IS THE INTERNET TAKING THE FUN OUT OF LIFE?

IS THE INTERNET TAKING THE FUN OUT OF LIFE?
I remember reading an article back in the early 90s when the internet was starting to gain steam that said "wouldn't it be nice to be able to sit down in front of your computer and do your work, play games, buy anything you want, watch tv and movies, play music and never ever have to leave your house.." Sounds kinda awesome on paper..right? But in reality it has left a huge amount of us board and without any drive...Sometimes I find it takes the steam out of me. I miss going to the video store or the record store and searching through their stock. I miss being able to find the clothes I wanted at the store or the books I wanted at the bookstore.. These days you can even order your food from restaurants and grocery stores on the web and have it delivered...and the thing is stores have realized this and alot of times keep their best stock as website order only items..it makes most stores predictable when you walk in these days.. I already know exactly what  will be available at any store in town before I ever leave and truthfully to get the items I am looking for I am forced more than 70% of the time to order it from the web.. What do you guys think?

I think it can be hit or miss. I remember picking up duds when it came to music back in the day. Maybe liking one or two songs. Now I can buy just those and save money, or pick up the whole thing if I like it. Amazon has helped me save a ton of money when it comes to purchasing electronics and books and such. I do like to go out to a book store now and then, and relive the old days of perusing titles and such. If I really like a movie, I tend to buy the DVD with all the extras. I like having that copy, just like owning a CD with the booklet, etc.

I think it some ways it has brought people of similar interests together, but at the same time, created exclusive groups. of just those interests.

Internet is doing both, it gives opportunities and can be also destructive.

Without the net I couldn't interact with you like this, or couldn't get the info of fe. music as fast as it is possible nowadays. These are the good.

But the worrying part is the fact that the net is destroying the income of the creative artists in many art forms. Fe. music.

The net and espcially social media is also making people dumb.I read shocking scientific release maybe two weeks ago that revealed that young kids who have read a lot of printed books can use 70000 words (Finnish). Those kids who haven't read can use barely 15000. You can imagine what it is doing to handling and processing of information. Also almost one of eight boys cannot read anymore properly. One reason leading to this is internet and social media who is run by short messages.

I also know people who never step outside their homes, 'cause everything is in the net.

I think everything is about balance.

I do miss pillaging through a music store.  I especially loved Christian bookstores with great listening stations where you could sample an album right in the store by popping a cassette in the machine.  Later, you got these digital stations like what Lifeway uses now that doesn't have half of what they carry in store--which isn't much.

Then, there was CD Warehouse.  They had tons of used discs with CD players you could listen to before purchasing.  I spent a ton of time and money there!  However, I don't know of any music stores around anymore other than Walmart and Bestbuy, Lifeway, and one Hastings store about 5 minutes from home.

I buy 90% of my music from second hand shops nowadays. Too much of the new music is uninspiring. All new music comes from the webstores.

I refuse to download. I buy physical albums only.

I do download a lot, but it's more due to a combination of space and the albums costing less money and a lack of nearby record stores (the S&H charges for amazon kind of put me off buying albums from there, but thankfully the download price is simply that, no extra charges or anything). That said, i do miss browsing record stores and video stores and bookstores, though i do hit thrift stores/flea markets/yard sales quite often and sometimes find cool stuff there.

One's thing for sure: when you bought a tape/cd, you were stuck with it even if half the songs were bad.  And you got to know the whole album and sometimes the bad became good (not all the time).  It became part of you.  Even if you were sicka the album, you got bored and stuck it back in the player. 

Now I can scamper through the 'Tube and que up buncha songs to hear all the songs I was curious about only to hear them once cuz there's so much to listen to.  Then they become a vague memory.

Now when I hear a song from one of "those" albums from way back (like Iron Maiden - Somewhere in Time), it gets stuck in my head for days on head since it's so ingrained in my memory.

alldatndensum wrote:I do miss pillaging through a music store.  I especially loved Christian bookstores with great listening stations where you could sample an album right in the store by popping a cassette in the machine.  Later, you got these digital stations like what Lifeway uses now that doesn't have half of what they carry in store--which isn't much.

Then, there was CD Warehouse.  They had tons of used discs with CD players you could listen to before purchasing.  I spent a ton of time and money there!  However, I don't know of any music stores around anymore other than Walmart and Bestbuy, Lifeway, and one Hastings store about 5 minutes from home.

I wonder if music stores could make a comeback by having a bargain bin selling used MP3's.

deathisgain wrote:
I wonder if music stores could make a comeback by having a bargain bin selling used MP3's.

deathisgain wrote:

alldatndensum wrote:I do miss pillaging through a music store.  I especially loved Christian bookstores with great listening stations where you could sample an album right in the store by popping a cassette in the machine.  Later, you got these digital stations like what Lifeway uses now that doesn't have half of what they carry in store--which isn't much.

Then, there was CD Warehouse.  They had tons of used discs with CD players you could listen to before purchasing.  I spent a ton of time and money there!  However, I don't know of any music stores around anymore other than Walmart and Bestbuy, Lifeway, and one Hastings store about 5 minutes from home.

I wonder if music stores could make a comeback by having a bargain bin selling used MP3's.

