The Seductiveness of the Internet: Or how not to get caught in the Web

No I'm not promoting anyone's book, but this guy Andrew Keen is pretty much interested in the same things as me. Namely, the impact of the internet and wider technology on our culture and society. However, where I generally see both the positives of empowerment of the masses and the negatives of disconnection and dumbing down, Keen seems to promote a pretty hopeless picture, where authoritative integrity (if there was such a thing) is swept aside by the tide of individual opinions.

Whereas much of his argument is sound, I find it hard to wholeheartedly agree, as I feel the challenge of traditional business models a refreshing thing, since now the dis-empowered no longer have to face those old barriers to entry. Now anyone with an idea can put it out there, and in doing so, challenge the status quo. Thus, new forms of power are created which exist outside of the traditional's dynamic.

The internet or more generally, technology, is a good thing, if only we understand it's power and learn to shape it, rather than allow it to shape ourselves.

TO ALL THE KIDS WHO WERE BORN BEFORE THE 80s

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us.

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes

Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.

Riding in the back of a ute on a warm day was always a special treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.

We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank soda pop with sugar in it, but we weren't overweight because......

WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.

No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound,no cellphones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms.........WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no
lawsuits from these accidents.

We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.

We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays,
made up games with sticks and tennis balls and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.

We rode bikes, walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them!

Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of.They actually sided with the law!

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!

The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned

HOW TO
DEAL WITH IT ALL!

And YOU are one of them!
CONGRATULATIONS!

You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good.

and while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were.

Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?!

PS -The big type is because your eyes are shot at your age

Courtesty of my mate Dave. And yes, I broke my arm flying backwards from a rusty old swing. Those were the days eh. ;)

Big up Bristol's own...

The Importance of spotting a genuine Banksy

Have always stopped to wonder at this self styled urban guerilla artist's work back in my hometown of Bristol. Back then my fellow streetwise friends would always marvel at how I showed appreciation for Banksy's clever approach.

Now he's gone on to bigger things, including a visit to Israel's West Bank. I wish I could have ripped a few of those original pieces down. Who was to know they would be worth half a mill'.

The age of Hyper-Reality & do dolphins really have bad breath?

Had a sudden scary moment the other day. I suddenly thought, man we really are hurtling into the future. Can't recall exactly why that thought came about, but maybe it was due to a discussion I was having about the negatives of civilisation or more accurately, modern society. An age of mistrust. The death of common courtesy, where nobody queues for the bus anymore. You need martial arts skills or be a rugby player to get on one these days. This is the lighter side (if you can call it that) of things. We've also had more young deaths from street shootings recently. This all must have led me to think, if we are racing into an age where families eat separately, increased disconnection between people, then maybe this really is the future, and unfortunately, we've finally arrived. Not quite a Gattica-esque reality, but not far from it.

It seems that author of the phrase 'Hyper-Reality', Jean Baudrillards death was quite timely. Maybe Jean was right about the impact of new media and postmodern consumerism was having on our societies, that he felt it was time to check out. I think he was onto something. And for the paranoid among us, Adam Curtis serves up another one of his well constructed pieces on the notion of a more narrow freedom today. BBC2 - Sun, 11 Mar, 9pm.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,,2028464,00.html

On a totally separate note. My mate Dave recently came back from his first visit to Cuba. He really enjoyed it, but said that swimming with dolphins isn't all that. For one their breaths stink of fish. I was surprised, I thought they would smell of candy floss or honey and almonds. Oh well.

Well at least the abused ship workers off the Falklands, were in no position to complain. Many eye-witness reports claimed that after jumping ship to flee their task-masters, many men were saved by local dolphins. Validation of an old myth? Or do those dolphins know something we don't? Is it real? Did it really happen? Was it a Baudrillard simulation? In any case, it seems these dolphins haven't forgotten their common courtesies or their sense of humanity. Maybe we could learn something from our distant cousins. ;)