The modern world is boring - The Internet has ruined creativity
Community Forums/Common Room/The modern world is boring - The Internet has ruined creativity
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| In recent months, me and my wife play on the PS4 and we've got into walking simulators. For those of you that don't know, they're often like interactive stories, barely games, but in a way kind of fun experiences where you don't need to worry about dying and due to the current age of graphics, it really almost is like you're going out on a trip, except not leaving your house. Then it kind of occured to me, that the games we were playing, despite them being so realistic in either graphic fidelity or storyline, none of them were set in present day. Gone Home (1995), Gone To the Rapture (1982), FireWatch (1989 or so), Virginia (1990s) At first I don't know what it was, the feelings I was having. but I think I might have figured it out, the future, the present we are in now. 2017, it's just boring, crappy and a bleak future all round. The past however, or the science fiction future, that's what is interesting. Way back in 1995, I discovered the Internet, and it felt like my eyes had been opened, so much opportunity for learning, discovering new things, new ideas, meeting (talking) to people. Fast forward over 20 years and in some ways it feels it's becoming a bad thing for mankind, as a whole. Whether it's the Internet, or listening to music. Having constant contact with the Internet via a mobile phone. Think of things like X-Files, or detective series, those sorts of programmes can't easily be made anymore. Think of a story, or some kidnapping disaster, or anything. People would just google it, or seek help using their mobiles. It's difficult to create stories and ideas now because the Internet has quite literally killed off certain types of entertainment. Why would anyone create a skit show with 2 comedy guys when you can just spend all day watching cute animals fall over on youtube, now and for free. It's not a surprise that games, TVs and movies, all in general are set in the past, the future or fantasy landscapes. So much stuff created when I was young, it just wouldn't be popular now. Fashion, music, and a lot of tech such as cars. There doesn't seem to be all that much advancement, and regards NASA and space, we've barely made any progress. I sat yesterday, watching NASA Live - Earth From Space on youtube and was just in awe, that there's a live stream from outerspace for 20 mins I just sat there mesmerised, and when I looked at the live chat, people just complaining how dull it was. Just makes me sad, if that existed in 1990 when I was growing up, it would be pretty much the most amazing thing on TV. Here in Japan, almost 90% of people on the trains in Tokyo, everyone looking down at their iPhones or Androids. At the weekend me and my wife went shopping and when crossing a bridge we watched a couple with their 4 year old daughter who was excited and mesmerised at the train going past, the parents however were both seperately looking at their phones and missed all of it. We're so connected that we don't seem to connect anymore to people right next to us. Why bother learning stuff when jobs change so fast, why bother when you can just google everything. Not saying this affects everyone, but I sometimes worry for the future of mankind, everyone is just consuming content, now and all the time. And these entitled millenials, the special snowflake generation, don't even get me started on that. My grandparents were always obsessed and mad at me for spending many sunny days in my room on my Amiga and yet I feel like the person who is least addicted to this modern wave of technology. I remember in the 90s, life had so many hours of tedium. Me and my friends spent hours skateboarding and doing flying kicks off my parents garden wall trying to pretend we playing Double Dragon in the arcades. Kids these days have it so easy, but on the flipside, they are never apart from entertainment. They will problem never sit and dream about space while listening to Jean Michel Jarre, and dream about doing awesome things when they grow up. So many people are just lost on the Internet, arguing on Twitter, social justice warriors on both sides, just fighting on social media endlessly. Literally never ending content appearing on youtube hourly. Free games everywhere. Maybe I'm just getting old, just feels like sometimes the world really is getting shitter. I'd love to go back in time, before the Internet was normality. I've almost forgotten what life used to be like back then. |
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I think this graph describes some thoughts I have on this: Just look at the shape of the curves not the actual numbers. There are still people who enjoy non internet things such as reading, walking, exercise, sport, life outside of connectivity. They are less but still exist. I just saw some stats from some market research the company I work for did. One of those figures was percentage of people without a television. There was a healthy but small percentage of such people who mostly were highly educated. So I'd assume on that basis (could be wrong) that there is a similar small percentage of highly educated people who still enjoy creative and high quality pursuits. Yes...if you read youtube comments you will think the world has turned into idiocracy. And for the most part these people have always existed. The difference is with the internet they have a global voice. For example....nyan cat on youtube...100 million views of something that is absolutely stupid. Makes me think the human race are a bunch of dumb idiots. And for the most part - that is true. When it comes to making games something I have to remember sometimes is that unfortunately most of our users fit that description too. Most of them, not all, are not interested in anything with a layer of complexity or difficulty to it. The world is not getting shittier it is just the uneducated are finding their voice through the internet....and the media is pandering to them to sell as much to the most. |
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| I see the Internet as becoming the creative brain of the masses mainly because the situation that has become "Why think about something when with a few pressed of the keys we can see everything about it". Look at schools they don't push people to go to libraries to study it's word docs about Internet searches. We are at a point where the Internet will become the people if we are not careful and stupidity will reign. It's a tool to find things and connect with friends NOT a thought process. |
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| It is certainly looking like a close call between the zombie apocalypse and an emergent sentient singularity replacing us all. Zynga vs Siri. |
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| and stupidity will reign um... did you catch the result of the US election? Stupidity is right here and right now. |
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| I agree with the stupidity comments. It's a tool to find things and connect with friends NOT a thought process However unless I've misunderstood what you mean then I'm the complete opposite - I use the internet as a learning resource tool, I also go to seminars and conventions to learn also. If I want to connect with my friends then I phone them and then we go out into the real world together, well away from the internet. Oh and I don't watch TV series/soaps/shows/gameshows etc - it makes me feel sick and embarrassed that fellow humans find it attractive and entertaining in any way. I watch movies and documentaries, just not the mainstream TV series/programmes. |
