Does the Internet really make us better off?

[Guest mormonmusic]

Do you think the Internet really makes us better off? Or does it introduce more harm than the good it creates? Define good as enobling the character of man and womankind....

[Zelduick]

There's a whole lot of bad stuff out there, but to me there are great blessings with it. Being able to watch the conferences and speeches, open up Liahona, do geneaology online & keep contact with my friends wherever they are is a great blessing to me.

I do wish that all the bad stuff wasn't there though =).

[Wingnut]

AT&T has a commercial out right now that says that access to the Internet makes us smarter. It's based around the idea that after 2 days of competition, none of the 20 finalists in a spelling bee have been eliminated because they've all spelled each word correctly (watch video here). I think that spelling is an amusingly ironic thing to highlight when talking about how the Internet has helped us. Computers and the Internet have created a generation of people who don't know how to spell because they don't have to know.

[ztodd]

More good or more bad... in terms of quantity? well that would require a quantitative analysis judgment of all the consequences of the internet. Very subjective. :)

Has the internet made us smarter? I would argue that no, it hasn't. Made us lazier? Yes.

[Elgama]

well I am married because of the internet, and I am out of a wheelchair because of the internet, I am now writing a book that I am getting much out of and its much easier because of the interet. Thanks to Facebook I can keep loads of people in my life that would ordinarily be forgotten etc I can honestly say personally some of my life's greatest blessings have come via the internet. Right now its the only way I can stay in contact with church

[not_ashamed]

I think the internet is a great thing when used responsibly. I use it to make my life easier and less hectic, Its also a great place to talk to people you would never meet otherwise.

[ztodd]

To clarify, when I say it makes us lazier, I meant it as a general statement for all internet users in the whole world.

If we're talking just about righteous followers of Christ, perhaps the answer would be different. There is definitely a lot of good that has come from the internet.

[Bini]

I think the Goods and the Evils are about equal.

For every wonderful experience or opportunity online, there's a potential negative to it. I would say in most, if not all cases, people have control in how much "evil" they're exposed to online. If you don't protect yourself and make appropriate choices, you'll quickly find yourself as a target or even promoting some of the smut that's out there. I don't think it would be a stretch to say that there's more "bad choices" made online than "good choices".

Still, I can't control what other people view online or how they behave. I can only control my actions when I'm behind a monitor and keyboard. I choose to use my interweb for networking with family and friends, sharing thoughts and experiences with interest-based community forums and occasionally sending emails :] Oh and Fb when I remember..

[gabelpa]

The Internet is an enabling technology. If e want to find good, and be uplifted, then the Internet can enable us to be good and better. It can bring into the open things which would have otherwise been secret. On the other side, if we want to do evil, there is more than enough there. Anything from soft porn to instructions for building an IED from chemicals under your kitchen sink.

[Just_A_Guy]

Do you think the Internet really makes us better off?

Well, speaking from my own experience--it makes the practice of law far easier than it used to be.

So, from a social standpoint--no.

[hordak]

Like all technology it has it's good and bad. On the one hand i "know" people all over the world. On the other i don't know many in the neighborhood outside my culd a sac.

I can keep up with old friends and family since i move around alot. But it makes it less of a priority to see them in person when the opportunity does come up.

I'm also one of those people who wingnut is referring to. I have always been a bad speller (and have horrible penmanship) and with the internet as a "crutch" they haven't improved and perhaps gotten worse. I tried to fill out a check by hand the other day and my brain and hand had a hard time making the connection. Kept wanting to right my pin number since it is what i associate with paying for something.

Think the biggest problem is a lot of people use (myself included) "i looked it up on the internet" as a source of authority. I mean you can get lots of info but so much is unregulated.

[James_Fryman]

My own view on it is that weve been given moral agency, now in order for us to be compleatly free and to have compleat moral agency everything has to have a balance for how much good and evil it can do, so you can look at all the evil done and say "Thats how much evils been done, so how much Good would balance that" in the case of the internet I would say alot

[Landy77]

There are noticeable benefits and negatives to the internet. The benefit is it has made the world much smaller. I can communicate in real time from someone in another country. Ideas are easier to be shared, information on anything you can imagine is at your fingertips. The negative is the internet has removed the need to leave our house. Every time I go to the library or to a park there is no one there. Why go to the library when you can pull the encyclopedia and books off the internet. Why go to the park when you have a PS3, Wii and PC games collecting dust.

The internet has not advanced our society. Instead of how to interact in society we learn how to interact on the web. Ask yourself, when was the last time you have spoken to your neighbor? Do you know your neighbors name? When was the last time your child had a friend over or when did they go to a friends house?

When a person goes into the work force they are handicapped because a lack of social skills. My life has been affected by the internet and gaming. I think parents not allowing children to have cell phones at twelve and sending them outside with a bike would be of more benefit than anything they find on the internet at that age.

[Moksha]

My guess is that somewhere in the past, someone had moral reservations about the Encyclopedia Britannica. Gutenberg probably had his naysayers as well. Bet my daughter would say that Club Penguin in and of itself justifies the internet. Some would have withdrawal pains without LDS.net.

[NeuroTypical]

Tools don't make us better or worse, they make us more effective at being better or worse.

[Hemidakota]

Do you think the Internet really makes us better off? Or does it introduce more harm than the good it creates? Define good as enabling the character of man and womankind....

Yes...

[Guest mormonmusic]

QUOTE=Hemidakota;506352]Yes...

Hey! stop being such a smarty pants!

[Blackmarch]

Do you think the Internet really makes us better off? Or does it introduce more harm than the good it creates? Define good as enobling the character of man and womankind....

It's like TV, books, movies, or any other form of media- it depends how you use it.

[Hemidakota]

I am surprise now, when you miss your favorite show, without the need for DVR recording, you can go to a major network site and watch it with lesser commericials.