Is Internet a good or a bad invention?

[Meaninglessness]

There are both advantages and disadvantages with the Internet. There is a lot of information on Internet. Almost everything is on Internet. You can communicate with people online - you can get in touch with humans all over the world. Internet is a special world. You can pay bills, shop, read and send email messages online. The usual, former mailbox isn´t used much anymore and will maybe disappear in the future. But sitting in front of a computer is a lonely existence - you are missing out human companionship. You are also missing out exercise and nature when you spend time online. There are lawless areas on the Internet. There are crimes and frauds in this special world. People can be anonymous online - evil people can write obscentities and get away with it. Here people can do things they wouldn´t have dared otherwise. Cyberbullying is common and some people write hate mails to others. There are people who have committed suicide because they have been exposed to cyberbullying. There is false information on Internet. There is lack of security on Internet. Technical problems can occur online. There is also concern that Google and Facebook will violate personal integrity. The Internet can lead to addiction. However, very poor people can´t afford computers and find themselves in an awkward situation. What are your experiences - is Internet a good or a bad invention?

 

[Lynx.]

It depends. I have my biases and I'm pretty much against the modern version of the internet, so I'm inclined to say that it's bad, but that it was better, and it could be decent again, although that's very unlikely.
The modern internet has influenced our communication and social structure in such a bizarre way. It's quite unbelievable and a bit sad.

Aside from the things you mentioned, I think that the modern web is a bloated mess; true, it contains a lot of information, and hidden spots that are a delight to discover. But most of the users never check the remote corners of the internet, they stay confined to a few websites that their search engine by default - mainly Google - provides. Most of the searches that are done on search engines give the same results over and over again, redirecting the user to the same mainstream pages that top the algorithm's priority list; such a design creates a feedback loop in which the user consumes the same content based on trends.

An algorithm that recommends content based on your consuming habits may not be that bad, since, after all, you get to consume more of that which you like - but they are limiting the experience of the internet and trapping people into consuming habits that can even be harmful and detrimental. This process is usually called a 'recommendation bubble', and it is a bad idea to depend upon it, because one really should not depend on information to come to them, recommended by algorithms; the ideal should be to seek the information by oneself, provided by reliable methods.

Plus, the information is really volatile. Sure, there are tons of information available, but we rarely focus on it; instead, we enter into a state of mind in which we consume information, but we forget it in a few minutes or hours, or maybe weeks, due to the overload of information that comes towards us...

There's also the problem of data breaches and privacy violations, as you mentioned.

But most of all - I would like to ask why the hell it takes a lot of time for a recipe/cooking site to load; it's filled with shitty and useless scripts that run behind, almost an useless back-end, and it is a cluttered mess filled with ads in order to have a monetary gain. If the modern internet users cannot properly design a cooking website to make it highly functional and fast without having to spend 5 minutes reading about how the author of the site used to cook that recipe with their grandma, then they should definitely not bother designing sites.

Internet is a good invention - turned bad by corporative greed and mindless consumerism. It has become a mere commodity instead of a tool used to better things.

Fortunately, there is such a thing as the indie web, although it is very unknown and isolated; independent web developers who create their own simple, ad-free and privacy-respecting websites and link them in what's usually known as a 'webring', making it a fun experience if someone wishes to explore the web as if we were back in the 90s and early 2000s.

Neocities is worth exploring - there's tons of great stuff hidden in there, along with some horrendous yet original creations - link here.
Sad.grl Online is one of the best indie webs out there, give a look to their link directory, maybe you'll find something great - another link here.
And finally, the Yesterweb, also founded by the same creator as Sad.grl Online, is worth a look. I'll leave a link to the weblinks directory if someone wants to check cool websites or tools, but aside from that the Yesterweb also contains really cool information about many things - link here.

So - basically, the indie web fills my cynical heart that yearns for the old internet, even if I wasn't alive to experience the 90s thing myself, and I was too young to fully understand and enjoy the internet culture before the 2010s.

I'd rather create a simple website where I could dump all my stuff than to post it in a social media that's out of my control and reach once it's dumped there - on the modern internet, most people are not the owners of anything; even your social media profiles could be gone in an instant - you own no files, no personal space, nothing. The indie web is a great alternative to that - although I'm a bit of a hypocrite, or rather, a big one, since I'm posting this here instead of a personal website. As soon as I hit the send button, I do not own this content anymore - it may have my username linked, and I can edit it as I please, but ultimately it's pretty much out of my control if this message is to stay here forever, or if it's going to be either deleted, or tossed aside along with millions of other messages.
But I view this website in a positive light and a good place to make posts - contrary to the rest of social media and forums, even though this website has it's flaws and dangers as well, of course...

 

[CTB Dream]

Internet good human bad

 

[DEATH IS FREEDOM]

I think that computers and the Internet are bad inventions. People miss out on nature, exercise and social contact. People can be mean to others on the Internet and get away with their behaviors. The computers do all the work. This makes people dumber and dumber.

 

[lsjfifie]

It depends what content you go through. Some are good and some are bad. That doesn't remove Youtube arguments in the comment section, though.