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Today I Learned.... Yesterday I Realized.

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posted on Oct, 3 2014 @ 03:34 PM
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I'm scared. I am honestly scared. I asked a simple question on a friend's status what ''TIL'' meant. Some kind hearted *and I mean that honestly, not sarcastically, he WAS trying to be helpful* told me to "ask Google".

I did - and then caught myself. Sure I learned - but at what cost? So I went back to that status and said the following:

"I'd rather ask people than rely on looking up on google. The other day I realized I"m not using my brain to remember things. Instead I'm like 'OH what was that _____________ we used to watch on tv/listen to/wear/say/do/president/any thing ever?" and instead of using my brain to actually remember, I rush to Google.

Instant knowledge, instant 'ohhh yeahhhh!', instant carry on with one's day.

I don't like rushing to Google. I'd rather keep a person to person approach and ask someone (even if online) than rely 100% on Google. Everyone will forget how to remember and no one will have their own information without Google to 100% rely on.

I dislike that. I don't want Google to be the person I ask. I don't want Google to hold on to my memories so, as long as I remember HOW to ask Google, I don't have to care about memory atrophy."

We are becoming a Google-Me-This world and though it's wonderful and time saving to have immediate knowledge at hand, it's also rather terrifying when one stops to consider it. No one has to do any true research really. I'm talking old school research. When Google did not exist and one either asked, learned by trying, failing, trying, doing, doing, did, or found the means via library, museum, etc to learn themselves.

Just Google it.
Millions of choices to choose from pop up.
Instant Millions.
If money were only so easily attained....

No one has to pull on to their memories to recall things forgotten - we used to, and sometimes it could take an hour, a day, a week, momentarily....... but we'd finally remember and everyone around us would laugh and say, "Oh gosh that's RIGHT! How did we forget????"

But your memory was stronger FOR using it to access the Internal Shelves of Before and Long Ago. Now all of that is stored conveniently on the forever insta access brain called Google.

"Let me think for a moment" or "Hey can I ask what this is/how you do that/ why this happened" has turned into an easier "let me google that for you/why don't you use google?" or the rudest "GOOGLE, YOU MORON."

I'm more a moron FOR using Google.



posted on Oct, 3 2014 @ 03:58 PM
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The internet is a wonderful thing. Unlike you, I love the ability to access millions upon millions of pieces of information at a moment's notice. It's awesome. Many things I learn, I probably couldn't even find in any library. I don't usually forget things I find on the internet, especially if I'm really interested in them. Things I'm not really interested in -- I'm quick to forget no matter where I get the info.

Now, here's what I think makes us morons -- abbreviated speak. TIL, IMHO, LOL, AFAIK... That's just plain laziness. T-Y-P-E I-T O-U-T!! What really scares me is if/when people start actually speaking that way. They already do with things like "I heart you". Jeez Louise, just say I love you already! Language is a wonderful invention - I don't think we should be abbreviating it to the point we are just making single letter sounds. "What's up brother" has become "sup b". Yuck. Pretty soon it will just be "s - b".



posted on Oct, 3 2014 @ 04:32 PM
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originally posted by: kaylaluv
The internet is a wonderful thing. Unlike you, I love the ability to access millions upon millions of pieces of information at a moment's notice. It's awesome. Many things I learn, I probably couldn't even find in any library. I don't usually forget things I find on the internet, especially if I'm really interested in them. Things I'm not really interested in -- I'm quick to forget no matter where I get the info.

Now, here's what I think makes us morons -- abbreviated speak. TIL, IMHO, LOL, AFAIK... That's just plain laziness. T-Y-P-E I-T O-U-T!! What really scares me is if/when people start actually speaking that way. They already do with things like "I heart you". Jeez Louise, just say I love you already! Language is a wonderful invention - I don't think we should be abbreviating it to the point we are just making single letter sounds. "What's up brother" has become "sup b". Yuck. Pretty soon it will just be "s - b".


Oh, don't get me wrong. I said in my post I know it's time saving and wonderful - but how much of time saving and wonderful is a good thing? Kind of also hastens the 'need it now' thing going on with folk. No one has patience like they used to. Case in point, if everyone had to use dial up with AOL 2.0 where you had to wait about 15 minutes for one page to load, most of us would go insane. We are used to instant click/knowledge. If a page takes 5 seconds to load, we're impatient. Not speaking for all, of course, but I've heard many times (and have said myself many a time) "Ugh, why aren't you loading faster????" and hit F5 to refresh.

