What an extremely narrow way of looking at a vast network of computers containing most of the world’s knowledge. Do you mean to say you’ve never used the internet to enlighten yourself in any way? Read a scanned-in book? Watch a digitized documentary or lecture? Nothing?
I spend hours poring over the amazing things available on the Internet Archive. So much media that you can learn from!
Substance farmers in third world countries even find uses for the Internet- all kinds of farming tips. There was an article I read some years ago about a village in sub-Saharan Africa where they basically had one guy who had internet access and farmers were constantly coming to him to get farming advice.
But you think the only thing that the internet is good for is venting your frustrations?
I think that’s still a very narrow view of things. I have made lifelong friends on internet forums. I went to a meetup in August of this year and had the time of my life with the people I finally got to meet face-to-face. I can honestly that it was one of the most enjoyable three days of my life and I can’t wait until we do it again next year. I also have friends in other countries that I met on forums who I’ve been talking to privately for years now.
And, of course, you can learn things from forums too. There’s plenty of things people post on Lemmy that contain interesting information. Communities like c/science has lots of interesting and informative posts.
It was enjoyable because you got to meet them face-to-face. Without that face-to-face interaction, it’s all hollow. If the internet facilitates a meet up then that’s great, but the comments section itself is a pale comparison to real human interaction. That’s why I don’t believe arguing on the internet has any value.
Also, forums are not comments sections. That’s a different medium. Forum topics can be bumped in perpetuity, forum posters are identifiable by an avatar and a tagline and all sorts of stuff, but a comments section is ephemeral by its very nature. We’re two user names briefly interacting for a while and then that’s it. This doesn’t matter.
Lemmy is a link aggregator with a comments section for every link. A forum isn’t built around links, it’s built around community. On a forum, our discussion here would bump the thread up to the top of the forum topic every time we post. Forums are built for long term discussions over months and years, rather than ephemeral topics that fade off the front page in a day or two.
Just because you haven’t developed any real friendships with people online says a lot more about you than anyone else.
People used to have friendships solely through letters. People who never met and yet thought of each other fondly and shared their lives with each other.
There’s many collections of these published over the years. I recommend the book 84 Charing Cross Road about a very close friendship that developed between a book lover in New York and a bookseller in London who never met in their lifetimes.
Once again, you do not get to tell me about my friendships or how meaningful they are.
Comment sections are no different than sending letters. My friendships with people I met on forums are no different than the relationship between Helene Hanff and Frank Doel except their correspondence was far slower and there was far less of it.
I get that you can’t make such friends. It’s bizarre to me that you think this is a universal thing even when you’re directly being told it isn’t.
What an extremely narrow way of looking at a vast network of computers containing most of the world’s knowledge. Do you mean to say you’ve never used the internet to enlighten yourself in any way? Read a scanned-in book? Watch a digitized documentary or lecture? Nothing?
I spend hours poring over the amazing things available on the Internet Archive. So much media that you can learn from!
Substance farmers in third world countries even find uses for the Internet- all kinds of farming tips. There was an article I read some years ago about a village in sub-Saharan Africa where they basically had one guy who had internet access and farmers were constantly coming to him to get farming advice.
But you think the only thing that the internet is good for is venting your frustrations?
Honestly, that statement makes me sad for you.
I misspoke.
I was only talking about posting. Obviously the internet is far bigger than just the comments section.
I think that’s still a very narrow view of things. I have made lifelong friends on internet forums. I went to a meetup in August of this year and had the time of my life with the people I finally got to meet face-to-face. I can honestly that it was one of the most enjoyable three days of my life and I can’t wait until we do it again next year. I also have friends in other countries that I met on forums who I’ve been talking to privately for years now.
And, of course, you can learn things from forums too. There’s plenty of things people post on Lemmy that contain interesting information. Communities like c/science has lots of interesting and informative posts.
It was enjoyable because you got to meet them face-to-face. Without that face-to-face interaction, it’s all hollow. If the internet facilitates a meet up then that’s great, but the comments section itself is a pale comparison to real human interaction. That’s why I don’t believe arguing on the internet has any value.
Also, forums are not comments sections. That’s a different medium. Forum topics can be bumped in perpetuity, forum posters are identifiable by an avatar and a tagline and all sorts of stuff, but a comments section is ephemeral by its very nature. We’re two user names briefly interacting for a while and then that’s it. This doesn’t matter.
No, it was enjoyable long before that. Sorry, you don’t get to tell me what I find enjoyable.
And I thought we were talking about Lemmy here. Lemmy is a discussion forum.
Enjoyable, but hollow. Like junk food.
Lemmy is a link aggregator with a comments section for every link. A forum isn’t built around links, it’s built around community. On a forum, our discussion here would bump the thread up to the top of the forum topic every time we post. Forums are built for long term discussions over months and years, rather than ephemeral topics that fade off the front page in a day or two.
They’re different mediums.
No. Not hollow.
Just because you haven’t developed any real friendships with people online says a lot more about you than anyone else.
People used to have friendships solely through letters. People who never met and yet thought of each other fondly and shared their lives with each other.
There’s many collections of these published over the years. I recommend the book 84 Charing Cross Road about a very close friendship that developed between a book lover in New York and a bookseller in London who never met in their lifetimes.
Not in comments sections. IRC is better for that.
Once again, you do not get to tell me about my friendships or how meaningful they are.
Comment sections are no different than sending letters. My friendships with people I met on forums are no different than the relationship between Helene Hanff and Frank Doel except their correspondence was far slower and there was far less of it.
I get that you can’t make such friends. It’s bizarre to me that you think this is a universal thing even when you’re directly being told it isn’t.