Technology: Best friend and worst enemy

[MrD]

So I am working on a Zine about technology, and the impact it has on all of our lives.
But more specifically tho, about the internet, and how it has become so intertwined with our lives, that it has become a new reality.
Really, Really pressing on the mental and emotional holds it has on us, not so much about the affects on the world/environment.

I am looking for some other opinions and outlooks on the topic.

So yeah, If you feel like sharing your view on the internet/modern day technology (love it or hate it) and want to write up a little paragraph or an entire article, by all means let me know!

The title of the Zine is "Kiss Me Through the Computer Screen"
(A look at my bestfriend and worst enemy)

 

[MrD]

Moar comments!

 

[tree hopper]

i think this is an awesome topic to make a zine about. i've had my own inner conflict with technology and the internet,etc... and have written about it. i'll send ya somethin' i've written and if ya can use it cool and if not thats cool too. like the zine title also...
live out loud!

 

[MrD]

i think this is an awesome topic to make a zine about.

Thanks man, I really think that it is something that affects everyone, but most just fail to realize how deep it really goes. It is one thing I really want to bring light on to.

 

[RideMoreTrains]

i love modern medical technology and medicine. i had to have surgery on a major organ this past year (reason ive actually been posting recently) and 10-20 years ago i would of been dead. thanks to recent advancements in medical technology and medicine i am alive.

technology like anything has pros and cons. i love the internet because of the influx of mass, free, information that otherwise wasn't available to people previously.

cons to me are the amount of resources it takes to power these things and destruction of environment however i think technology is essential and its the reason we all have a higher standard of living and live longer.

 

[ent_ink]

I am liking this idea a lot! I am unashamedly pro tech but I have been thinking of writing a piece of about both the enriching and degrading qualities of tech. MrD would you like to elaborate a little more and what sort of themes and audience you have in mind? I would just like to get a feel for who I am aiming this at if that is your okay with me submitting something.

 

[MrD]

@ent_ink: I dont want to push an official stance on the topic, just different out looks. The basis of the zine is basically how technology/internet has really gotten under our skin, and the affects it has on us because of that. What we have gained from all of this "technological convenience", and what we have given up because of it.
Also how it has become perfectly normal for us to always have this technology with us at all times to hold our hand, and how we might be lost with out it (on every level).
I would love it if you wrote something up!




Also, here is a small paragraph I wrote for it to kinda give a better understanding at what I am talking about

I fucking love it! I can sit down, read my favorite book in the entire world, then switch over and talk to my friend in Russia, while listing to my favorite song.
And with the rapid advancement of sites like google, there is endless amounts of information and entertainment to be found in an instant.
I can stay connected with my loved ones, and be cheaply entertained all night!

Electronic books, TV's on the bus, Electronic Billboards, and a smartphone owned by everyone so we can check out Facebooks, E-mail, and Twitter. At anytime of the day, no matter where we are.
Now the internet goes where you go!

It makes me sick how perfectly normal it is...
But this is nothing new. Of course every one has and uses these things freely.
It is everywhere, and that is just the way that the civilization works.
We already are drowning in it.

What have we given up for this?
The human connection is lost.
No longer do we need to talk to people, to hear their voice, or to look them in the eye.
This can all be done online.
The feeling is gone...

 

[MrD]

Also, If anyone wants to contribute, I will gladly mail (or e-mail, what ever side you are on) you a copy when I finnish!

 

[wizehop]

Personally I think the Internet is great. There was for a long time this notion that the computer was tearing human interaction apart. That people where spending more time talking to each other via computers than face to face. Although I agree with this to some degree, the internet has not only allowed me to stay closer to people, its also given me the chance to connect and meet new people I would have never otherwise had the chance, and some of these people are a major part of my life now.

Case and point Facebook:

Facebook has been getting allot of flack. However because of facebook I regularly go out for beer with people I haven't seen since grade 3, 31 years old now. They looked me up, found me and now we chill, pretty fucking cool if you ask me.

It also allows us to stay connected when people are apart. I have friends I grew up with who I love, but they moved all over the fucking world and we only see each other now every five years or so. With facebook even though were not talking daily I see what there up too and vice versa. We can still joke about shit and talk about what everyone is doing. If it wasnt for facebook or like technology these people wouldn't even exist in my mind anymore

I think also it has opened us all to so much more of the world.

1) Our parents generation got there wisdom spoon fed to them by one or two sources and most of that was "controlled" information. Now we can chose where we get our info, and we can cross reference shit. So if the news says one thing, but all these other reports say another we can call there bullshit.
Not too mention we are aware of so much more shit. How many subcultures would you learn about without the web. Or other cool shit that your now into but no one in your small little shit town has ever heard of. Without the net half of what we know and enjoy wouldn't be part of our reality. Information technology has probably played the biggest part in our evolution since train tracks.

2) STP and sights like it. The fact were all on here stands for something. Fuck think about it, even if you have a fetish for fat chicks in diapers that like corn, how are you A) gonna beat of to it without the net, and B) find the fat chick of your dreams on craigs list. If you had to go out and look for someone like that san internet you'd be a sad boy. Luckely Im not into that..but point stands the same.

All in all the internet is actually bringing people together and expanding our horizons at the same time. These original fears humanity had about the net are to some degree unfounded. Most of the kids who will never go out in public, and spend all there time serfing porn online where already destined for a life as such.

Best of all the internet exposes all those pretend anti civ kids who go around bashing technology and capitalism while using all there benefits.

 

[bicycle]

what is going on with this zine now? i could write something about secondlife.

 

[MrD]

It was kinda put on the back burner, but I still work on it often!
I would love it if you wrote something up!

 

[plagueship]

CYBERNETICS.