The internet or how we can all be lonely together now

[old_timer]

My professional mentor (rip) gave me some advice..
Never overinvest in
(a) stuff that can't pay you back (meet your needs, etc ) or
(b) things you don't have proportionate control over

He was talking about work,, but I expanded it to every area of my life
And for me personally, it has been a wonderful guiding principle

The people i invest in,, with my time and energy
Pay me back with their loyalty and their efforts
I put myself into my marriage, and my marriage rewards me back

When i am active in my profession, i am rewarded with generous pay and attractive opportunities

If i put in my time and thoughts..
I am actually listened to and see some of my ideas become reality

Yes i go " hard" for people/places/things,
but overall i feel it more than comes back to me

Occasionally a situation blows up on me
But i just do the face and move on to the next "win"
Small "skirmish" losses can be absorbed by winning the overall war in a clear landslide

But looking at the world around me
My experiences seem to be the exception

Many people can't find situations that adequately reward their efforts
They put energy into people, and get burned or rebuffed
They try hard in their profession/work, and see others get most of the rewards (because they had no control over the work)
Their best ideas are laughed off or stolen by others
Nothing they do becomes significant or noteworthy

And the safe places to invest yourself for so many years..
Marriage, start a family, etc
Spend 30 years with same company (max loyalty)
Religion
Volunteer to help needy
Those lanes have all but vanished for many

So you get a bunch of people with nowhere to invest themselves
And then what?
Then you have the internet

It might be a lousy return on investment, but it might be the best/safest way for many people to invest their time/energy

 

[El_Mero_Mero]

So you get a bunch of people with nowhere to invest themselves
And then what?
Then you have the internet

It might be a lousy return on investment, but it might be the best/safest way for many people to invest their time/energy

True point

Overall I sometimes worry that it's just going to be more difficult to try to communicate with people that are being born nowadays and I've had these social media platforms all their lives. I was born in the mid 80s.

 

[old pig]

I can’t discount the online connection so callously

cats online where I used to post heavy have been responsible for helping me find a job...relocate...start a business...support my business...make $$$/investments and I’ve been able to reciprocate that as well...is the social component as strong as actual friends? not really but it’s there

 

[Complexion]

Sometimes it trips me out when I think about the fact that I'm sitting here tapping keys and you're sitting there reading words on a screen. Disconnected yet connecting, ain't that some paradoxical ish?

This just popped into my head again so I thought I'd bring it back and review this thread. Its so crazy when you consider the implications of high tech on the human intellect which is far closer to cavemen than the Jetsons.

Here, right now, stripped of virtually everything that makes them them are countless people conversing via the medium of text from all over the world, in an instant. Its so basic and sparse compared to real life yet also (paradoxically) richer and more intense all at the same moment. Like I said, mix high tech with cavemen intellect and this is what you get.

We all have lives, a past, a future and the present moment along with hopes and dreams as well offline. All that is by the by because online we're one dimensional strings of 1s and 0s winging it through invisible mediums that render our communication and fool our primitive brains into the semblance of a connection when in reality you've never met most of the people you kick it with.

Mindblowing when you stop to think about it. Has humanity truly progressed or regressed? I can't call it...

 

[The Guru]

I got to say in my early internet days i had a lot more of a sense of community. These days i just coast and spend my time..

 

[Complexion]

I got to say in my early internet days i had a lot more of a sense of community. These days i just coast and spend my time..

Most definitely, the style certainly changed from the mid 90s when only a few were online as it really had that global community vibe. Personally I think the social media aspect which shifted away from screen names and niches to real faces and crowded places made that happen because it became more about ego tripping and self promotion than chopping it up with those with the same interests.

Thats why niche spots like The Coli will keep rocking because its so specialized and hyper-focused therefore closer to what the net was than what it became.

Still nuts when you consider how big this whole "They have the internet on computers now?" thing became though. Remember 56K taking half an hour to "Yarr!" a RealAudio of a song via MSN from a friend you never met because they lived on the other side of the globe? Can it be that it was all so simple then?

 

[010101]

0101010101 it's all real ha*

 

[JQ Legend]

This thread is a trip

I agree there was a bigger sense of community online back in the day prior to social media

Message boards were like one big ass online family

Coli kinda got that but it’s more so a bunch of people trying to one up each other or show how cool and/or tough they are to a bunch of people they won’t ever meet

Still better than SM tho

 

[Wildhundreds]

This thread is a trip

I agree there was a bigger sense of community online back in the day prior to social media

Message boards were like one big ass online family

Coli kinda got that but it’s more so a bunch of people trying to one up each other or show how cool and/or tough they are to a bunch of people they won’t ever meet

Still better than SM tho

I remember when message boards was used to talk about cars and meet up for car shows.. Thats as far as it went, and was easily 24 years ago.

The way social media made it easy to just lie.. That it created a person that lies so much online that when you finally meet up with that person, you're not viewed as the person who was online..

 

[JQ Legend]

I remember when message boards was used to talk about cars and meet up for car shows.. Thats as far as it went, and was easily 24 years ago.

The way social media made it easy to just lie.. That it created a person that lies so much online that when you finally meet up with that person, you're not viewed as the person who was online..

I used to post on hip hop related forums

We used to battle via text, sometimes audio for people who had mics

shyt was way more fun back then than the internet is now

Back then the elitists were the people who thought naming some obscure backpack rapper as their GOAT made them more of a hip hop head than someone who said Hov

That’s about as far as it went far as people having inflated egos for the most part

When people posted pics it was for the purpose of jokes, nobody cared bout looking cute or cool

You had people who were full of themselves but nothing like we got now

 

[7th Letter Specialist]

Ngl. Most of the time I'm on here I gotta kinda remind myself that I'm talking to actual people

 

[Ol’Otis]

Ngl. Most of the time I'm on here I gotta kinda remind myself that I'm talking to actual people