Perhaps we are the ones that need the new paradigm. We made the decision to be always “on”. We’re the ones that poke about looking to see what’s happening on some of our favourite sites and chats in case we miss something “earth shattering”. At least that’s how a large number of us treat it. Myself included.

It’s a decision many of us faced when cell phones first appeared. A great number of us suddenly felt the need to be reachable at every hour of every day in every circumstance. So we carried the damned things with us all the time, always turned on, and treating it and the person calling as more important than the person we were with. I think most of us have now got boundaries around what those things we’ll allow to interrupt, smart or not. though far too many of us still allow it to interrupt when we should be paying attention to the job at hand like driving or using potentially dangerous power tools.
Will we get there with the Web and the rest of the Internet? I think so. And some day we’ll draw boundaries around that too. Amazon can be the place we buy a ton of things but soon the reality strikes that it can’t FIX any of it should something go wrong. And that the store that could have fixed it might have just closed because it lost traffic and profit to Amazon and the like.
I use Amazon but not to the exclusion of local businesses. I still much prefer that strange thing called human contact.
As for sexual predators, bullies and that sort of creature. They were around pre-Internet. Harassing phone calls, for example, bully boy bosses who far to often became bosses only because they were good at being bullies, stolen credit cards, stolen trash, so the crook could find out lots about us and on it goes.
Maybe I’m the one that needs the new paradigm. Maybe I’m the one that needs to turn the thing off every once in a while. I won’t be the worst for it. That’s for sure. I might even be better for it. I’d find better balance in my life if I did. ;-)
As for the infographic, it was a bit too long, there were places in it that I’d wished had a few down-arrows or the word continued every here and there. Or broken into sub-infographics when subtopics like social and economic impact were being presented.
But a world without the Web and the Internet it rides on? Unthinkable now. It’s just changed our economies, social relationships and ourselves too much to ever go back.
We could learn to turn it off though.

Right behind you buddy.

For all the WOW factor that Infographic had, There is another side to the story as you say.

I think the moral here is “don’t believe everything you read online”

haha.

I have long thought that the internet has not brought unadulterated enjoyment and well-being to all, by any means, despite its many benefits and conveniences. Certainly, I am on it enough every day, but having the memories of life before, I find the need to look for balance in my life.

I used to be an avid reader of books; now I find myself on blogs and forums, etc. This to me is not always the obviously superior choice. Recently, I have started carving out more time for books. I am in particular avoiding any kind of online reading/book forum to do so. Additionally, I read a few ebooks online that I don’t own, but again, on my own.

I enjoyed things being slower and smaller to a certain degree, and to my mind, a bit more manageable. When I look to see where the internet appears to be going, I only see it picking up speed from here on out; seemingly a primary directive for itself. As mentioned, I believe the internet started off as a very useful tool and has since, I believe, became a daily taskmaster of sorts that many people’s lives, mine included, revolve around.

What I think would be really neat is if there were widespread classes in public school aimed at teaching children how to manage their internet time and how to merge that better with real life activities.

I certainly agree with Perspicacious that online retailers often treat brick-and-mortar stores as ‘show rooms’ and have done so myself. But, indeed what happens to online shopping when brick-and-mortars are largely gone, due to the success of online shopping. How will the desire for at least some shoppers to see in person what they might be interested in buying be treated or ignored by the internet. I have seen many amazing tools offered by online stores, such as the ability to ‘try something on’ but it falls far short of actually trying something on, at least in my experience.

Jane mentioned the need of a new paradigm. I look forward to one with great interest.

Wow. I was simply pointing out that the “new technology” just didn’t come along with benefits solely. I gave some examples. You want some more pre-internet examples of “badness”? How about murder? assault? etc.

I even noted in my closing paragraph that I thought we were better with the net than without. Guess you skipped over that.

And I know Amazon collects sales taxes in a very few states; but it got a huge leg-up by not having to do so in its early years, allowing it to undersell the brick and mortar stores – and that pre-internet “low tech” mail order catalog. It and other entities like it now use the Wal-Marts and Targets of the world as their show room, even providing apps for smart phones so people can do all their window shopping and education at those latter places and then go place an order Amazon, which doesn’t have to be responsible for such burdens as floor employees, show room space, etc. Perhaps that seems like a good thing for consumers. Short run, maybe. But long run? When the show rooms die, what then?

Perhaps along with some “realism” for me, you might take reading courses so you could understand the thrust of my post – tell both sides of the story, not just one.