T
ToeInTheWater
Guest
I don’t have a Facebook or Twitter account, BUT I don’t think there’s anything inherently problematic about those sites. I remember the 1990s too, especially toward the end when the Internet really became mainstream. That was the era of AOL IMs, Geocities, Angelfire, IRC chat rooms, and all sorts of independent “forums” such as CAF.
Well, I suspect that I wasted as much or more time on the Net those days as the average teenager does. Especially when I was in college, as I went to one with computers and Ethernet ports available in almost every room. I remember I got in trouble with a professor once for browsing the Net instead of paying attention in class.
Now, it is true that at that time, cell phones still weighed 5 pounds a piece and only the most expensive plans featured any Net access, so the whole SMS texting issue wasn’t as big, but I DID cause my parents fits by tying up the phone line so I could access the Internet through old-fashioned dial-up.
And of course, almost every “classic” family sitcom of the 1980s features at least one chatty teenager, usually a girl, spending most of her time on the phone, even with friends they’d just said “bye” to in person 5 minutes before.
As schaeffer said, all this technology is, are tools. Now, one problem I DO think is inherent to mediums such as Twitter is how short the tweets are, and how they tend to exacerbate people’s tendency to express themselves in shallow sound bites; but politicians and celebrities were doing that WAY before anyone even though of the Twitter concept.
Well, I suspect that I wasted as much or more time on the Net those days as the average teenager does. Especially when I was in college, as I went to one with computers and Ethernet ports available in almost every room. I remember I got in trouble with a professor once for browsing the Net instead of paying attention in class.
Now, it is true that at that time, cell phones still weighed 5 pounds a piece and only the most expensive plans featured any Net access, so the whole SMS texting issue wasn’t as big, but I DID cause my parents fits by tying up the phone line so I could access the Internet through old-fashioned dial-up.
And of course, almost every “classic” family sitcom of the 1980s features at least one chatty teenager, usually a girl, spending most of her time on the phone, even with friends they’d just said “bye” to in person 5 minutes before.
As schaeffer said, all this technology is, are tools. Now, one problem I DO think is inherent to mediums such as Twitter is how short the tweets are, and how they tend to exacerbate people’s tendency to express themselves in shallow sound bites; but politicians and celebrities were doing that WAY before anyone even though of the Twitter concept.