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| the tool (the internet, the web) is not the problem, it is how people use it... |
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| the tool (the internet, the web) is not the problem, it is how people use it... That, and the fact that the internet is pretty much an unregulated free-for-all. |
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| the internet is pretty much an unregulated free-for-all. and fortunately you are not the one making the laws/rules ! (from your previous posts, you seem "offended" by not much...) |
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| With tv you have crappy sitcoms and "reality" show that keep getting made, while things that have some depth like Terra Nova get the boot after one season. I Almost never watch tv, but from what I can tell, even Animal planet, and Discovery channel have too have gone down this path. So I don't think the internet killed creativity so much as it wasn't ever there. It really depends on where you go on the internet. |
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| Even if there are crazies on the internet, there are also crazies in governments and in the education system, the progress of our modern world is that you can choose the crazy version that your prefer to repeat/follow ahahah :D |
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| Most of us here though, we grew up when there was no Internet, we had to use books and libraries and for many forms of entertainment, if there are more than like 10 seconds of loading time on a game then people get so angry. Of course WE successfully use the Internet as a learning tool. But for people who never grew up in a world without it, their way of learning and interacting in the world. With tv you have crappy sitcoms and "reality" show that keep getting made, while things that have some depth like Terra Nova get the boot after one season. I've noticed in recent years the budgets for things get smaller and smaller and then in the end, cheap to make tat like reality TV, surprisingly popular and then they just cling to that nonsense because the youth of today, most of them are celebrity and gossip obsessed anyway. Last month I think it was, there was an award cereomony and they were celebrating the first ever awards for non gender people. I don't see how any of this is good, or even needed. I saw on the news just today that Peter Sallis passed away, at some point, these golden oldies are all going to die away and then we will literally be left with just talentless idiots or just nobody worth remembering. What new up and coming singers and actors are there in the current world, and of those who many of them haven't had nude photos leaked or basically are complete sell outs. Slightly getting off topic there but anyway, young people are so engrossed in their have to check twitter and be on the Internet every 5 seconds world, that we're not nurtuting much talent for the people and those that are trying and being swamped in a sea shit and for the most part having to work for free just to get a foot in the door. With the Internet how it is, no point in trying to dream, just consume yourself with never ending content. |
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| I've been reading Don Quixote, and it occurred to me Cervantes had some of the same complaints about the books of his time. |
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| I've noticed in recent years the budgets for things get smaller and smaller and then in the end, cheap to make tat like reality TV, surprisingly popular and then they just cling to that nonsense because the youth of today, most of them are celebrity and gossip obsessed anyway. There's some of that, but far from everything -- Netflix has several series that they're spending ~$80-$100 million a season on, which was completely unheard of just a few years ago. There's a reason that there's more and more big 'movie' stars taking on TV roles these days, the 'small screen' has a lot less stigma these days than it did in the past. |
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| ...internet for me is nice resource tool i check when i need thats all about it..as for social media and crap like that..i do not have facecrook, twitter , linkedln and so on..just email..my cell phone is very primitive,and it does what i need..feels good.. |
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| “Our earth is degenerate in these latter days; there are signs that the world is speedily coming to an end; bribery and corruption are common; children no longer obey their parents; every man wants to write a book and the end of the world is evidently approaching,” attributed to an Assyrian stone tablet of about 2800 B.C. True or not, but I believe that it's a common symptom of getting old :-) -Henri |
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| Combining 'modern' and age... I'll tell you about one thing that happened at one of the many 'Cyber Security' seminars that I've been to, I've been to a few hacker ones too - personal and work related, and while I know most of the things that can and do happen ( Hollywood eat your heart out - most of that shit can happen and is very real now, except being able to focus on a single pixel and turn it into a highly detailed full 1920x1080 HD image o_O ), one particular guy has it right... So many questions were asked to the audience such as - Who uses the cloud or any 3rd party storage? - Who uses social networking sites, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, Google+ etc? - Who uses internet banking, desktop or mobile? - Who has a 'smart' phone? - Who uses free Wi-Fi when available? plus a whole tonne of other similar, what are now-a-days normal technologies, relating to what the majority of people are using. Anyway a guy at the back answered 'No' to all of them to which the presenter then said 'You are the most safest cyber-secure person in the room - you must be well aware of the implications!", to which the guy said - 'Nope I'm just an old dinosaur guy who doesn't know how to make them work!" :D There's a lot to be said about blindly soaking up these new electronic 'fan-dangled magic devices' without actually knowing what's going on and what really makes them work. My advice would be to put them down, leave them at home, go out and have dinner with your family, friends and neighbours. |
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| Two advantages of computers/internet: (1) Very large type & (2) Spell checking. Can't think of anything else. Smart phone = man's rudest invention! Cheerio |
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| If i'm still around in 40 years, i can't wait to see the folks of that era talk about how whatever tech around then is ruining the world. |
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| @Neuro Kids these days, I tell you don't put any effort into anything. They just go get their genes spliced if they want muscles, no effort at all. In my day we had to earn those muscles! |
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