The Glade 4.0

There I was in the car, listening to the news, when I was informed by the news guy that Facebook was having issues and many users could not access the site.

This is a milestone for our society. 10 years ago I'd probably have laughed if you told me a normal website going down would ever make the actual news. It would be one thing if it was a local site that people used for something important (I don't know, part of a registration process for public schools or something like that). But.. Facebook? And not even an interesting news story to back it up! Just... just letting us know that the site is having problems.

I'm still kind of shocked.

In any case, I don't think this is particularly relevant or anything. No deep meaning for society. But it is a bit much to think of how far things have come in such a relatively short amount of time.

Tweet via @TheDollSays:

Facebook users are roaming the streets in tears, shoving photos of themselves in people's faces and screaming 'DO YOU LIKE THIS? DO YOU??'

I hear you, Noggel, that's kind of interesting observation.

Darkroland, that's just a hilarious tweet.

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This cold and dark tormented hell
Is all I`ll ever know
So when you get to heaven
May the devil be the judge

Yeah it amazes me just how much the internet is a part of everyone's life now. So many people depend on it.

Who here could actually go back to a time when the closest thing you had to the internet were local Bulletin Board Systems and your only phone was one that was wired into the walls of your house?

It's crazy.

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Les Zombis et les Loups-Garous!

I eagerly await the day our technological overlords take over

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I could without even a twinge.

I'd be utterly lost without the Internet. Facebook, on the other hand, I don't even have an account for. I despise it, and the entire concept of it.

The only phone I have is the one wired into the walls of my house. Got rid of our cell phones two years ago and haven't missed them. As it stands, I wish I could also get rid of the wired one and prevent the calls I do get...but there are occasional calls I want.

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Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

I could get rid of cell phones, Facebook, and a lot of the fluff of the internet (YouTube et al) but at this point some of the online people I've met and do stuff with is just too integral for me to do without. I admit I haven't really been too forthcoming with personal stuff on the Glade despite being here since ... awhile ago, and haven't really got close to anyone here, but there have been a handful of people over the past 13 years I've spent online that have been pretty important to me, and I'd definitely feel it if the Internet would to one day disappear forever.

It was actually really helpful, I think, though it's hard for me not to take it for granted since it's the only thing I know. Pre-Internet was grade school time for me, so all my friends were always here to begin with. When I moved away to college (twice!) I basically brought a lot of my social life with me and never skipped a beat. I know that plenty of people, when they move away to college, have to basically start totally anew (unless they have a Facebook account at least...) and it can be a very unpleasant experience. Especially when the years spent apart pulls relationships back home apart, to varying degrees.

Moving away to school isn't even all that bad compared to moving away for a job or something, even. Despite not being terribly socially proactive, I ended up becoming a part of the Library Science program crowd within weeks of showing up. We were birds of a feather, so that helped a lot. When I was later applying to jobs 10+ hours away, I was faced with the very real possibility of moving to somewhere where I have no friends or family for hours. No ahead of me that put me with dozens of other like-minded people, either. With the Internet that was not a scary proposition. Without? I'd fear for myself spending all day playing old RPGs or something, rather alone, for quite some time. I guess it would depend a lot on coworkers and working environment, but it definitely would have had the potential to be quite negative. :p

/raisehand

The BBS days were way more awesome. "Online gaming" meant logging in for your five minute, once-per-day turn on your favorite door game, and maybe seeing someone else in there if it was a multi-node board. The online community was way more cool (in a completely nerdy non-cool way) instead of the trendy friendy facebooky hordes of teenyboppers out there now. I hate the fact that they let "normal" people on the internet these days.

Don't even get me started on cell phones. The only one I have is because I have to (for work). I don't want to talk to people when I'm at home... why do I want to talk to them when I'm not at home too?

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Reminds me of

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The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. B. Franklin

"A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone." -- Tyrion Lannister, A Game of Thrones

Hmmm

I'm trying to imagine the glade as a dial up BBS...

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I vote we move to WWIV.

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One of my first parody songs was "Internet Killed the BBS Star" and it's one that's probably been the most poignant. Most of my current real-life friends are ones I met on local BBS's, or are friends who stemmed from those BBS friends. We called ourselves the Dead Hackers Society and we'd get together every Thursday to just hang-out

I was a relative latecomer to the BBS scene, as my first modem was super-speedy 2400 bps, external. This was partially due to my family not buying a computer until the early 90s. I did use a 300 bps modem at a friend's house though, the kind where you placed your phone's handset onto the modem itself.

I was there downloading the first demo of DooM that was released on WWIV net. I was there seducing Violet in Land of the Red Dragon. I wasn't there playing TradeWars but I was quite familiar with it (wasn't interested, but Tradewars is still going strong over the net today). I was even a Co-SysOp of one local board for a while.

I do miss those days a lot. There was a lot of "magic" surrounding the technology, to me. It may have also partially been because I was also quickly growing up at the same time.

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Les Zombis et les Loups-Garous!