No, I can learn from the internet, I can experience new cultures. Further my understanding of recent issues, debate, etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Parents are just jealous they never had internet when they were young.

 

 

 

Yeah, but can't you overdo it? What about balancing that with other just as important things outside of what you can gain from a screen?

 

No, I can learn from the internet, I can experience new cultures. Further my understanding of recent issues, debate, etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Parents are just jealous they never had internet when they were young.

 

 

 

Yeah, but can't you overdo it? What about balancing that with other just as important things outside of what you can gain from a screen?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'd say you can. There has to be a balance of mind and body.

No, I can learn from the internet, I can experience new cultures. Further my understanding of recent issues, debate, etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Parents are just jealous they never had internet when they were young.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Do you think that in today's society, these benefits balance out with or even overcome the downfalls?

 

No, I can learn from the internet, I can experience new cultures. Further my understanding of recent issues, debate, etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Parents are just jealous they never had internet when they were young.

 

 

 

Yeah, but can't you overdo it? What about balancing that with other just as important things outside of what you can gain from a screen?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's why they invented the ergochair. :wink:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Plus, think how much graphic designers and effect artists are on computers. And they get payed sometimes big bucks for it too.

One thing I think people fail to account for (no one in particular here, just saying) is that the internet isn't just one thing like the TV. It's socializing. It's TV. It's radio. It's the theater. And on and on...

 

That's the problem, when these kids grow up, they wont have anything to teach to their children, like how to ride a bike, how to lure fish, other than how their "bal-zorgoroth warrior level 142 with gandalf sword+7 will pwn everyone in EverQuest 4", that is if they even have children.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How is teaching your kid WarCraft VII, or how to navigate a low level character through World of Warcraft III, somehow "less" than teaching the kid to play chess?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My 6 year old cousin can play World of Warcraft and kill monsters after 10 minutes and potentially get the maximum level one day, she can not play chess and understand how it works after 10 days. End of story.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But anyways... WarCraft VII?! I'm positive you were talking about III. Still, navigating there doesn't take much intelligence.

 

 

That's the problem, when these kids grow up, they wont have anything to teach to their children, like how to ride a bike, how to lure fish, other than how their "bal-zorgoroth warrior level 142 with gandalf sword+7 will pwn everyone in EverQuest 4", that is if they even have children.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How is teaching your kid WarCraft VII, or how to navigate a low level character through World of Warcraft III, somehow "less" than teaching the kid to play chess?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My 6 year old cousin can play World of Warcraft and kill monsters after 10 minutes and potentially get the maximum level one day, she can not play chess and understand how it works after 10 days. End of story.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But anyways... WarCraft VII?! I'm positive you were talking about III. Still, navigating there doesn't take much intelligence.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Blues Brothers confuse me in quote trees! Anyways, I think BlueTear was talking about Warcraft VII in reference to children of the future.

Ah, right. Maybe in the future you wont be even able to play a game without upgraded brains, but I was rather talking about an earlier era, i.e. where we live now.

 

No, I can learn from the internet, I can experience new cultures. Further my understanding of recent issues, debate, etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Parents are just jealous they never had internet when they were young.

 

 

 

Yeah, but can't you overdo it? What about balancing that with other just as important things outside of what you can gain from a screen?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of course you can overdo it. What good is all that knowledge if you don't have the social skills to apply it in reality? Sure you can apply it online, but you can also Google it at the same time. I enjoy spending time learning about other cultures, languages, religions, ect when I'm online but I also make sure I have good social skills so that I can apply the knowledge I've gained to my everyday life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Adam, don't say you don't understand this.. If you really don't I think I should get some sleep..

 

 

No, I can learn from the internet, I can experience new cultures. Further my understanding of recent issues, debate, etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Parents are just jealous they never had internet when they were young.

 

 

 

Yeah, but can't you overdo it? What about balancing that with other just as important things outside of what you can gain from a screen?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's why they invented the ergochair. :wink:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Plus, think how much graphic designers and effect artists are on computers. And they get payed sometimes big bucks for it too.

 

 

 

I wasn't even talking about physical downfalls really. While spending large amounts of time on a computer as a fully developed 25+ year old adult is fine, any younger than that while your personality is still developing can be damaging. If people don't sharpen their social skills before they hit a certain age, they're stuck that way. Internet interaction can in no way replace real life interaction with tones, gestures, and those subtle human communications.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

-edit-

 

 

 

 

 

No, I can learn from the internet, I can experience new cultures. Further my understanding of recent issues, debate, etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Parents are just jealous they never had internet when they were young.

