For those of us who've been online for 6 years or more

Post by **Foo** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 11:06 pm

Anyone else noticing how many people around us are starting to spend just as much time online as we are, and practically doing the same thing?

I guess it's an obvious thing to observe, but it feels odd that what was a pretty outlandish thing to spend 6+ hours per day doing is now a totally commonplace occurance, especially amongst the younger generations (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/06/ ... 9513.shtml)

Post by **SOAPboy** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 11:09 pm

Parents used to get on me over it.. Now, they do the same fucking thing..

I told you so, never felt so good to say

Post by **Foo** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 11:09 pm

Oh & BTW that article I linked is absolute rubbish, I only linked it for the 6 hours/teenagers thing. It amuses me how it's CBS and they're fine with spreading pseudoscience and misinformation tho...

Post by **Foo** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 11:10 pm

SOAPboy wrote:Parents used to get on me over it.. Now, they do the same fucking thing..

I told you so, never felt so good to say

I'm finding I'm scaling back quite a bit on it almost as a result of other people around me engaging in the same activities. Not entirely through a need for exclusivity, I think I'd rather spend time learning & doing things that fewer people around me do so I might prove useful.

Prolly not.

Post by **booker** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 11:14 pm

SOAPboy wrote:Parents used to get on me over it.. Now, they do the same fucking thing..

same here. I just sold them my old laptop. Never thought that would happen.

Post by **Synergy** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 11:18 pm

All the kids these days are obsessed with myspace...which I think has a lot to do with this. I think that's a lame website and I'll never participate in it.

Post by **+JuggerNaut+** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 11:21 pm

SOAPboy wrote:Parents used to get on me over it.. Now, they do the same fucking thing..

I told you so, never felt so good to say

wow, that's kinda pathetic.

Post by **eepberries** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 11:30 pm

Foo I know exactly what you mean. I was just thinking about this a couple days ago. I was thinking about how it seems like EVERYBODY uses some form of messageboard or online community site these days, when back when I started using them it was mainly just us nerdy-types. Sites like Facebook and Myspace have definitely contributed to this.

Post by **Drön** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 11:40 pm

I find myself spending far less time online than i used to. Not like i'm busy doing much else, I suppose i read abit more.

It's quite true however, the younger kids really seem to be about myspace and MSN, it's all i see and here them go on about.

Post by **Survivor** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 11:43 pm

I spend an equal amount of time online as then but nowadays I'm actually idling more here then actually doing stuff like reading.

Post by **Ryoki** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 11:46 pm

Drön wrote:I find myself spending far less time online than i used to. Not like i'm busy doing much else, I suppose i read a bit more.

Yeah, me too.

Post by **bitWISE** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 11:55 pm

My mom never gave me shit for being on the computer or playing video games. Until my later years of high school I still spent more time outside than inside. I got really hooked as a sophomore when I started actively learning shit about programming and hardware.

But yeah, we used to be geeks and now you're a geek if you don't have AIM/MSN/Myspace.

Post by **Grudge** » Thu Jun 15, 2006 12:10 am

Yeah, all that blogging stuff that people are into now, I did that back in '96, only then it was called "personal homepages".

Post by **Ezekiel** » Thu Jun 15, 2006 12:20 am

When I was 15 the only thing I can say with certainty is that I didn't use the internet for the same things that 15 do now. Bar the odd UBB board (this and NA) and playing Q2 I didn't touch the net much. It seems to be more of a way of life than part of it to some 15 year olds now.

Post by **eepberries** » Thu Jun 15, 2006 12:24 am

Well, I've always been into electronics of any kind. My dad always tells me about how I would always play with (and break) his record player/cd player/VHS player. I always liked playing with my dad's windows 95 computer when he let me. I got into video games, then first used the internet when I was around 10. I was doomed from my early ages to be a heavy computer user.

Post by **seremtan** » Thu Jun 15, 2006 12:37 am

Foo wrote:Oh & BTW that article I linked is absolute rubbish, I only linked it for the 6 hours/teenagers thing. It amuses me how it's CBS and they're fine with spreading pseudoscience and misinformation tho...

i'll say. all this stuff about 'losing time'. what would they otherwise be doing in this 'lost time'? praying? attending conservative fundraiser's? getting their eagle scout 'i'm fighting terrorism' badge?

Post by **seremtan** » Thu Jun 15, 2006 12:46 am

eepberries wrote:Well, I've always been into electronics of any kind. My dad always tells me about how I would always play with (band break) his record player/cd player/VHS player. I always liked playing with my dad's windows 95 computer when he let me. I got into video games, then first used the internet when I was around 10. I was doomed from my early ages to be a heavy computer user.

it's this strange way in which using the internet is seen as something dangerous, in a way that reading 2-3 newspapers (which some people do) or watching hours of TV a night isn't

Post by **Fender** » Thu Jun 15, 2006 4:37 am

I've been online for almost 16 years now.

Fall of '90. Had fiber to the desktop all the way back then. I got kicked off the network for running Doom, which used broadcast packets and stormed the network.

Post by **Captain** » Thu Jun 15, 2006 4:42 am

Post by **axbaby** » Thu Jun 15, 2006 6:08 am

my mom used to give me shit for being on the computer in 1980

had she not trashed my computer "she's evil" i can guarantee i wouldn't need to be working right now to live.

Post by **Geebs** » Thu Jun 15, 2006 6:19 am

seremtan wrote:
Foo wrote:Oh & BTW that article I linked is absolute rubbish, I only linked it for the 6 hours/teenagers thing. It amuses me how it's CBS and they're fine with spreading pseudoscience and misinformation tho...
i'll say. all this stuff about 'losing time'. what would they otherwise be doing in this 'lost time'? praying? attending conservative fundraiser's? getting their eagle scout 'i'm fighting terrorism' badge?

I just wish that instead of "leveling up", I'd spent more of my youth "getting a life"

Post by **Kat** » Thu Jun 15, 2006 6:36 am

Foo wrote:....the 6 hours/teenagers thing....

The funny thing is they think the Internet is 'theirs', awful, evil and rude little twurps.

Post by **MKJ** » Thu Jun 15, 2006 7:46 am

anal lube i say

Post by **Eraser** » Thu Jun 15, 2006 7:52 am

Well I'm not online that much time anymore. It's just that nowadays I spend 8 hours a day in an office behind a computer, and I check Q3W a couple of times a day.

Post by **4days** » Thu Jun 15, 2006 10:11 am

my mate's eldest is 19 and it makes me feel sick just talking to the guy - he's a useless lone-wolf tk'ing arsehole in call of duty and he's got all the rl social skills of a block of tofu.

think it's that chavs are still gathering on street corners of an evening, but the kids that are too feeble to join them are gathering on servers instead - dodging the process of natural selection that might eventually make one or two of them into worthwhile people.

how are you supposed to grow up well-adjusted and healthy if you've never done normal, proper things - like felt up a wide range of gum-chewing slags, run more than a block, gotten a bloody nose or been arrested for carrying weapons banned by the geneva convention?