Wednesday, January 30, 2008

GoodBye Simplicity (The Evolution of the Internet)

I have established this place as my personal venting grounds. Originally the idea of this blog was to create a gateway into my mind and express thoughts whether supportive or negative. I suppose my thoughts now days are mostly negative, almost everything seems stupid to me. While some find certain things pleasing, I try to point out the contrary to it. Take the Internet and it's evolution for example. Alot of people don't even know how it works. Without going into detailed history, the brief explanation is that the Internet exists when 2 or more computers are directly connected to each other. Back in the days of Dial Up, utilizing a modem and a phone lone with dial tone you can connect to one of these computers, which in turn is connected to a number of others. It started out as BBS, a computer you dialed into and then displayed a message board where you can read news, various information and even receive files. It then expanded as more computers connected, into the WWW(World Wide Web), where thousands and up to millions of computers are inter-connected thus presenting a visual representation for each computer called a Website. Now that's as simple as it can be explained. My gripe is that simplicity has gone out the window.

In mid 90's, you would access the Internet and find exactly what you were looking for via search engine. As I recall, there was 1 main search engine and that was Yahoo. Now we have countless search engines which all seem intent on showing advertisements rather than producing viable results. The number of websites have grown dramatically, which isn't exactly a negative thing, more information is good. But the content these sites offer confuse search engines and lead you down different path than what you intended. There's are many misleading websites out there. Sites that are specifically designed to but pinged on a search engine and then mislead you into a website completely opposite of the information you are looking for, just to make some sort of sale or scam.

Websites used to be simple in itself. A standard HTML(Code of a website) and maybe Javascript(more versatile) representation which did not clutter the screen. The content provided the necessary information that you were looking for without too much hassle in navigation of the site. Now you can usually find some sort of flashy new technology smeared all over the entirety of todays average website. Information is often more difficult to locate, links are sometimes misleading, advertisements, graphics, videos, and music slow the performance of your computer just so the laymen user can be wowed and feel as if they're in some alternate-futuristic reality. We have to actually download applications just to view certain things on these sites now. Flash players, Active X controls, and various other media players. Why do they need this shit? If I want to see a video or listen to music, make a link to it and maybe I will be interested in viewing it. Don't force me to load all this bullshit just to find that the particular site is absent of any information I would find of value.

Meeting people used to be easier, that's for certain. Since every bit of commercial scum has found the internet, meeting people is almost a thing of the past on the internet. You would be able to go into a chat room and start finding interesting people to strike a conversation with. Now, you go into a chat room and find that it's filled with bots(automatic action scripts) which spam the rooms with porn ads. You occasionally find these on Instant Messengers, a random message from an anonymous person(usually a bot) sends you a message, you reply as if it were a real person, and then comes the link to some ridiculous porn site. These things are so rampant now, you can't trust anything you see online, you eventually get sick of the nonsense and set your privacy settings to ignore unknown communications. So your chances of meeting actual people have just decreased by about 95%.

MySpace, it had to be brought up. It was a unique way of staying in touch and possibly meeting new people when it first came about. It has also be infested with lifeless peons who have no purpose in life other than to send out chain emails and create fake accounts to advertise their worthless merchandise. Of course that's not the only problem, about 90% of the population on MySpace seem to develop two-bit website design skills and eventually clutter their entire page with videos, music, and pictures which are forced upon the viewer. Of course being creative is encouraged, but don't go overboard. I'm sure anyone can express themselves with less clutter. I'm sure a few people will say "Just don't visit their pages if you don't want to see all of the objects". Well, truth is, I don't visit their pages once I find it difficult and annoying to view. Most will be lucky if they aren't taken off my friends list, especially for those that contribute to the chain email nonsense. People often make a big deal about MySpace as well. Their lives are too socially bankrupt so they need to make MySpace a part of their life, all day every day. you find that these individuals get upset if they are not in your top whatever or leave them comments of some kind. A word to these social rejects: MySpace is not a way of life! It's merely a way of staying in touch with each other. If I am curious about any updates to your life without physically talking to you, then I'll look at the site, I couldn't give a rats ass what other junk you've posted on it. I don't leave comments under obligation, and I don't rank my friends. My top selection is purely based on who I frequently talk to.

I can rant on for an eternity, but I am going to save a bit of energy for the next blog...To be continued

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