Has the internet ruined creativity, politics and society as a whole.

[aja_christopher]

The internet is a tool.

A relatively new and exponentially transformative tool and it will take humanity some time to adjust to it.

Wouldn't concern myself regarding it's ruination of humanity unless it somehow merges with a semi-competent potentially hostile AI.

For now, however, there's no more effective way to share ideas and knowledge worldwide.

The creativity is still out there -- it's just no longer streamlined by the popular media channels.

[Arfguy]

Simply put: yes.

[batnbreakfast]

I dig all the information and discussions the web provides but hate everything social media (facebook,instagramm,twitter) related. All those ego centric egomanics who need a platform for being mediocre and spreading bad taste...

[Agent Z]

As with a lot of things, it has its good side and bad side.

[mathew101281]

I dig all the information and discussions the web provides but hate everything social media (facebook,instagramm,twitter) related. All those ego centric egomanics who need a platform for being mediocre and spreading bad taste...

I've kind of come to a similar conclusion. I kind of miss the pre social media internet. I feel message boards are far less toxic. That's why I hang out here. sure you had problematic elements back then to, but they tended to be relegated to their own niche cesspool parts of the internet instead of on mainstream sites.

[Sharkerbob]

I dig all the information and discussions the web provides but hate everything social media (facebook,instagramm,twitter) related. All those ego centric egomanics who need a platform for being mediocre and spreading bad taste...

Big Mood. Also, most people only really going to six or seven major sites, you throw all these people together on the same websites, you're inevitably going to clash from different interests all clubbing together and bringing their biases in from being there in different interests, whereas most fansites, people were there to talk about the thing in question foremost.

That said, web fiction of many various forms has absolutely exploded with the wide variety of mediums and outlets, and that same problematic social media/mass congealing to the same sites does help facilitate self-marketing to get more potential eyeballs than ever on the increasing indy scenes. Yes, a lot of it is samey, cringey, trend-chasing, or just not very well done, but you're guaranteed to find something new and interesting, regardless of how niche, if you go looking.

[jetengine]

I dig all the information and discussions the web provides but hate everything social media (facebook,instagramm,twitter) related. All those ego centric egomanics who need a platform for being mediocre and spreading bad taste...

I like how you say that, then immediately act like the very people you deride

[Joker]

being mediocre and spreading bad taste...

I won't defend the league of Beige out there, but that's also sort of what makes it all great. Everyone gets a voice.

So, define being "mediocre" and "bad taste."

All my favorite **** is niche, weird, outre nonsense. But I love it. I'm glad it's there. If it takes legions of boring same sames wasting space on **** I personally do not find valuable to get those rare weirdo gems, I'll take it. I just ignore the stuff I don't find valuable.

And I might define the things you find valuable as mediocre, or bad taste. That's the thing with taste, isn't it?

[Tuck]

Large scale technological advancements - particularly in communications - always ruin the world as it exists.

100 years from now, only reactionaries will argue it was a bad change on balance. That doesn't mean people who aren't happy with what it's doing now are wrong. It's perspective.

[PwrdOn]

The issue with the internet as it currently exists is that it practically turns life into one giant popularity contest, but that's not exactly conducive for promoting genuine creativity, nor for the mental health of the population in general.

[Kirby101]

Was society so great before the internet?

[Gotham citizen]

It was suppose to unify the world, and in a sense it has. But I would argue that society as a whole is less creative, more argumentative, and more pigeon holed into ever-smaller cultural cubby holes then ever. To relate it to something relevant to this site, have you ever noticed the huge decline in new superheroes that happened around the time that the internet went mainstream? (1994-5)

A similar thing happened to music in the mid 90’s as well. The number of new genres seemed to suddenly fall off a cliff. I think the internet has divided potential viewing audiences up so much that it’s made it practically impossible for anything to really catch on across the board. Take for example the whole phenomenon of being “internet famous”. It is quite possible in this day and age to be a person with literally millions of fans yet you could walk down a street in a busy city, and not be recognized.

Absolutely not! Internet is only a useful (and extremely fast) tool to communicate or to share contents worldwide, but it can't create the ideas we want to communicate or the contents we want to share

[Crazy Diamond]

The issue with the internet as it currently exists is that it practically turns life into one giant popularity contest, but that's not exactly conducive for promoting genuine creativity, nor for the mental health of the population in general.

What is meant by genuine creativity?

As far as the popularity contest stuff goes, that's because a lot of these companies like Reddit, Facebook, Twitter make money off the backs of the content put out their by their users. So they create these voting systems (upvote/downvote, likes) which determine what this or that demographic likes. The problem is these companies needing to make a profit.

Personally, without the Internet there's loads of shows, music, books, and the like which would've been far harder for me to enjoy because I lived in a small town which didn't, couldn't, or wouldn't stock books deemed too immoral. I've listened to music that the record labels deemed not worthwhile or profitable (only to end up eating their words later on), and I've watched shows that got cancelled because the Nielsen households (what are the typical demographics for those) deemed that not enough people were watching them and the advertizers weren't getting the money they wanted.

In addition, so much stuff has been digitally archived that otherwise would've been lost forever due to being wrapped in a morass of trademarks and copyrights. That wouldn't have been possible without the Internet.

[MyriVerse]

TBH, I think we're generally a lot better off now, creatively, politically, and socially, than ever before.

[BeastieRunner]

The issue with the internet as it currently exists is that it practically turns life into one giant popularity contest, but that's not exactly conducive for promoting genuine creativity, nor for the mental health of the population in general.

I would argue that's more social media than the internet in and of itself, though.

I remember the BBS days and dialing into people's phones to access their bulletin board, sharing info, and downloading/uploading stuff. Wasn't really a popularity contest then, just info sharing.