Fantastic article about how Facebook makes people stupid!

[Brother_Bliss]

"Gutenberg's Revolution left us with a world that was intellectually rich. Zuckerberg's portends one that is all thumbs and no brains."

This is exactly what I have been saying for 2 years now!

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-gabler-zuckerberg-20101128,0,7889675.story

Everybody close to me knows that I am the "anti-text" when it comes to text messaging. I refuse! Facebook is really nothing more, and it's addictiveness and popularity has been killing quality discussion forums across the internet and replacing them with mindless fragmented sentences.

[sianrose]

Some other interesting points....

LONELINESS

Despite our inter-connectedness, we're now more alone than ever.

There are more than 300 million of us in the United States, and sometimes it seems like we're all friends on Facebook. But the sad truth is that Americans are lonelier than ever. Between 1985 and 2004, the number of people who said there was no one with whom they discussed important matters tripled, to 25 percent, according to Duke University researchers.

Lonely Planet....by

Johannah Cornblatt

Switch off social networking regularly to avoid compounding loneliness, says health insurance comparison site Quoteboffin.co.uk.

It's been reported that many people in modern Britain feel lonely, prompting health insurance comparison site Quoteboffin.co.uk to suggest they look at their habits and lifestyle choices.

As increases in technology see the UK becoming ever more switched on to personal computers, online communication and social networking, a new report has appeared claiming that Britain is suffering from an epidemic of loneliness.

HOW THE INTERNET IS MAKING US STUPID…

What we seem to be sacrificing in our surfing and searching is our capacity to engage in the quieter, attentive modes of thought that underpin contemplation, reflection and introspection. The web never encourages us to slow down. It keeps us in a state of perpetual mental locomotion. The rise of social networks like Facebook and Twitter, which pump out streams of brief messages, has only exacerbated the problem.

There’s nothing wrong with absorbing information quickly and in bits and pieces. We’ve always skimmed newspapers more than we’ve read them, and we routinely run our eyes over books and magazines to get the gist of a piece of writing and decide whether it warrants more thorough reading. The ability to scan and browse is as important as the ability to read deeply and think attentively.

What’s disturbing is that skimming is becoming our dominant mode of thought. Once a means to an end, a way to identify information for further study, it’s becoming an end in itself — our preferred method of both learning and analysis. Dazzled by the net’s treasures, we have been blind to the damage we may be doing to our intellectual lives and even our culture……

Excerpts from article by Nicholas Carr...telegraph.co.uk

[Brother_Bliss]

I love this quote....

What’s disturbing is that skimming is becoming our dominant mode of thought. Once a means to an end, a way to identify information for further study, it’s becoming an end in itself — our preferred method of both learning and analysis. Dazzled by the net’s treasures, we have been blind to the damage we may be doing to our intellectual lives and even our culture……

A personal case study, so to speak...

There is a sister who used to be in my congregation before she got married. She was a notorious textaholic.

I, on the other hand, am the anti-text. I hate text messaging and believe it is destroying peoples social skills and their ability to communicate with one another.

This sister, who had been told repeatedly to never text my wife or I, texted me a question, I called her back to answer and she did not answer and so I left a voice mail. Two minutes later she texted a response after listening to the voicemail. I couldn't believe it!

I ended up putting a block on our ability to send or receive text messages because of this person, who was costing us a lot of money. I even tried to tell her this, and her response was "Why don't you just buy one of those unlimited text packages?"

"Because why should I pay an extra $20 per line because you have no clue how to use a telephone?" I retorted.

[rocket]

I, on the other hand, am the anti-text. I hate text messaging and believe it is destroying peoples social skills and their ability to communicate with one another.

On the positive side, You may very well be alive today because of your "anti-text" persona. In our State there have been so many auto accident deaths relating to cell phones, that the State Gov. Banned texting and cell phone use while driving. It has become as dangerous as drunk driving. They have set up sting operations to catch the cell phone users. There would be a chapter of Mothers Against Cell Phone Drivers, MACPD, but it seams Mothers are as guilty of the crime as anyone else. I am an anti-texting person also. My son hates my anti-texting persona but he doesn't pay the bills so too bad.

[Brother_Bliss]

There would be a chapter of Mothers Against Cell Phone Drivers, MACPD, but it seams Mothers are as guilty of the crime as anyone else.

This made me think of something my CO said at my recent KMS School for ministerial servants...

He said that a few years ago, it was sisters complaining to him about how their husbands spend too much time on the internet. Now the roles have reversed, and it is the brothers coming to him complaining that their wives are on Facebook all day. :-)

[trottigy]

Bob, do you still feel the same way?

We have an emergency preparedness strategy and our first means of contact is via text as these small messages often can get through where a phone call can not.

[Brother_Bliss]

Bob, do you still feel the same way?

We have an emergency preparedness strategy and our first means of contact is via text as these small messages often can get through where a phone call can not.

I have a smart phone now, so my anti-text emotions have softened some. No more numerical keypad and T9 entry

However, I still hate that people think it is a means of interaction. The key word in text message is "message". So "Hey honey, traffic is terrible, I don't think I will make it home till about 6pm" is acceptable, because it does not require a response. It's essentially an electronic post-it note or smoke signal. On the other hand "Hey, what's up?" is completely offensive still. Call me and ask that with your voice, you moron!

[GrumpysWife]

Bob, do you still feel the same way?

We have an emergency preparedness strategy and our first means of contact is via text as these small messages often can get through where a phone call can not.

I have a smart phone now, so my anti-text emotions have softened some. No more numerical keypad and T9 entry

However, I still hate that people think it is a means of interaction. The key word in text message is "message". So "Hey honey, traffic is terrible, I don't think I will make it home till about 6pm" is acceptable, because it does not require a response. It's essentially an electronic post-it note or smoke signal. On the other hand "Hey, what's up?" is completely offensive still. Call me and ask that with your voice, you moron!

I agree.

[trottigy]

Call me and ask that with your voice, you moron!

One of the sisters in our hall has a voice mail message that says "DON'T LEAVE A MESSAGE. If I didn't answer - send me a text."

Let's just say - she isn't the friendliest person you would know ;)

[Musky]

I have always viewed text messaging as Bob does. It has it's place. My wife will text me a message if I'm out on a job because she knows it would be awkward for me to answer the telephone. The younger generation who are growing up with this crap are losing their ability to communicate intelligently. They use so many abbreviations while texting that this has carried over into their everyday speech! I have a hard time understanding them when they speak!