We used to have patience. We used to be used to waiting. Waiting was just life. It'd arrive when it would arrive. The order on tv said "4-6 weeks, and we accept COD" (cash on delivery. You could pay when the product arrived at your door). 4-6 weeks was so fast! And if it took 8 weeks, well, it took 8 weeks. Now, if we don't have something instantly or within a few days, we are upset and writing letters of complaint.

We try to do 90 things at once, calling it multitasking, trying to save time, get more more more done in a day. Not enough hours in a day. Who needs sleep, we do so when we're dead! Need to know something? Google it and know in a moment after clicking 'enter' - or at least in .92 seconds according to Google's 'how long it took to pull up your quiery'.

It's just scary to me. I'm 41. I'm completely a Gen X.. .or is it Y? Whatever, I was born in 73. Yet I am more of a millenial. Their way of thinking and working makes sense to me and I do a lot of it - BUT I'm also not born into the pc age. I grew up well into my age of 25 before I even first saw the internet. Didn't understand it. Walked away . I believe it was 2002 when I first got dial up. Been a net addict ever since. So I'm very hip with today's lifestyles and I'm in it deeply.

But now and then I realize how things used to be.
And those days, like I stated in my OP, are what I lament.



posted on Oct, 3 2014 @ 04:58 PM
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a reply to: sarra1833

Like any tool of any profound worth, the internet can be either an impressive addition to, or the bane of, the users life. And like any tool of profound worth, the crucial thing is not whether you use it or not, but how you use it and when.

Personally speaking, I am confident in my general knowledge, in so far as I know enough to discuss topics broadly, often just by way of having some surface data available on most subjects, at all times. Not all the data, perhaps not the most up to date data, but data none the less, and this allows me to create mental frameworks to lay out my understanding on. This also allows me to add new data to old, much more easily.

However, when I am stumped, when I simply know that I have not got a damned clue, when something totally alien to me in terms of information gets revealed, I will absorb any source of good data upon it, that I can lay my hands on. If that means looking up a term I have never heard before, and spending an hour familiarising my self with some new concepts, then that is all to the good.

But you are right to be concerned at using the internet, and Google by extension, as essentially spare memory for your wetware (your brain). There are some things that you should try and carry around with you. Another example of this, is spell check on tablets and PCs, especially those which come with auto correct. I am using an iPad right now, which has a spell check, and an auto correct function. Many people would just misspell a word, and then allow auto correct to do the work for them. However, because I understand that unless I force myself to go back, and retype the word, I will only get sloppier and lazier in my speech and my spelling, I elect to go ahead and make the effort. The delete key is my friend!

You can use the internet to fill your mind with information you did not previously possess, and you can expand your horizons that way, and at the end of the day, that is what the system is supposed to be for. That's what Sir Tim Berners Lee was after when he created the World Wide Web. However, improperly used, it can indeed draw one into poor habits. Managing ones use of it, to optimise the benefit one gets from access to the net, is a matter of willpower and awareness.



posted on Oct, 3 2014 @ 04:58 PM
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We are saying the same thing - in a way. I believe we should take the time to actually type out complete words. I think we should take the time to actually speak complete sentences. All the abbreviations/contractions/slang is just an effort to say things much quicker, and it's sad to me. I love watching period piece films like Jane Austen. I love hearing them speak properly and formally. It's beautiful.

I was born on the tail end of the baby boom, and I know only too well how long it used to take to do pretty much anything. I'm thankful for things like modern transportation, so that it doesn't take weeks to get from one state to another (or months to go across the ocean), but I know what you mean. We definitely live in an instant gratification society today.

My mother recently used ancestry.com to research our family history. She was able to go back to the 1400's in European countries by looking up public documents online. Can you imagine how difficult it would have been without the internet? Sure, she could have flown over to France/England/Germany to look up the documents, but it would have cost thousands of dollars and probably taken her most of her life. She did it all in about a year on ancestry.com. How awesome is that?

I think there are times when the internet is a truly fantastic tool, but I will concede that there are times when we should just get off our butts and do things the old-fashioned way.



posted on Oct, 3 2014 @ 05:06 PM
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a reply to: TrueBrit

TrueBrit, I must tell you a story about a British fellow I worked with several years ago.

