An Erratic Mind

So...

The first plan I had for this was to make a video blog (featuring none other than my awesomeness *sarcasm*) about the pros and cons of the Internet, which IMO is one of the central themes of the class we had. It was gonna be substantial, yes, but still, it lacked the uniqueness that I wanted my last entry to be.

Then an idea struck me.

Since this course concentrated on the internet as a media platform, what if I use that, and then take the inverse of the subject, inject my own opinion, put in random comments yada yada....

IN SHORT (because when I start blabbering on I won't be able to stop without anybody stopping me at all and OH COME ON.) while others are writing and doing mash-ups about their InternEducation (wow, cool term!) through this class, I'll be talking about my experiences prior to the internet--specifically, something like "How to not use the Internet".

You might be thinking, "hah, this guy's crazy. In this age? Not using the internet? Yeah. Hands down, borderline crazy." but hey, to each his own, alright? Besides, look where this guy's crazy idea of connecting computers to share files got us. Now, what do you have? Basically an anything-at-your-fingertips-and-everything-at-your-disposal culture.

It's really not hard to imagine life without the Internet (hey, I lived a few years of my *early* life without it, and my parents more, and I surely don't see anything wrong with that) but if I were to decide, I'd be able to

enumerate three different ways on how not to use the internet. Haha. Read on.

Is it hard to live without this? Hardly.

1. You keep on posting status updates and commenting on others' statuses and you HARDLY know everyone in your "friends" list and yet you act like you do. Go out and spend time with them! Actual, 'physical' time!

I know, I shouldn't generalize. Some more "friendly" people know everyone in their friends list. Heck, perhaps they've met everyone there personally at least once in their lives, and for some that's enough to say that they're friends with that person. Still, it's definitely better to be able to interact on a more personal level with your friends--that is, unless you hold a grudge against your friends or they you.

I'll present one case in my life as an example. When the IRC clients came out (I think the IRC stood for Internet Relay Chat)(and after a quick search was verified--see the 'ease' I'm talking about?!) it was a matter of going into a virtual 'room' and, when you feel comfortable and/or arrogant, you choose someone in the room, double-click their name to bring up the PM (private message) window, and then ask their "asl" (age, sex, location)--after which you'd have struck a conversation--and a friend. I remember back then Friendster was almost new, and that most of the IRC people had them so we were also able to 'see' each other.

I also met one of my chatmates through EB's (eyeballs), although that was because one of she was actually going to our High School as a freshman. Withholding elaboration, we managed to have a decent friendship, but still, nothing beats being friends with someone through physical interactions.

On the other hand, there are some who start forming relationships (friendship and more) solely through the web. Well, yeah, sometimes it works, sometimes people actually get married after meeting through the internet (although I have yet to verify all those stories in that page, I do know that there have been a few news items about the subject here and there) but there are also cases where people manage to pretend about a lot of things about them, because it is easy to do that with Social Networking Sites and nobody to verify each and every person's profile--what they claim to be and not to be.
One such issue that comes to mind is the movie (documentary, actually) called Catfish. Since the movie tagline is "Don't let anyone tell you what it is", I won't be telling you what it is until you have watched it. Javascript doesn't work in individual blogposts, and I was planning on making a toggle-able box that you guys can choose to not toggle on so as to not have the movie spoiled for you, so instead I will make the text real small. Good luck not getting spoiled. Lol.

Catfish is a reality/documentary-type movie about Nev Schulman a NY-based photographer, and a little girl named Abby from Michigan, who contacted Nev through Facebook to ask for permission to paint his pictures. All goes well, Nev gets to talk to Angela, who is Abby's mom, Megan, who is apparently Abby's half-sister, Nev receives paintings of Angela's portraits, song covers that somehow sound exactly like some covers found on the internet, and as suspicions arise more and more, Nev gets informed of an art exhibit where Abby's paintings will be featured in a place that has been untouched for the best part of a decade. Suspicious, and also because of Megan's somehow unmatching stories, Nev decides to go with his brother Ariel and his friend Henry (the filmmakers behind the docu) to Michigan, much to the surprise of a very different-looking Angela, an indifferent Abby, and a non-existing Megan.

