Is the Internet Destroying Some People’s Lives? Mod Warning In Post #131

EmmetSpiceland · 02-11-2023 3:34pm #1

We all know that the internet has been a “revelation” in bringing the world together, providing encyclopaedic knowledge at everyone’s fingertips.

But is it leaving a large section of society behind? Excessive “consumption” of hardcore gonzo pornography and online computer gaming is producing a generation of men who never really “grow up”. It’s bad enough that teenagers are playing too much but having lads in their 30’s and beyond still spending hours of their days playing games is just sad, and worrying.

There’s a couple of kids in the house next to mine. The younger one plays sports, has friends and is often outside whereas you rarely see the older lad. You, certainly, hear him, though. Anytime I’m out working in the garden you hear him roaring into his headset playing some ‘Call of Duty’ type thing.

Speaking to the mother of the two, it doesn’t sound like he’s going to do too well in the Leaving Cert and she’s worried he won’t be going to college or ever moving out.

Is he just another casualty of the internet? Another “lost boy” who’ll grow into an angry, middle aged, manchild lashing out at the world because it’s left him behind?

Ash.J.Williams · 02-11-2023 3:40pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058320748/is-the-internet-destroying-some-people-s-lives

I received a pile on recently from people whom fell down a weird rabbit hole of soros bla bla

My favourite was that greta first class travelling enviro screamer is the illegitimate granddaughter of the rothschilds

Do your research they told me

I told them I did

con___manx1 · 02-11-2023 3:45pm

A lot of these mass shooting in the states are gamers. Sitting home playing PlayStation looking at porn hub all day . You couldn't be sane or normall with years of not being social with people. They are left angry and frustrated then because they are virgins into there 30ths. Get the gun out then and take it out on everyone. Thank god these people dont have access to guns here.

SharkMX · 02-11-2023 4:10pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121315699#Comment_121315699

If you think thats bad, Imagine how sad someone would have to be to be a moderator on a forum :)

Allinall · 02-11-2023 4:16pm

I’ve just deleted Candy Crush off my phone.

Cheers OP. Only for seeing your post on the internet I’d be doomed to playing it for the rest of my days.

thegame983 · 02-11-2023 4:17pm

Nobody who has multiple thousands of posts on an internet forum is any position to lecture people about 'being on the internet too much'.

StevenToast · 02-11-2023 4:23pm

Another faux be kind brigade merchant having a go at middle aged white men again....

This will end well....

Absolute Zero · 02-11-2023 4:27pm

Says the lad with 9,000+ posts on boards.ie 😂 played yourself in this thread mate.

Bobson Dugnutt · 02-11-2023 4:28pm

I think you need to put in place adequate guardrails to ensure you don’t start becoming someone who lives almost exclusively on the internet. There’s a lot of people already trapped in the flytrap and they don’t realise it.

I limit my internet usage to 90 minutes per day. iOS makes it easy to track this.

I minimise the amount of apps I use - if a site doesn’t provide access via a browser then I just don’t use it.

On sites like this I make use of blocking/ignore functionality. If I see yet another boring rant by Michael Middle-Aged No 289 about women, wokeness, RTE, climate change then I just pop them on ignore. Allows you to focus on more interesting and engaging content and to make better use of your time.

EmmetSpiceland · 02-11-2023 4:38pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121315922#Comment_121315922

I’m not “having a go” at ALL middle aged men. Just the permanently angry ones who post online about things they don’t understand and, consequently, hate.

Also, not sure I can be included in that “brigade” as I took it off my signature awhile back after being included in death threat/murder fantasies on that other site but, of course, you already know that.

CGI_Livia_Soprano · 02-11-2023 4:40pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121315663#Comment_121315663

The “excess deaths” anti vax stuff is another one.

Whatever about “ruining our lives,” there is huge swathe of under-educated people in our population with virtually no critical thinking skills who are so incredibly vulnerable towards being exploited by the conspiracy theory muck people post on the internet. The internet has certainly ruined their lives.

