Friday, April 11, 2008

The Internet and Us

Is the Internet reducing the creativity among us? I know this is a debatable topic and that are two big sides to this coin. But in a way, I feel it does, in a few ways. We have this Indian night thing happening at pur school, and needless to say everyone is involved in some show or the other. I dont exactly know how I ended up in the dance event thing. After my initial reservations, I got into the mood and started having fun with the other girls. So we got together the other day with a bunch of songs in mind and started making up dance steps. Let me rephrase that. We opened you tube and started watching videos for ideas. It's besides the fact that we dont have too much time to spare for these dance shows and have to get things done as quickly as possible. You tube was the quickest way to ideas and we were almost done in no time. What im trying to say is that,we find almost any kind of information online. Are we really thinking as much as we used to? One could argue that we are infact using more innovative technology, different styles of architecture for the web and a million other advantages, most of which are technical. But for the layman, isn't this the easy way out? Just google it! Earlier, if I wanted to paint something, I would probably try to find a book, go to the library, open my window. But now, in a matter of milliseconds I have options in front of me. Literally. Is this in someway slowing down our thought process? Some of us wouldn't even attempt to think of new ideas. Especially for trivial things. The usual answer is "How difficlt will it be? We can find it online". I'm sure people who have been aroung much longer than I have, who have seen how the internet has brought about such a radical change in our lives and they way we look at things have something to say about it. I can say that I have been around longer than this phase of the net. But by the time I got to class 12, everyone was online. So I effectively have spent most of my time in this phase. I cant remember how it was before the Internet became our saviour. Maybt thats because school work dint warrant the use of such 'advanced' applications! :-)

Now don't get me wrong. I am a big fan of google and youtube. My lappie is my best friend these days. Im just trying to look at it from another point of view. The first thing I do after I wake up in the morning is check e mail!

I'd better get going. Need to search for some cool tattoo designs online!

8 comments:

Rainman said...

The way I see it, the Internet doesn't hamper creativity, it nurtures it. Blogging itself can be considered a form of creativity. Besides, the Internet helps you learn so many new things every day. Of course, at the end of the day, it is upto the end-user to take advantage of the Internet. Like everything else, it finally comes down to how lazy you are! ;-)

Ne said...

actually, thats the word I probably was looking for. laziness.

germinal dreamer said...

being the person who persistantly craves for creativity, I think Internet, like brat said, nurtures creativity. Its like: more the exposure u have to diff things, ur monkey mind tries to mismatch 'these' totally unrelated tags and eventually creates something thats very original and new. Internet helps in the exposure part. For eg to get a steve Vai CD/ cassette for an aspiring guitarist back in late 90's was spending 125 bucks in landmark, now its on youtube, cost is just a click. We should someday build a temple for Google.

dinesh said...

even if internet reduces my creativity,if there is any,i dont mind:)i feel it's jus a small price 2 pay 4 the numerous other benefits it provides!

zudec said...

Earlier, it used to be just a couple of bright brainy guys who could decode complex prose which would have been written by a nerd. With the internet, you have options... . In my belief, Internet is one big reason why the American educational system is so good in contrast to the Indian ES.A balance evolves between simply mugging the text than actually understanding it and enhance it.If you dont get a concept at the first go, you have 30 different ways of learning it on the internet.
The number of ways the internet improves our life is endless. google products, craigslist..etc...And again, the best part is, its all free.

Nikhilesh Murthy said...

tattoo?????????welcome to the club....

Unknown said...

they said the same thing when calculators arrived, that it woud kill arithmetic ability.
now we know.
but beware of internet "big brother" is watching...

Ne said...

haha. yes, i've heard of the big brother thing. i've been learning digital security..!! :D