Is Internet the cause.....? (Full Version)

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Aneirin -> Is Internet the cause.....? (6/15/2009 5:08:00 AM)

I am thinking about the fast pace of life we lead now and the pressures on people. Pressures that seem to have increased since I would guess around about the start of the viable and reliable digital communication age, so what, twenty years ? We hear so much about the increased levels of stress and workers being driven to work harder and harder until they burn out with depressive illnesses or worse.

Internet speeds are getting faster, computers are getting faster, but what is the price to us humans ? The business provides the tools for the worker to use, state of the art IT, this forces the worker to work faster and there harder, perhaps to a level few can sustain, but, is it worth it, are we really benefitting from this new communication age ?



LaTigresse -> RE: Is Internet the cause.....? (6/15/2009 8:15:42 AM)

I am not sure where the blame lies. Several years ago I just decided to take responsibility for my stress level. I don't ALLOW work, or societal pressures of what my career should be like, to control my life. It's mine, my life to live. I choose how to do so. That means telling some people no, not attending every function I am invited to, not having all the material things other people see as being important. For the most part, I quit caring what other people think. I really don't feel much stress.

I think it really is a personal choice.



Irishknight -> RE: Is Internet the cause.....? (6/15/2009 10:25:22 AM)

My mother used to say that stress is when the mind overrides the body's desire to choke the living shit out of some asshole that truly deserves it.  Sometime, I wonder if she wasn't right.



LaTigresse -> RE: Is Internet the cause.....? (6/15/2009 11:12:13 AM)

That's a good one Irish!



Rainfire -> RE: Is Internet the cause.....? (6/15/2009 11:32:26 AM)

Definitely the technical age has something to do with it, our entire lives are speeded up unlike anything our ancestors ever dealt with. In this day and age, we have instant communications, world-wide travel in hours, news and information (good and bad) streaming into our brains constantly between the internet, TV, radio, cell phones, you name it. Medical studies have shown that all this exposure has caused our brains to change, some for the good, some for the bad. The question is what to do with it all. Me, I step back and just shut down at times, ignoring the outside world and focusing on loved ones. Helps me sleep better and gives me some great times with Lumus.

Yes, it's worth it. For myself. It's via online that I met Lumus, it's how I can hear from the family in Idaho or anywhere else in the world (I have an adult son who's joined the Navy) or from friends near and far, all over the globe. The technology caught my tumour on my pancreas when a plain physical exam would not have. Technology saved the life of that same son now in the Navy many years ago when he was born. As for it affecting our stress levels, people need to learn when to back away and say enough is enough for themselves. We're supposed to be adults and can make the decisions for what we allow into our lives. Or maybe more importantly, what we don't allow into our lives. [:)]



LaTigresse -> RE: Is Internet the cause.....? (6/15/2009 12:07:27 PM)

And who we choke the living shit out of![:D]



CallaFirestormBW -> RE: Is Internet the cause.....? (6/15/2009 12:21:51 PM)

How interesting that I would see this post today. This morning, my roommate sent me the following:

SLOWING DOWN
by Thomas Merton

"There is a pervasive form of contemporary violence . . . (and that is) activism and overwork. The rush and pressure of modern life are a form, perhaps the most common form, of its innate violence.

To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything, is to succumb to violence.

The frenzy of our activism neutralizes our work for peace. It destroys our own inner capacity for peace. It destroys the fruitfulness of our own work, because it kills the root of inner wisdom which makes work fruitful."

Maybe it's time for me to re-evaluate how I'm spending time in my life.

Dame Calla



pahunkboy -> RE: Is Internet the cause.....? (6/15/2009 12:27:25 PM)

In a trans human world... we may as well climb into the Internet wire.   Our life force is electricity or energy- we funnel it thru thoughts on a keyboard now- consider- if you had no bodily pain? but your life force could frolic with others such as a message board.   Your thoughts feelings and aspirations are all digital. At some point it could be tempting to voluntarily shed ones body so as to live exclusively on a live wire- the pulse of the internet- the thought forces of the planet.

We could very well be among the last human humans- I so look forward to Terms reply on this one.....

:-)



LadyEllen -> RE: Is Internet the cause.....? (6/15/2009 12:54:25 PM)

IT is a cause, but purely a secondary cause I'd say.

We were told Aneirin, on the illustrious BBC's "Tomorrow's World" in the mid to late 70s and into the 80s, how IT would come to make life easier, how we'd each only have to work ten hours or so a week and how it would mean much more leisure time for everyone to enjoy life.

It didnt work out that way. In fact it worked out almost exactly differently. A ten hour per week job doesnt pay the bills so what happened was that millions were sent to the scrapheap so that other millions could keep a full time job and wage. But that reduced the number of consumers that could consume at a good rate, so prices had to rise to make up for the lower consumption - suddenly two wages are needed per household, or the single earner has to become a lot more productive to warrant his pay rise. Luckily though he has computers to help him do that........ except of course any process can only move at the pace of the slowest part of that process. So we think we need faster computers and faster and faster, chasing our tail for productivity, all the time ignoring that a human being can only do so much in 40 hours - but then there are more (a lot more) than 40 hours in a week, so we can get that productivity if we work longer.....

Rinse and repeat for a few decades until eyes are glassy.

E



pahunkboy -> RE: Is Internet the cause.....? (6/15/2009 1:22:11 PM)

...and here we are with everyone I know has a closet or room full of electronic junk.  Garbage.  Landfills- charge a surcharge...  but guess what?      not so fast.   Some are harvesting the silver and gold from these gadgets- they have it down to a science.   I belong to a message board- that these guys are hard core chemists- that understand all of this.  They take a truckload of crap and turn it into precious metals.
I have the pdfs on how to do it- but I am afraid- Chemistry is not my forte.