 

 

 

Yeah, but can't you overdo it? What about balancing that with other just as important things outside of what you can gain from a screen?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of course you can overdo it. What good is all that knowledge if you don't have the social skills to apply it in reality? Sure you can apply it online, but you can also Google it at the same time. I enjoy spending time learning about other cultures, languages, religions, ect when I'm online but I also make sure I have good social skills so that I can apply the knowledge I've gained to my everyday life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Adam, don't say you don't understand this.. If you really don't I think I should get some sleep..

 

 

 

Deloria, I already knew the answer. Obviously you can overdo it. I was playing devil's advocate.

Our youth could be addicted to far worse things.

Our youth could be addicted to far worse things.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some of them are! It's really quite exciting!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You have a point, of course.

 

 

 

No, I can learn from the internet, I can experience new cultures. Further my understanding of recent issues, debate, etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Parents are just jealous they never had internet when they were young.

 

 

 

Yeah, but can't you overdo it? What about balancing that with other just as important things outside of what you can gain from a screen?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's why they invented the ergochair. :wink:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Plus, think how much graphic designers and effect artists are on computers. And they get payed sometimes big bucks for it too.

 

 

 

I wasn't even talking about physical downfalls really. While spending large amounts of time on a computer as a fully developed 25+ year old adult is fine, any younger than that while your personality is still developing can be damaging. If people don't sharpen their social skills before they hit a certain age, they're stuck that way. Internet interaction can in no way replace real life interaction with tones, gestures, and those subtle human communications.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, of course, I agree.

Our youth could be addicted to far worse things.

 

 

 

That's just flat out dodging the issue. Is marijuana ok for kids if they're not getting addicted to cocaine?

 

Our youth could be addicted to far worse things.

 

 

 

That's just flat out dodging the issue. Is marijuana ok for kids if they're not getting addicted to cocaine?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, I'm just trying to figure out if the internet is really a problem. Maybe in the whole grand scheme of things it's not that bad, everything being relative.

 

Our youth could be addicted to far worse things.

 

 

 

That's just flat out dodging the issue. Is marijuana ok for kids if they're not getting addicted to cocaine?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, no. But things need to be dealt with to the degree of seriousness that they require. We shouldn't be spending our time getting kids off marijuana when there are kids that are addicted to cocaine. Somethings are just more important and need to be addressed before others.

 

 

Our youth could be addicted to far worse things.

 

 

 

That's just flat out dodging the issue. Is marijuana ok for kids if they're not getting addicted to cocaine?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, no. But things need to be dealt with to the degree of seriousness that they require. We shouldn't be wasting our time getting kids off marijuana when there are kids that are addicted to cocaine. Somethings are just more important and need to be addressed before others.

 

 

 

If a kid is seriously addicted to his/her computer, I think it should still be addressed. While his/her life isn't threatened, just because there are worse things out there is no excuse to ignore it. While it is true that the person with the cocaine addiction needs to be helped first, that doesn't nullify in any way the problem with the marijuana addiction or even the internet addiction. If there's anything that's damaging a kid's future, it should be addressed.

 

 

 

Our youth could be addicted to far worse things.

 

 

 

That's just flat out dodging the issue. Is marijuana ok for kids if they're not getting addicted to cocaine?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, no. But things need to be dealt with to the degree of seriousness that they require. We shouldn't be wasting our time getting kids off marijuana when there are kids that are addicted to cocaine. Somethings are just more important and need to be addressed before others.

 

 

 

If a kid is seriously addicted to his/her computer, I think it should still be addressed. While his/her life isn't threatened, just because there are worse things out there is no excuse to ignore it. While it is true that the person with the cocaine addiction needs to be helped first, that doesn't nullify in any way the problem with the marijuana addiction or even the internet addiction. If there's anything that's damaging a kid's future, it should be addressed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Agreed.

lamarcks theory was proved wrong when a believe a monk had 8 mice

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

he cut the tails of 4 mice off and left the tails of the other 4, when the 4 tailess mice had little baby mice, the babys still had tails. thus proving lamarck wrong

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

darwins theory was that overtime the strongest / tallest / best suited 2 the situation will die.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

like if you have a bunch of giraffes and there is a food shortage then the giraffes that can reach the highest wont die. the smaller ones die and giraffes slowly get taller gene's etc

