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Do you think the internet is causing people to get full of themselves?
I think it goes without saying that modern society (especially in the United States) is a "look at me! look at me!" society, but some people are truly ridiculous. People put a youtube video up and think they're a celebrity. Everyone is now a "musician," or a "photographer" or a "writer" because they've been (self) "published" on the internet (as if that means anything at all). I've seen people put their crappy home recordings on a webpage and start talking about themselves as if they have record contracts on the way.
I do believe people should use whatever venues necessary to pursue their dreams, but it seems that all of a sudden, everyone thinks they're about to be "discovered" or that their blog is the equivalent of the New York Times.
Did the internet make everyone arrogant, or did our collective arrogance shape the internet? Neither? Both?
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I do believe people should use whatever venues necessary to pursue their dreams, but it seems that all of a sudden, everyone thinks they're about to be "discovered" or that their blog is the equivalent of the New York Times.
Did the internet make everyone arrogant, or did our collective arrogance shape the internet? Neither? Both?
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July 29, 2010 08:51 PM
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I think you have a very good point. Because the internet is so accessible to everyone, if as you say, someone puts a video on Youtube or any of the other ways of putting either information, photos, or anything else on display for most of the world to see, it can feed their egos to a ridiculous degree.
It's just so easy, never before has the ordinary person had the ability to show off to this degree. The trouble is, it's a bit like going to a karaoke evening. If you are really lucky, you may find someone with real talent will get up and sing, but the rest of the performers are cringe makingly awful and don't even know it.
It's the same on the internet, some people are interesting and talented, but there are shedloads of others who should never even think of drawing attention to themselves at all.
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It's just so easy, never before has the ordinary person had the ability to show off to this degree. The trouble is, it's a bit like going to a karaoke evening. If you are really lucky, you may find someone with real talent will get up and sing, but the rest of the performers are cringe makingly awful and don't even know it.
It's the same on the internet, some people are interesting and talented, but there are shedloads of others who should never even think of drawing attention to themselves at all.
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July 29, 2010 09:35 PM
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I find it amusing. :)
I actually think humanity's arrogance shaped the Internet. I doubt we are any more arrogant today than people were in the past. Prior inventions like the tape recorder, the movie camera, the camcorder, the Citizen's Band radio, the microphone boom box and heck even the typewriter gave arrogant and showoffish people avenues for their expression as well. I believe humanity's desire to show off is what invented the Internet.
What many people do not yet realize is that one day soon the Internet is going to put all recording studios, newspapers and magazines out of business. No one will be a "real" musician or a "real" writer anymore. They won't exist. They'll be extinct professions because Everyman will get better and better at doing what they do.
Journalists are starting to realize this, and they are way more full of themselves if you ask me.
John Pilger: The war you don't see - the attack on real journalism (Part 1) (starts at 3:55 in this video)
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I actually think humanity's arrogance shaped the Internet. I doubt we are any more arrogant today than people were in the past. Prior inventions like the tape recorder, the movie camera, the camcorder, the Citizen's Band radio, the microphone boom box and heck even the typewriter gave arrogant and showoffish people avenues for their expression as well. I believe humanity's desire to show off is what invented the Internet.
What many people do not yet realize is that one day soon the Internet is going to put all recording studios, newspapers and magazines out of business. No one will be a "real" musician or a "real" writer anymore. They won't exist. They'll be extinct professions because Everyman will get better and better at doing what they do.
Journalists are starting to realize this, and they are way more full of themselves if you ask me.
John Pilger: The war you don't see - the attack on real journalism (Part 1) (starts at 3:55 in this video)
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July 29, 2010 10:18 PM
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I think for the most part "we" were full of ourselves already and the internet just gave us a semi-anonymous and semi-detached platform from which to shout "We are full of ourselves!!" from. The internet did not make us this way, the internet made us tell everyone about how much we love what we have to say.
It was unfair to choose no best answer
This is one of the reasons that makes answering questions here in Conundrumland a pain in the butt. How could not one of these answers been "best"? This question asked for opinions and several well articulated opinions were given.
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July 30, 2010 12:11 AM
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I see your point and think you are right to a degree. However, I think the internet gives people a place to be their "true self", even though some use it to lie. I think it's easier to express ourselves and pursue our dreams on the internet. When I was a younger, I wanted to be a singer. Well, now I can do that. I might not be successful and everyone might laugh, but I can be a singer now.
The internet allows people to be whatever they want. They can put up videos and be an actor or singer, have a blog and articles and be a writer, and they can go to a chat room and lie and become CEO or model. In a sense, I don't think it's so much of people being full of themselves. I think it's more about living a dream and/or expressing their real self or what they want to be. Of course, I do know some of them are exceptions and think they are really something else. The world is much better off by seeing their horrible performance.
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The internet allows people to be whatever they want. They can put up videos and be an actor or singer, have a blog and articles and be a writer, and they can go to a chat room and lie and become CEO or model. In a sense, I don't think it's so much of people being full of themselves. I think it's more about living a dream and/or expressing their real self or what they want to be. Of course, I do know some of them are exceptions and think they are really something else. The world is much better off by seeing their horrible performance.
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July 30, 2010 03:35 AM
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I think the internet may provide a venue for people to get a little more "out there" than otherwise, and that minor popularity may go to their heads a little bit. However, you can also blame offline technology for the fact that anyone can now record a song or take a picture. Doing either of those things used to be significantly more pricey. Getting a book published is also much easier than it used to be, but it's still not nearly as cheap as recording or taking a photo. It may be partially the internet, but there are other places to assign blame too.
If you ask me, most things in life boil down to money, and money often boils down to sales. It doesn't matter how many hits a MySpace page gets. What matters is how much you *sell*. Let's hope people slowly start to understand that.
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If you ask me, most things in life boil down to money, and money often boils down to sales. It doesn't matter how many hits a MySpace page gets. What matters is how much you *sell*. Let's hope people slowly start to understand that.
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July 30, 2010 05:31 AM
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I think alot of people were always full of themselves and the internet is the venue to thrust it upon everyone in a safehaven for their egos. In NYC you see people who can't sing on street corners looking for money and trying to sell cd's that they have recorded. It is actually pretty cheap to cut a low budget CD. Look at all the no talent good looking girls in Hollywood. They come from some small town and they think because their good looking they don't need talent. Everyone finds their niche-some in B movies others move to porn to pay the bills. So I think people's egos shaped the internet.
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