Bottom line- don't pay a disposal fee.  Better to give it free to one of these guys that harvest the good stuff out of it- then they pay to dispose of it....

BTW- if you have a flare with Chemistry look into it.  It might pay out for ya.



Aneirin -> RE: Is Internet the cause.....? (6/15/2009 6:06:11 PM)

I once asked why the average wage was so low in the region I had just moved to, here in the South West, myself being used to the average wage of the the Thames Valley area. I asked why a person here working for an outlet of a chain that is country wide seems to be worse off, believe me, there is some severe poverty in my adopted city. The reason I was told was because of the attitude of the area, a possible reason why big business investment rarely come here. On enquiring what that attitude was, I was told here, when the weather is good, people find their way to beaches and golf courses, work takes second place to life. This attitude I have found is common to the area, the reason I was told I have dicovered to be true, here of all the places in my country I have lived and worked, is the most relaxed so far. and I am fitting comfortably into that attitude to life.

We work to live, not live to work, aye, bills have to be paid in order to live, but here, if roads are an indication, never have I been to an area where older cars are the norm, always was this way, the old bangers in other parts of the country that resided in scrap heaps, were in use daily on the roads of Devon. Better climate I was told for the classic cars in use, but no, that is wrong, for here people seem not to need the latest toy.



LookieNoNookie -> RE: Is Internet the cause.....? (6/15/2009 6:13:42 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Aneirin

I am thinking about the fast pace of life we lead now and the pressures on people. Pressures that seem to have increased since I would guess around about the start of the viable and reliable digital communication age, so what, twenty years ? We hear so much about the increased levels of stress and workers being driven to work harder and harder until they burn out with depressive illnesses or worse.

Internet speeds are getting faster, computers are getting faster, but what is the price to us humans ? The business provides the tools for the worker to use, state of the art IT, this forces the worker to work faster and there harder, perhaps to a level few can sustain, but, is it worth it, are we really benefitting from this new communication age ?



Your grandfather worried about the faster pace of life.

Your parents worried about the faster pace.

And we do as well.

We don't work any harder than they do.

(And probably less so).



Aneirin -> RE: Is Internet the cause.....? (6/15/2009 6:30:01 PM)

Yes, but many problems seem to be arising , possibly as a product of the faster pace of life. Or is it we have people who care to care about the health of the worker.

When a manual worker becomes fatigued, the body refuses to work, but when the mind becomes fatigued, do we know the symptoms.

Manual work times and mental work times differ, but what is the maximum a person can do with their capability in whatever discipline they work in, somehow I feel industry does'nt care, for when a mind fails, there is always another to fill the desk, perhaps people are consumables to industry.



TheBanshee -> RE: Is Internet the cause.....? (6/15/2009 8:44:25 PM)

Well, the thumb has taken over as our most dexterous digit (used to be the index finger)  Now texting and Nintendo have given our thumbs newfound talent. 

We live in an age of instant communication yet we are somehow more isolated.  Many of us work in cubicles at work who would rather email our coworker at the next desk than speak face to face.

Some of us enjoy being able to work at home.  This is a big perk but also a disadvantage.  Again, we don't interact directly. 

We have brought bullying to a new height - under the veil of anonymity people can be crueler than they'd usually dare to be in person. 






YoursMistress -> RE: Is Internet the cause.....? (6/15/2009 8:50:47 PM)

I think that the data generation and transfer speeds increasing and putting more and more pressure upon human decision makers is creating unbearable stress on us.  The answer to this, of course, is the insertion of a computer decision maker to alleviate this mounting pressure on frail humans.  We can call this computer Skynet.  hmm, this all sounds vaguely familiar to me in some way...

yours



DesFIP -> RE: Is Internet the cause.....? (6/16/2009 8:02:29 AM)

When you get out of work, turn the cell phone off, turn the computer off and go for a walk.
You choose to passively allow them to absorb all your time. Choose actively to do active things instead.



Asherdelampyr -> RE: Is Internet the cause.....? (6/16/2009 10:56:10 AM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: DesFIP

When you get out of work, turn the cell phone off, turn the computer off and go for a walk.
You choose to passively allow them to absorb all your time. Choose actively to do active things instead.


I agree with this, where it is possible

I have yet to reach a point in my life where I can make money and not have my phone on 24/7
However this is my decision, because of the path to make that money I have chosen

E, the higher ups in IT do only work 10 hours a day, if that :P (It seems the more training and other info you learn, the less you actually USE it)

I have to say, after some serious thinking, that the more comfortable I got with tech not in my repetoire, the easier my life has become at work

for example, over half the things that go wrong with your computer or television can now be fixed remotely, so instead of driving over to your house to fix your computer, or having you drop it off here I can log into a remote assistance application from my couch and fix the problem without even having to put on pants! (I hate pants)

My cell phone has made it so that when I have to wait for some serviceperson to come fix something in my house (last was the water heater) I didnt have to wait in my house by the phone all day, I could take a relaxing walk, go grab a slushie and chill out at the park :)



VirginPotty -> RE: Is Internet the cause.....? (6/16/2009 11:12:22 AM)

quote:

go grab a slushie


Is that a combination of  Sunshine & Lushy?



Asherdelampyr -> RE: Is Internet the cause.....? (6/16/2009 11:15:22 AM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: VirginPotty

quote:

go grab a slushie


Is that a combination of  Sunshine & Lushy?


I wish

its my term for all the Icee/Slurpie drink out there, I think I may have subconcoiusly stolen it from television



VirginPotty -> RE: Is Internet the cause.....? (6/16/2009 11:19:32 AM)

Oh, I know what it really is, I was just funnin'[&o]



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