He and I were sitting in his office when one of the assistants came in to tell us that a vendor we were working with wasn't going to have something ready by the date we needed it. The assistant was a young girl, just out of college. She asked us if she should call the vendor back to find out when the order would be ready. My British co-worker said, "Yes, and please do convey our displeasure." That poor young girl didn't have a clue what he was saying. He rolled his eyes and said, "Tell 'em we're pissed off!" Of course she understood THAT, no problem.

I think about that sometimes when I read your eloquent posts. It is so nice to see someone using the English language the way it was meant to be used!



edit on 3-10-2014 by kaylaluv because: (no reason given)



posted on Oct, 3 2014 @ 05:41 PM
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a reply to: kaylaluv

Haha! Fantastic!

The language we use is, I feel, very important to not only maintaining good standards of communication between people on the mundanities of life, but also our own ability to express who we are, what we are thinking. One often finds that people who have a grasp of language which suffers from certain sparsities, can also find themselves having trouble with communication, and it ought to come as no surprise.

It is increasingly tempting, for some people to take up the newer, less precise manner of speech and written communication, made popular by various media creations, and by the rise of the mobile telephone. People talking in text speak, is just one example.

However, coming out with the words "Smiley face!", when one is happy, does not communicate anything much at all, certainly not when what one really means is "I am overcome by waves, paroxysms of joy, consumed with merriment and exuberance!". The number of social conventions being assaulted by the degradation of the use of language these days, is vast. If I may, two examples follow.

1) Communication with Government:

We received a letter from our local council today, on a matter pertaining to our business. I will not go into any details, because that would be improper, but I can tell you that the letter appeared to have been formulated by either a very intelligent ape, or a totally moronic thirteen year old. The grammar was broken, the spelling awful, and the total effect was that it was one of the most imprecise documents, that I have ever had the pleasure of laughing at, other than a particularly obscure Chinese to English translation, by way of Thailand, which came in a box containing an electrical item some years ago.

However, this being a communication from government requesting certain paperwork and details from us, meant that we were also quite concerned, because when an official of the government proves that they cannot write worth a damn, it also suggests that they might have trouble interpreting the data you send to them. This would not be so bad in a communication between ones self, and ones friend or relative, but one has to trust that the people receiving ones sensitive data, can be trusted with it, and understand it enough that they do not begin some sort of legal action having misread it entirely!

2) Affairs of The Heart:

I was in a bar a few weeks back, and was shocked at the shoddy state of courtship ritual, and the lack of artistry necessary for some people to decide to engage in a relationship, however brief and probably unfulfilling. A fellow five feet from me, turned to this young woman he was standing next to, and announced "I'm pissin' off home innit. I reckon you're well fit though, so you comin'?"

And by Christ, off she went with the knuckle dragging halfwit!

Now, I am not a one for one night stands, but surely something a little poetic, or at least having meaning beyond "please allow me to fulfil a biological imperative, probably in an unsatisfactory, and potentially unpleasant manner, with your no doubt capable assistance", would have been nice. That must, after all, have been what he had been getting at!

Suns no longer rise and fall in the eyes of lovers. Those who gaze fondly across a room at their lover, no longer refer to the way the moon pulls the ocean toward it, as surely as their lovers beauty draws the eye. The effort is just not there, and for all that some such phrases are considered cheese, there is more love in the saying, and the thinking of them, than can ever be expressed with a two syllable limitation on SENTENCE LENGTH!

That being said...




posted on Oct, 3 2014 @ 05:43 PM
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a reply to: TrueBrit

Goodness, I know what all of you mean, when it comes to learning so much online. Yes, despite the 'tone' of my OP or how it could 'read', I'm very pro-internet and learning. Most definitely and with zero doubt. I have learned tons of things; the WWW is a plethora of knowledge, far better than any classroom could offer some times (Though nothing beats having a Professor who has years/decades of hands-on teaching. Nothing beats that) and I will spend hours going from one topic to another, sopping up information like a dry sponge touching the edge of a vast pond.