I miss Hastings, one of my favorite places when I lived in Murfreesboro

deathisgain wrote:

alldatndensum wrote:I do miss pillaging through a music store.  I especially loved Christian bookstores with great listening stations where you could sample an album right in the store by popping a cassette in the machine.  Later, you got these digital stations like what Lifeway uses now that doesn't have half of what they carry in store--which isn't much.

Then, there was CD Warehouse.  They had tons of used discs with CD players you could listen to before purchasing.  I spent a ton of time and money there!  However, I don't know of any music stores around anymore other than Walmart and Bestbuy, Lifeway, and one Hastings store about 5 minutes from home.

I wonder if music stores could make a comeback by having a bargain bin selling used MP3's.

Well, for a time there were people selling "pre-loaded" mp3 players on ebay, but they put the kibosh on that pretty quick.

Superjuice wrote:One's thing for sure: when you bought a tape/cd, you were stuck with it even if half the songs were bad.  And you got to know the whole album and sometimes the bad became good (not all the time).  It became part of you.  Even if you were sicka the album, you got bored and stuck it back in the player. 

Now I can scamper through the 'Tube and que up buncha songs to hear all the songs I was curious about only to hear them once cuz there's so much to listen to.  Then they become a vague memory.

Now when I hear a song from one of "those" albums from way back (like Iron Maiden - Somewhere in Time), it gets stuck in my head for days on head since it's so ingrained in my memory.

↑ This. I think having immediate access (and gratification) to listening to entire brand new albums for free (YouTube) from your EZ chair has killed a bit of how much music would be enjoyed.

A lot of my early Christian metal was just over a brief sample and I checked them out in the first place because of what the album artwork looked like. I bought a few duds and other releases I forced myself to listen to it, because I spent money on it and, its ok turned into liking it more.

My current project, I've made a point of avoiding posting whole songs or having digital downloads/streaming available. Some of my customers have even REFUSED to listen to the samples because they want to relive that "surprise" of getting a disc, this is the only place that music is, and the total mystery behind what's going to happen when the play button is pressed.

I totally get that.

Its a much better presentation than seeing someone talk about a band on the forum, you type the band name in YouTube, listen to half the album, then go do something else.

It does if you let it.  Just because you CAN have everything at your fingertips doesn't mean you MUST do it that way.

I agree with Messiaen. Yeah.

I agree with Messiaen. Yeah.

Superjuice wrote:One's thing for sure: when you bought a tape/cd, you were stuck with it even if half the songs were bad.  And you got to know the whole album and sometimes the bad became good (not all the time).  It became part of you.  Even if you were sicka the album, you got bored and stuck it back in the player. 

To be fair, even back in the vinyl day, it was possible to skip the songs you didnt like via moving the needle. If anything, cassettes made that harder (you could fast forward, true, but you had to make sure to get right to the point where the song ended and the next one began).

WildWorld wrote:

Superjuice wrote:One's thing for sure: when you bought a tape/cd, you were stuck with it even if half the songs were bad.  And you got to know the whole album and sometimes the bad became good (not all the time).  It became part of you.  Even if you were sicka the album, you got bored and stuck it back in the player. 

To be fair, even back in the vinyl day, it was possible to skip the songs you didnt like via moving the needle. If anything, cassettes made that harder (you could fast forward, true, but you had to make sure to get right to the point where the song ended and the next one began).

No way man! I had one of those fancy dohickey type players that would advance to the "dead" space in the tape.

I used to buy alot of music that I had never heard of out of dollar bins...If I liked the way the cover looked and the band looked I gave it a chance... Kinda miss that these days... Heck, I miss dollar bins... what are they now? At least $4 bins One thing we do for fun is go to vintage stores and flea markets...The thing is even they are getting expensive...

Stores that carry CDs?  Other than Walmart and Best Buy, those actually still exist?  Not in my area.

You can go into Nashville and find a few, but they are mostly dedicated to the country music scene.  Yucky-icky-blech!

alldatndensum wrote:Stores that carry CDs?  Other than Walmart and Best Buy, those actually still exist?  Not in my area.

You can go into Nashville and find a few, but they are mostly dedicated to the country music scene.  Yucky-icky-blech!

Haha eww country. You guys dont have second hand used stores? Like comic shops that sell used cds?

Machine Fish wrote:

alldatndensum wrote:Stores that carry CDs?  Other than Walmart and Best Buy, those actually still exist?  Not in my area.

You can go into Nashville and find a few, but they are mostly dedicated to the country music scene.  Yucky-icky-blech!

Haha eww country. You guys dont have second hand used stores? Like comic shops that sell used cds?

Most of the used places around here anymore have dried up.  There is one place in Nashville that has a decent music section (comic shop).  Other than that, most of what you find now are more thrift shops with CDs that are so disorganized that no one really wants to pilfer through them to see what they can find.  I used to have several CD Warehouse establishments that I regularly frequented, but they are all closed now.  Those thrived from being close to Nashville colleges.  The kids would buy CDs, rip them to MP3, and then sell the disc.  Then, they started throwing away the disc.  Then, they stopped buying CDs and bought/stole their music.  Now, they just stream and never buy anything.

Digital music made getting music easier, but it has killed off physical product.  Why buy something when you can stream it for free?  That's how our younger generations think.  For the most part, a teen now thinks that music has always been free.