as either inappropriate, offensive, etc...(most of these were gone in less than 24 hours)
All anti Hillery memes were deleted for the same reasons...including dishonesty
All anti Trump were still up and visible
All but one pro Hillery were still up with no reason given for the one being taken down

I know...anecdotal evidence, too small a sample, inconclusive, etc, etc....But even my liberal friends were surprised by the results and only two tried to excuse and explain it away. Maybe it opened some eyes to the medias complicity in the globalist agenda...and sowed the seed of skepticism in some minds.

Disclaimer....This is not political in nature, I detest both candidates. I am ashamed of both parties equally for their pathetic choices. This post was just to add limited evidence to Mastiffs points about media complicty.

Thank you and have a nice day.

[Blerv]

...My extremely basic understanding was that TV helped show what the Vietnam War was like
and possibly helped cut it shorter than it could have been...

Some people believe TV extended the war by showing the North Vietnamese our anti-war demonstrations.
After the Tet Offensive, Walter Cronkite opined that we had lost the war when in fact we had won that battle.
My father did two tours and though I never served there I am a veteran of the Vietnam Era, and still bitter.

If there had been TV in the 1860s, would the Civil War have ended before the lives of more than 600,000 Americans were lost; nearly half of all the Americans killed in all the wars in the history of our country.
Would Lincoln have been able to withstand nightly broadcasts of bloody battlefields. Should he have cut it short?

Even though we have an all volunteer military now and no demonstrations like we had during Vietnam,
warped broadcasting by the left leaning main stream media facilitated our reckless retreat from Iraq.
Now that same media ignores Islamic Supremacist atrocities all over the world.

At least with cable news and the Internet we have more choices. You've probably guessed that I watch Fox News
which would be true but I also use the Internet for the Drudge Report and British tabloids. So there.

To Mad Mac, thank you for your insight. It's truly appreciated. As I mentioned I'm far from a history buff and Vietnam was before my time. I know enough not to pretend to know what I don't :rolleyes: so that was what I recall from a documentary (just one opinion of one guy I can't remember very well). While my Dad served in the reserves during that time and never saw active duty there is still bitterness as to the whole situation; I can't imagine what you and your family went through.

To everyone, thank you for your thoughts and efforts to keep it clean :D.

I do think the internet has it's benefits. It's probably the closest thing to a living organism we have created in the last 100+ years. Many pros and some cons to it.

2016 has just been an odd year. I'm sure as election tensions rise emotions do as well. Highs are higher and lows are lower. I'm just a bit tired of seeing distant relatives jump to the top of the obituary fan club. I'd put $100 on the fact most of these people have no Prince or David Bowie in their Itunes collection :p . Most of them are still friends but "unfollowed" which makes the entity itself (Facebook) a bit of a ghost town.

[ChrisinHove]

I find Facebook fantastic for keeping in touch with friends and relatives around the country and the globe ... I have a couple of "incontinent" friends, but it's a small price to pay.

On the other hand, this years political landscape has prompted me to avoid ALL news channels/bulletins over the past couple of months (yes - a self imposed TV, radio, newspapers & internet news black-out, with only the occasional comment getting through on FB) and it's saved my sanity!

I highly recommend it. You know how you're going to vote, anyway, so why put up with all that endless, pointless, mindless and constant drivel. If WW3 breaks out, you'll hear about it somehow....

[Mad Mac]

On a brighter note, I don't "do" Facebook but I did open an account. Not long afterwards, I received a message that made my heart pound in my chest, leaving me breathless, turning my blood into honey.

It was from the precious waif that sat next to me in my high school English class. I was crazy about her but she was involved with a big man on campus. A girl I had not seen or heard from in 50 years, but I had never stopped loving her.

This happened when I was very low. We exchanged email and caught up on classmates. I told her the things that I did not have the courage to tell her then. That I adored everything about her. Yearned for her. Ached for her.

My ancient paramour became my long distance muse, filling me with renewed energy. We are old and gray now, married with grandchildren from our separate lives, but to me she will always be seventeen.

[SpyderNut]

Isn't it funny how advancements in technology do not always equate into improvements in society?

Besides this and a few other select forums, I do not use or enjoy social media. Period. I don't have Facebook, Snap chat, MySpace, or whatever the devil people use these days to stay connected. I simply have no use for these things. Give me the Spyderco Forum and the good folks here and I am more than happy.

[ChrisinHove]

On a brighter note, I don't "do" Facebook but I did open an account. Not long afterwards, I received a message that made my heart pound in my chest, leaving me breathless, turning my blood into honey.

It was from the precious waif that sat next to me in my high school English class. I was crazy about her but she was involved with a big man on campus. A girl I had not seen or heard from in 50 years, but I had never stopped loving her.

This happened when I was very low. We exchanged email and caught up on classmates. I told her the things that I did not have the courage to tell her then. That I adored everything about her. Yearned for her. Ached for her.

My ancient paramour became my long distance muse, filling me with renewed energy. We are old and gray now, married with grandchildren from our separate lives, but to me she will always be seventeen.

Thank you for sharing this. It made me happy to read of your happiness. :)

[Mad Mac]

Tonight there is a program on cable: "The Observed Life is a documentary about the affects of personalized technology on our memories and perception of time... Will technology change the way we observe our own lives?" May not be about social media but it is on AUDHD at 8pm, 11pm and 2am CDST.

[anagarika]

It's an enjoyable discussion. Anyone watched Black Mirror? It is about the dark side of internet, and social media. Quite thought provoking IMHO. SEF will like it :D