I also agree with the slang terms and shortened abbreviations - though, however, I do use LOL and ROFL and IKR and IDK and AFAIK a lot. I have even caught myself out with pals and saying "Lol" like it's a word. Rather scary. However, I think writing out 'laughing out loud' and 'rolling on the floor laughing my ____ off" takes long and doesn't look as funny, if that makes sense. There is something about seeing ROFL (or reading it as 'roffle') that makes one laugh a little harder.

Or that's just me, haha. Maybe writing it out doesn't have the same impact ,that's what I mean.

But yeah, I definitely get annoyed when ppl rte lyk dis n s so stpd n y... I CAN'T EVEN DO THAT IT HURTS MY MIND OKAY. Really. Ugh. That to me is powerhouse lazy. Sometimes you can't even understand a word.

I hate saying this.
I really hate saying this.
Because I sound like mom and grandmother.
Oh lordie.
Here it comes.
I just don't get these kids now a days.

:C
nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.



posted on Oct, 3 2014 @ 06:26 PM
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We are getting too reliant on technology. I read lots of articles every day but memorize the principles of how things work, not actually the names unless the name starts to pop up a lot and there is no other related word for it.

I do remember the words I look up when they are in a sentence most times but can't remember them to write or say them. So I can understand what I read and can convert it in my mind to understand things. Most the people I talk to don't understand the scientific words anyway and using them intimidates them. I do not like to intimidate people, I like to help them learn.



posted on Oct, 3 2014 @ 06:46 PM
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We're living in a culture when IQ's would actually drop in an "electronics-free" environment.

. . . .
. . . . . . .

Wow. That sounds good. should Facebook that, or Tweet it, or put it on Snapchat or Vine.




posted on Oct, 3 2014 @ 06:57 PM
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Because of this anti Google rant, I had to Google "TIL".

Thanks!



posted on Oct, 4 2014 @ 04:54 AM
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originally posted by: Hefficide

Because of this anti Google rant, I had to Google "TIL".


Thanks!


Ah dearest Heff. TYL something then. heheheheh.



posted on Oct, 4 2014 @ 04:56 AM
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Definitely need to Facebook that. The world must know asap.
I mean as soon as possible.

Trying to stop using abbreviations here.
This addiction could be harder to drop than my sugar addiction.

oh woe.



hehe.



posted on Oct, 4 2014 @ 05:04 AM
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originally posted by: rickymouse
We are getting too reliant on technology. I read lots of articles every day but memorize the principles of how things work, not actually the names unless the name starts to pop up a lot and there is no other related word for it.

I do remember the words I look up when they are in a sentence most times but can't remember them to write or say them. So I can understand what I read and can convert it in my mind to understand things. Most the people I talk to don't understand the scientific words anyway and using them intimidates them. I do not like to intimidate people, I like to help them learn.


Though tech IS a great thing in terms of advancement for people and health and knowledge and the sort, it's also a bad thing. I've never seen many things which are TRUE definitions of good and evil, but tech definitely is that.

I keep remembering that scene in Wally (however it is spelled, with that cute robot, an animated movie. Wall-i?) where all the humans are lounging in those chair things, attached to an internet where they see themselves as fit, active, having fun - yet in reality they are all hideously out of shape.

It's always scared me that that is how our future will be some time. If we get enough robotics etc to do the work for us, well... what else WILL humanity have to do? Enter a 3d world of pure virtual reality which would be more reality than actual reality.

I don't like thinking about that.

WAS that scene from Wall-i? I hate to say this but
I will google this and youtube this and brb.

*enter Jeopardy music*

TIL, it is Wall-e.
and THIS. THIS RIGHT HERE.
so freakin aptly named: Human Dystopia.
It makes me shiver.

www.youtube.com...

oh my god. the more i watch this, the more sick I get.
This was literally the most uncomfortable 3 minutes I have ever.... and to think it very well can become reality.
edit on 15amSat, 04 Oct 2014 05:05:15 -0500Sat, 04 Oct 2014 05:05:15 -0500am1833 by sarra1833 because: (no reason given)



posted on Oct, 4 2014 @ 05:08 AM
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a reply to: sarra1833

Indulge yourself in poetry.

Doing so requires interacting with words on a conscious level, their form, their many facets and uses. Also, the effect of the words that poets use to stir the mind, the soul of the reader, will inspire you, and that inspiration will likely fire your creativity where vocabulary is concerned, to the point where you would refrain from abbreviation, just for the joy of seeing words appear on a page, a text, an email, or a comment!







 
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