My 6 year old cousin can play World of Warcraft and kill monsters after 10 minutes and potentially get the maximum level one day, she can not play chess and understand how it works after 10 days. End of story.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But anyways... WarCraft VII?! I'm positive you were talking about III. Still, navigating there doesn't take much intelligence.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My warlock has more than 36 different buttons on different keys counting spells and ignoring special macro's and most of the items. Your average six year old is not going to be able to utilize these to the max, period. The same goes for WarCraft III (Yes, VII was used to indiciate the future =P I once joked with my dad that when he got old enough to retire he'd beg me to play WarCraft VII with him); Your average six year old will not be able to understand it to play it fully, nor will he or she be able to understand the complexity of chess, but they'll get the basics just fine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But, for the sake of argument, if I were to teach my child to play chess online, or against a computer, would that be worth less than using real pieces?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What I'm getting at, health issues aside, is that there's a kneejerk "computers are bad and for nerds" reaction going on. The average american watches TV 28 hours a week. If you add the average time an MMORPG gamer spends on his MMORPG and the time the average MMORPG gamer spends on watching TV togheter, you land somewhere around - oddly enough - 28 hours. The first thing your average MMORPG gamer cuts down on is TV time, not social time. (I'm using MMORPG's as an example because let's face it, most people who stay online a lot are playing one. If you manage to pull 40 hours online a week with just MSN and something like MySpace, you plain scare me, but it's easy enough to argue that it's the social aspect that's appealing)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But watching TV for 28 hours a week is "normal" where as playing an online game for 20 hours a week is "dangerous", or an "indication of lacking social skills". We're not discussing how watching that much TV is going to have negative effects on prospective children, it's the internet and being online that's going to be negative. Why is that?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Summing the first part up; There's a value - "less" - ascribed to the internet and related activites that isn't based on facts, but on preconcepts and lack of understanding.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Second of all , online gaming does not exclude being able to teach things like riding a bike. I have a bike, I've taken it to school everyday for the past 7 years, in sunshine, in rain, in snow. The implication that it does is what I'd call another example of downright prejudices; You have a view of online gaming and that's that, whether that view is factual or not. And even then, strictly speaking, why would it be more useful to teach your kids how to lure fish than how to search on google? One is useful in todays modern society, one is not.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That being said, I'm not denying that there are health issues, nor that there are people who are downright addicted, but describing it as a culture-wide problem is plain inaccurate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(And really... Talk about missing the mark on evolution there GhostRanger =P Evolution is what, biology classes for 15 year olds?)

The internet. Ah.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I use it alot. Id probably qualify into what would get labelled as internet-addicted, yet Im not. I can live without it for an extended period of time, If I can stay away from computers as a hole.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For me its a way to relax (games), to learn and to exchange views with others on things that happen around us. That goes from music to more scientific stuff, over school related fora to sexuality. One can learn heaps from the net..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I rather use the internet recreationally and pick up a few facts along the way then to sit alone in a couch all day doing nothing. TV bores me. Even when using a comp I always mulittask. Runescape, mIRC and watching a movie causes me little trouble. Why I don't give my mind some rest? Because it NEEDS to be busy. I have a strange mind I guess.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

However, the dangers of internet addiction would be to get sucked in very time-consuming monotuous things.. Gaming mainly. One has to be able to get away from the idea all revolves about one thing. That is what id call an addiction. I like to view my use as diversified and well.. educational somehow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And above all, it has sharpened my criticism against information. We get flooded with info, and I now feel I can easier find the essence of something without spending too much time on it. And it greatly helped me with my languages. If you use your third language nearly as much as your first, you feel alot more confident when actually having to use it.

It's not malformation of a youngster's mind when he's addicted. It's just not a normal formation. Is this bad? I don't think so, but that's a very subjective issue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

People here should really try to grasp the concept of 'difference,' and not good or bad.

 

 

 

But, for the sake of argument, if I were to teach my child to play chess online, or against a computer, would that be worth less than using real pieces?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No, that wasn't my point at all. I'd possibly even prefer using a computer to teach a kid how to play chess due to easier understanding & control. I have played WC3 and Frozen Throne by the way, but I'd still say chess is harder to 'master' and will take more intelligence (and you can play it anywhere in the world without being dependent on electricity or a computer, just the chess pieces).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What I'm getting at, health issues aside, is that there's a kneejerk "computers are bad and for nerds" reaction going on. The average american watches TV 28 hours a week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And if we divide that by 7 days a week, we get the average amount of 4 hours a day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tell me, especially those under 21, how many times have you been called a 'geek' or 'you need to go out more' if you have been on the computer for 3 or 4 hours?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That makes no sense, now I have to agree. And even if you'd spend 5 hours a day online, it's still far more of a social experience than watching TV shows with prewritten scripts (sucky reality TV doesn't count as entertainment)

if parents think they are on there for to long..why dont they make them get off...? Anyways, i think because of so many of our youth playing on the internet all day long we are going to have many new technologies in the fututre.

1 in 5 American parents say their kids spent way too much time on the internet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I certainly do... -.-

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

IM WIRED!!! :wall:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Me too, but im british :shock: