A few weeks back I encountered a wonderful series of articles titled “What, Me Read?” by a long-time college professor of literature. He says that we are now in a post-literate age, where youngsters do not read as a matter of course (except for abbreviation-filled cell phone text messages).

I certainly don’t believe we can blame the Internet. This trend began when we as parents turned our babysitting chores over to the television.

“A nation’s culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people.”
Mohandas Gandhi

“You have a lot of time on these tours. As Alice Cooper said, you can either drink all day or golf.”
Justin Timberlake

Culture can be all things to all people, so to say culture varies from society to society is correct. Saying that one culture is superior to another is erroneous.
American culture is judged by many to be superior because it exports a lot of cultural products, is widely emulated, the plumbing works and more often then not the lights go on when you flip the switch.
Other people consider Chinese culture to be superior because it is older.

I usually use my full real name as a web name. Because it is unusual, I am noticeable. It keeps me honest. Since I am free with my opinions, and I have a unique name, it occurred to me to google myself. It was interesting to see my comments from several years ago. I resolved to make sure that I am willing to admit to everything I say.

It occurs to me that a mediated blog which required people to use their real names with addresses posted might produce a more polite and less irresponsible discussion.

I think Graham’s point is valid. Our culture of relaxed standards is showing in the internet.

AnninCA, your comment reminded me of a story from the late 1960s, told by a young lady who objected verbally to profanity being used in her presence. The offenders changed their mode of speech. An elderly gentleman approached her and thanked her. He said that he missed having young *ladies* around. I find myself agreeing with him.

September that never ended

All time since September 1993. One of the seasonal rhythms of the Usenet used to be the annual September influx of clueless newbies who, lacking any sense of netiquette, made a general nuisance of themselves. This coincided with people starting college, getting their first internet accounts, and plunging in without bothering to learn what was acceptable. These relatively small drafts of newbies could be assimilated within a few months. But in September 1993, AOL users became able to post to Usenet, nearly overwhelming the old-timers’ capacity to acculturate them; to those who nostalgically recall the period before, this triggered an inexorable decline in the quality of discussions on newsgroups. Syn. eternal September. See also AOL!.

(Source: The Jargon File: September-that-never-ended)

Seriously though… There are some real dunces on the internet now. Back in the days of yore with win95 bsod headaches, there were far less ‘youth’ on the internet. Young folks on the internet can be VERY dangerous indeed. People used to gripe at parents who let their kids watch too much television as a cheap ‘babysitter’ but at least Daffy Duck wasn’t talking dirty to little Jane or little John. Now, kids are often left with far too much freedom on the internet and exposed to things that are disturbing to even ponder.

Unfortunately, there will always be EVIL in this world or just plain old-fashioned JERKS. The WWW is just that… the “WORLD WIDE WEB” and that in and of itself has a lot of implications that require due diligence and maturity with regards to safety and maturity. The idiots who get on the internet without caring about installing firewalls and anti-virus programs are the ones usually responsible for spreading the bugs around.

I adore my computers because they really CAN save a lot of time and also, you get to have the chance to converse with people from all walks of life but people DO need to buck up and be careful. VERY careful.

On top of that many technologies that have become “de facto standards” on the net are not fit for purpose. Flash movies are fine for a two and a half minute cartoon embedded in a tiny window but awful for showing images that benefit from a full screen.

I could go on for ever with examples (but I am a computer pro from the days when it was recognised PC are just toys.

The fact is PC / Internet technology has ben mis sold just as mortgages, investments, enron, worldcom, hope n change and war on terror were mis sold.

We allowed a culture of untruth to develop, having been misled by some crackpot hippie pseudo philosophies from the 1960s.

I should add that the less well off were able to buy machines in those days, but then again most of these were an admixture of younger, more tech connected, curious, etc.; all of which point to “a bit more savvy than the rest” and indicative of the basic “g” factor that is associated with overall success.
Essentially “upper middle class” and upper middle class (a.k.a. a bit smarter) quality of thought” are roughly analagous for this argument.

For those of you unfamiliar with “g” the bottom line is that IQ is a predictor of success that is reasonably accurate. As a rule class and “g” are not necessarily synonymous (it’s possible to see idiots in the upper classes) but there is a distinct enough correlation to state generalities. Thus you might see mechanics online in the 80′s but these were the smarter ones looking for that competitive edge. And so on.

Overall the argument is that in the early days IQ and computer use were positively correlated but “a PC in every home” thinking changed this by definition.

I was hoping what I’d written earlier was plain enough, but this is, after all, the internet… and… and maybe I’d be better off spelling certain assumptions out, e.g. “g” factor.