Why isn't the Internet real?

[mtnbkr]

I frequently see people online claim that "the internet isn't real" or that "it doesn't matter, it's only the Internet".  Now, I understand not taking everything you see here as factual, that should apply to all aspects of life, but what's with the attitude that the Internet is some sort of make believe world?  I certainly take what I say online seriously and wouldn't say/write anything online that I wouldn't say in that person's company.

I dunno.  It just bugs me because I treat this method of communication no differently than any other.  It's as "real" to me as the telephone, a letter, or face to face.

Chris

[Felonious Monk/Fignozzle]

Chris,
I am the same way re: what I add to the internet.
What I CONSUME from the 'net, I take with a big dose of skepticism.

Classic example: a guy on SDF (self-defense forums) was a regular poster, claimed to have travelled and studied with all these "tier 2" masters, (maybe not Bruce Lee, but maybe SO Dan Inosanto), and was made a moderator.
It was later found that this was a 15 year old kid from Rhode Island...a very smart, well-read kid, but a kid nonetheless-- who had not studied under anyone except his local McDojo's.

It's the classic Wizard of Oz scenario.

"Pay no attention to the little man behind the curtain.  
I am the mighty Oz."

[Guest]

Why isn't the Internet real?

Because all my instructors said so, and my Cisco Texts despict the Internet as a cloud.

Computers can exist without the Internet - The Internet cannot exist without computers.

From the Cisco CCNA I, II text,[ ISBN 1-58713-150-1] glossary:

Internet- The largest global internetwork, connecting tens of thousands of networks worldwide and having a culture that focuses on research and standardization based on real-life use.

.

What do I know, I pay money to learn stuff and take Cisco exams that drive me nuts at times. I'm going to play calculate Class A, B, C, D, E IP addys, TCP/IP protocol suite layers, contrast to OSI model, play with subnets, and take some exams tonight. Only good thing about tonight, we are supposed to have free pizza deivered, and get to tear some stuff up to see how it was put together.  

The wireless stuff is what baffles me at times.  I can deal with the Fiber Optic, and Copper, physical stuff like routers, switches and hubs...stuff just floating in the air...now that makes me scratch my head.

I'll be in the rubber room later if anybody wants me....

[K Frame]

Uhm...

I think proof positive is the link that I sent to your home yesterday?

[grampster]

anonymity.   The net doesn't know who you are and doesn't care.  You can be anybody, say anything, come from anywhere.  Nobody knows.  If you are normal, you see the internet as a place to find out stuff, share ideas, meet folks and chat about stuff, etc etc.  It's a wonderful way to conect with others that one would normaly never even know existed.

If you build a false life in the real world, you go to jail if you are outed.  On the net, as long as you are not interfering in the lives of others, you can be anybody.
But other than for the humorous adventure of that, I guess I don't see any value in doing that myself.

[jefnvk]

Because any idiot with some free time and a guide book can make his 'knowledge' (or lack of it) known as the gosple truth to the entire world.

Its not bad, you just gotta not be a sucker.

[Kestrel]

Well, the Internet certainly has it's (big) share of miscreants and falsities, but I agree with you that communication on it should be truthful, anyway.

Some individuals may like to say "the Internet is not real", blah, blah, blah, because on the surface, it sounds good and just looks like they're referring to the fact that anyone can pretend to be something they are not or say anything that is false. But more deeply, they may be simply trying to excuse their anti-social behaviour on the Internet.

It's easier to act like an idiot, be inflammatory and anti-social and then just excuse it by saying - "hey, the Internet's not real - don't expect me to be responsible or insulting for my foolish blathering...".

[mtnbkr]

But more deeply, they may be simply trying to excuse their anti-social behaviour on the Internet.

It's easier to act like an idiot, be inflammatory and anti-social and then just excuse it by saying - "hey, the Internet's not real - don't expect me to be responsible or insulting for my foolish blathering...".

That's the gist of it I think.  In essence, they're saying as long as you can punch them in the nose for the innapropriate thing they just said to you, it isn't real life.  We need one of those boxing glove devices for our computers like the little rascals had for their soapbox derby cars (and a big button on everyone's computer that lets you deploy them remotely).

I think proof positive is the link that I sent to your home yesterday?

Which one was that?  I forget...

Chris

[Phyphor]

Why isn't the Internet real?

Because all my instructors said so, and my Cisco Texts despict the Internet as a cloud.

Computers can exist without the Internet - The Internet cannot exist without computers.

From the Cisco CCNA I, II text,[ ISBN 1-58713-150-1] glossary:

Internet- The largest global internetwork, connecting tens of thousands of networks worldwide and having a culture that focuses on research and standardization based on real-life use.

.

What do I know, I pay money to learn stuff and take Cisco exams that drive me nuts at times. I'm going to play calculate Class A, B, C, D, E IP addys, TCP/IP protocol suite layers, contrast to OSI model, play with subnets, and take some exams tonight. Only good thing about tonight, we are supposed to have free pizza deivered, and get to tear some stuff up to see how it was put together.  

The wireless stuff is what baffles me at times.  I can deal with the Fiber Optic, and Copper, physical stuff like routers, switches and hubs...stuff just floating in the air...now that makes me scratch my head.