Excess deaths, questioning “vaxes,” anti immigration, Islamophobia, transphobia. These are all the talking points parroted over and over again by the mushy-brained useful idiots online.

To put it simply, the morons who parrot the kind of hateful rhetoric I’m alluding to in this post should be scorned, yes, but they should also be pitied because they are victims who have been conned. Stupid victims but stupid nonetheless.

They are dimwits, convincing them of untruths is as easy for grifters as stealing the proverbial candy from the proverbial baby. They are baby-brained dumbasses.

Mister Vain · 02-11-2023 4:53pm

Its not just men. Some young women are addicted to Instagram and TikTok - constantly seeking attention and validation. The people that do it to the extreme are in the minority though.

recyclops · 02-11-2023 4:58pm

Personally I think the rise of social media and constant strive to look the same and be the best you is a lot worse for kids/ teens nowadays and puts insane pressures on the parents of the same as they try to keep up with the joneses constantly buying the latest fads.

I am a lad in my 30s didn't do overly well in the LC and have every games console that's currently out, play games most days but it doesn't get in the way of my job, my relationship with my wife, my friends. I still run daily and I play footie weekly. Doesn't sound too sad and thankfully few people are worried about me.

Anyone who thinks video games are a lesser form of art than other mediums is just uninformed and as mentioned in the OP rarely think being Fifa, Fortnite and Call of Duty. When you actually get into it you find stories deeper and far more rewarding than some books/ movies etc.

One thing I do stay away from is social media and rarely do I post more use it as a way to keep up to date with family etc. That stuff would cause serious depression and will have a much worse impact on anyones life than booting up the xbox/ PS/ Switch for a hour or two a day.

esker72 · 02-11-2023 5:02pm

The bit that gets me most is the people who can't go an hour or two without gazing at their phone to see if they are missing out on any vital news. You could be in a group of 10 in a pub and there's always a few who are buried in their phone looking at websites or social media or something. It's a pub, your mates are there, the internet will be there when you go home

techman1 · 02-11-2023 5:02pm

He legit HATES WOMEN and only talks to other maniacs online who share this twisted ideology. He'd never have had access to such a distilled reservoir of hatred in any other time, outside of joining some kind of militia. The internet has taken his damaged soul and entrapped it amid the squalid bilge which formerly resided between the ears of disturbed people, but is now propagated globally by an interconnected web of sophisticated communication

Very good description of Islamic extremism and isis, the Internet allows all sorts of extremism and twisted thinking

ancapailldorcha · 02-11-2023 5:43pm

The internet's a tool, just like fire. Like fire, it can be used constructively to bring myriad benefits to benefit humanity. It also posses the potential for great harm.

As for the question posed by the OP, I would say no. Most people use the internet responsible or perhaps irresponsibly but not to the detriment of anyone else. I think a big part of the problem is that internet and social media usage grew rapidly and largely remain unregulated. When you think of cars, they were regulated before many people owned them. Now, anyone with a phone can use most websites without hindrance.

I think we need to reshape and evolve how we educate children with regards to the internet. That means incorporating debate, critical thinking and some basic IT principles in basic education. There are far too many adults falling hook, line and sinker for malevolent ideologies such as climate science denial and anti-vaxx. We also need to reform social services to help the adults who are vulnerable to being radicalised by the internet into committing atrocities. Nowhere is this more true than in the United States with their regular school shootings.

Ubbquittious · 02-11-2023 6:02pm

The internet itself is not to blame, all the internet does is ensure a data packet gets delivered to another computing machine when you specify it's IP address as the destination.

rossie1977 · 02-11-2023 6:36pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121315699#Comment_121315699

Before the WWW became popular people blamed music and movies. Columbine was blamed on Marilyn Manson after all. The likes of Judas Priest had to defend themselves in court back on the 80s

We just need to come to terms with fact video games aren't the reason. If video games were the cause then Japan would be most violent nation on Earth.

