[Neptunus Rex]

Originally Posted by Skybird

I am glad to report that my interest in new sims and games more and more dies out. It will be no big sacrifice for me to switch to another OS one day, or maybe even ban PCs completely from my house. A laptop for word proecessing and chess, and my dozen chess board computers is all I really would not miss anymore. I become more and more aware of the many negative consequences and dependencies global connectivity and the spreading of PCs in private life creates. It has benefits, yes. but as always before in history, progress also is gained at a cost, aprice that has to be payed. amongst others, growing vulnerability, dependency, a change from quality to quantity in the widest contexts. It gives comfortability to some actions we might wish to do via computer, but it also limits our perception, and the way of mental problem solving. It creates blueprints and shemes our brains must follow in order to make best use of these new gimmicks. It chnages the way we see our world, life, ourselves. It even changes our understanding of values, sense and meaning, worthless vs worthy. For some people, reality was what was to be seen on TV in the past. Today, reality is what is on the web. And if it is not on the web, it is not real.

Neil Postman: Amusing ourselves to death. An older book, but a classic. Thoughts that are more needed than ever.

I seem to recall reading somewhere that someone (many someone's) said the same thing about type printed books in Europe about 300 or so years ago.