I'll be in the rubber room later if anybody wants me....

No *expletive deleted*it, I despise wireless....and I'm a MCSE and CCNA!

[El Tejon]

"My source:  the Internet."  Peggy Hill, citizen of the Republic of Texas.

Yeah, SDF took a huge credibility hit on that debacle.  Geez, what a disaster.

The Errornet is as real as anything you hear in a gun shoppe on Saturday morning!:D  I.e., it's all a bunch of bullfeathers.

[Guest]

I'm actually a tall voluptous blond with a sweet disposition.

[mtnbkr]

I'm actually a tall voluptous blond with a sweet disposition.

The tall voluptous blond part I'll believe.  The sweet disposition, well...

The Errornet is as real as anything you hear in a gun shoppe on Saturday morning!big_smile  I.e., it's all a bunch of bullfeathers.

I think we're missing the point.  My point isn't that what's on the internet is true or not, but that I don't understand the attitude that because it's the Internet it's automatically less valid than any other source of communication.

Maybe I'm not being clear.  I'm not debating that the Internet is full of BS.  I want to know why some consider it less "real" from an interaction standpoint.  There are some companies I'd never do business with simply because of their actions online.  That's pretty damn real to me.

Chris

[Standing Wolf]

Heck, my kitty says I'm imaginary.

[Guest]

No, you're being clear.  The net is much more accepted than it used to be, but it still depends on the site. Something on geocities isn't going to be given the credibility of something from CNN or a .edu (I know, I know..I'm just stating a fact.)

[Sindawe]

The wireless stuff is what baffles me at times.  I can deal with the Fiber Optic, and Copper, physical stuff like routers, switches and hubs...stuff just floating in the air...now that makes me scratch my head.

Is it the protocols, or that the data is being transmitted via electromagnetic waves?  I don't have any problems with the wireless stuff, but maybe thats due to being educated as an organic/biological chemist, where its ALL just invisable stuff jumping about in spacetime.

I want to know why some consider it less "real" from an interaction standpoint.

Perhaps because its still VERY new, and many many sites are the equivalent of the Patent Medicine shows of old, or two loons getting up on their milk crates and bickering over who has the best imaginary friend that lives in the sky.

[mtnbkr]

No, you're being clear.  The net is much more accepted than it used to be, but it still depends on the site. Something on geocities isn't going to be given the credibility of something from CNN or a .edu (I know, I know..I'm just stating a fact.)

But that's not really what I'm talking about.  I'm not talking about the actual data, but the lack of respect given to the "interaction" online.  It seems to me that people treat the net as another fantasy land where your actions don't matter.  That's what's bothering me.  Just because we're using computers and wires and satellites to have this conversation doesn't make it any less real than if we were standing in the same room together, yet some would say that it isn't as real.  

Chris

[Felonious Monk/Fignozzle]

I guess you can get both on the web, Chris.
People meet on the web, and get together as a result for mutually agreed goals all the time.  To me, that's as real as it gets.

People also live out total escapist fantasies, which sometimes spill over into real life to their detriment.

Knowing where you are at all times...situational awareness...is key to not getting eaten in the internet forest.

[Justin]

I've never seen a hog go unfed on the internet.

[K Frame]

Interestingly enough, what you're describing has afflicted EVERY new electronic medium early in its lifecycle -- telephone, radio, and television.

It took nearly 20 years (into the early 1960s) before most people started thinking of television as a viable, real, source of information. Many people had TVs, but it was for I Love Lucy, Howdy Doody, and the like. If they wanted REAL information, they continued to turn to their radios or pick up their newspapers.

The event that turned it around for television was JFK's assassination, and especially Oswald's live-on-the-air murder.

A generation before radio faced the same dilemma. While it got a little bit more creedence, it was still a medium of entertainment, not a source of information, despite the fact that for many Americans gathering around the radio was a nightly ritual that ranked right up there with church on Sunday.

There were two things that changed the stature of radio in the United States -- Franklin Roosevelt's masterful use of the medum during the depression, and, believe it or not, Orson Well's War of the Worlds.

[Guest]

There is no triage of information (any idiot can put "information" on the internet) and there is little or no accountability for ones "actions" (which arent really actions at all, but words).

Its a pretty far cry from real life.

[Guest]

Oh. I guess I was off.

For me, the line isn't so clear because other than here, mostly I know the people I'm interacting with, and even here, I don't make any attempts to hide my identity so pretty much what you see is what you get.

I don't know why people don't take it seriously. I think I'm guilty of that, too. One of the interns at work sits in chat rooms all day and I find myself thinking that's a goofy way to interact with people, but what the hell do I know?

[El Tejon]

If I hear it in a gun shoppe, I know it is not valid.

If I read it on the Errornet, I know it is nonsense as well.

[Jamisjockey]

One only has to look as far as the thread about mtnbkr's daughter to see an example.  People say things behind the animonity (sp) of a keyboard that they normally wouldn't in person.
I try to avoid that.  The only difference is that behind a keyboard I sometimes think out my answers a little more cleanly than in person.  What you see, or read, is what you get.