What video games existed when the Nazis or Stalins regime was slaughtering millions..

02-11-2023 6:48pm

The internet is a great go-to place for introverts, but I don’t mean that as a criticism, we need a mix of personalities and I would class myself as a part-time introvert, part-time extrovert. I have a friend who would be classed as most definitely introverted, she self described as such, but she gets to enjoy communicating in her understated way via social media and it is great to see how she enjoys it. For some people the internet is a real godsend, but for dangerous type loners it magnifies the negativity that goes through their heads.

Greyfox · 02-11-2023 6:50pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058320748/is-the-internet-destroying-some-people-s-lives

Its not the internets fault if some people can't use it in moderation or if they use it badly. Nothing wrong with people over 30 spending a good few hours at the weekend playing games, it's one of the best ways to spend ones time, far better than watching junk on tv or mindlessly scrolling social media. Now obviously spending over 20 hours a week playing games is sad, the lad you mention is a result of bad parenting, you can't blame games or the internet for weak parenting

Ash.J.Williams · 02-11-2023 7:02pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121316000#Comment_121316000

Caught some of an rte radio documentary about conspiracy theorys and one contributer got so into "research " that he studied and qualified as a psychologist and now relises what a feckin ejit he was

thomil · 02-11-2023 7:04pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121316596#Comment_121316596

I'd like to add to that that it probably also depends on the type of game that you're playing. Yes, spending multiple hours in front of a computer or console isn't really conducive to your social life, but six hours of Battlefield or CoD multiplayer are going to have a different effect on you than a six-hour transatlantic flight from Dublin to Boston in Microsoft Flight Simulator. And yes, I've done the latter, though that was Heathrow-Toronto in my case. And also, while the traffic management issues in Cities: Skylines can make your blood boil, I doubt that this game will be triggering any real violent outbursts.

I think it's the highly competitive multiplayer games, the CoDs, Battlefields, Overwatch's or Fortnite's of the world, that are really problematic in my eyes, both from their marketing and from their community.

Bobson Dugnutt · 02-11-2023 7:22pm

Some people spend hours watching other people play computer games. Like how is that healthy or a good use of your time?

ancapailldorcha · 02-11-2023 7:33pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121316754#Comment_121316754

Some people spend their time screaming abuse at televisions with English football matches on them, often while smoking and drinking heavily. How is that healthy?

Greyfox · 02-11-2023 7:42pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121316670#Comment_121316670

True the COD, fortnite or Overwatch community does have plenty of toxic players

buried · 02-11-2023 7:49pm

Probably. But it's a drop in the ocean problem at this stage, as opposed to say, cutting the internet off. You want to see some real destruction? Turn off the internet, shut the whole thing down. 99% of people born on the planet within the last 15 years won't be able to function. 80% of people born with the last 40 years won't be able to function. Then you'll see some real destruction.

We might all see it yet.

Rubberchikken · 02-11-2023 8:00pm

I love that we have technology. Look how it came into its own during the pandemic.

I've no attachment to my phone hours can go by and I wouldn't look for it.

It's handy at work for knowing the time and on my break but that's it.

I've an iPad but it's sitting on the kitchen table under my newspaper and hasn't been charged in weeks.

There's good and bad in most things.😉

briany · 02-11-2023 8:01pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121315889#Comment_121315889

That's not a fair thing to say because you're not looking at the time since registration or you aren't factoring that into the retort. Emmett registered in 2019, so it averages out to about 5 and a half posts per day. My post count is much higher, but I've also been on much longer, so it works out at about 2 and a half posts per day. Neither stat would, in itself, be indicative of being terminally online, and with mobile internet technology having virtually taken over, you can post from anywhere, so the old assumption of people being physically isolated and hunched over their computers is an obsolete one. This isn't to say it no longer happens, but cannot be assumed.