Later on, Angela finally spills, telling Nev she orchestrated everything including Abby's "paintings" (which are actually hers), Megan, Abby, and Angela's Facebook pages (which are actually just accounts she set up, complete with fake photos except for Abby's), the songs and covers available online that Angela sends to Nev as "Megan's" recordings and the phones she uses for Angela and "Megan".

So, this case is another testament that contributes to the Internet's vagueness--people do fake these things, with none the wiser.

So, like I said, it's still a lot more authentic to interact with people in person. Sure, there are identity frauds and such, but at least you know (read: see) who you are talking to, most of the time.

2. WoW man, DotA great game! You play a lot and you think you're so good but hey physical finesse, have you forgotten about it? Oh my how bulging your belly is!

Let me ask you, how much games do you play on your computers? Consoles? Handheld game thingamajigs? How many more games do you know of that you haven't played yet? How many of these games are online-enabled games?

Thing is, almost every game nowadays has this online component where players from different parts of the globe (or friends in Barangay Silangan) can play with each other, go on 'journeys' together and KS (killsteal) monsters from other players. Hell, in World of Warcraft, they can even have intercourse! (I won't embed the video, for the sake of censorship)

I mean, seriously, how long has it been since you guys last played patintero or two-base or luksong baka? Is it much more fulfilling to frag a foreign player than to tag a friend out of patintero?

Is it more fun to raid an enemy'scamp with your 'online buddies' than to surprise someone playing hide and seek with you? Well, fine, if there are some of you that say yes to these, then whatever, everyone is entitled to their own opinion anyway. In whatever case, I'd still stick to my argument that physical games are the way to go, at least for people younger than me.

Meet the CyBerKada.

That's the thing--just because technology has gone up to a point where toddlers already have handheld games, does it necessarily mean that kids have to grow fat and not go out anymore? Heck, I even remember when we were young, we used to go out at about 4pm (we were about 12 kids in our village street) and play these weird but fun games until about 6pm, and then go home and then play videogames for about an hour or so. Way back, it was the video game that gets the back seat. Now? Not so sure.

Another thing, these online (or video, more generally) games have also brought forth a new era of filmmaking. You guys familiar with machinima? Apparently, people started doing 'films' using 3D games. Here's an example:

I know, traditional cinema still has a lot of life in it, but seriously, do you guys think it will still be as tough as it is, what with all the emerging online video-making and movie-making industry? They are mostly amateurs, granted, but really, is it that far off? Already there are a plethora of YouTube movies that, well, are still substandard probably, but already show potential in terms of concepts.
3. Don't be lazy. Go search for things you need in your library, in your books, notes, whatever! Articles in there are much longer and substantial than sources on the internet!
I realize that the internet is home to a lot of writings on just about anything. I won't pretend to not know that you guys know that already. This is pretty much what I meant when I said that we now have so much on our fingertips.
Then there's the issue of books
being replaced by the internet itself. While this might not seem such a far-off thought, it can't be ignored that still, books are an essential medium with which we can get information from. Nevermind how people rip off novels and produce (replicate, actually) ebooks through their copies--there are still more to books than just the occasional sparkling vampire or the dynamic demigod, and we all know it. Even with the advent of the Kindle, I'm inclined to believe that it will take more than technology to undermine fine print.

So, there. Even if there's definitely a big advancement to technology, there's still a way to go back to basics--basic is best, after all.

Even with how things have been with I.T. advancements in general, the most fail-safe way to 'know' is, of course, to go old-school. After all, advanced technology is the first to go when things like this happen.

Jb Aquino

Sources

http://seanseo.com/business/internet-marketing-education/

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,986354,00.html

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,986354,00.html

http://chutinan17.blogspot.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Relay_Chat

http://www.cyberlove101.com/gotmarried.htm

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1584016/fullcredits#cast

http://www.geek.com/articles/games/world-of-warcraft-might-go-free-to-play-sometime-in-the-future-according-to-lead-designer-2010072/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Osf3wbjzUeM

http://internetwithoutphoneline.com/

http://www.4axioms.net/

http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Wireless-Reader-3G-Wifi-Graphite/dp/B002FQJT3Q

http://www.ehow.com/how_2100154_survive-post-nuclear-apocalyptic-future.html