Giving Up On The Internet?
from the just-not-worth-it dept
For all the stories of spam, scams and spyware online, are some people deciding that enough is enough, and logging off completely? The article just has a single anecdote, of one person who has disconnected her modem, and then uses the rest of the article to highlight all of the problems that have been discussed way too many times already. There have been a few similar articles in the past as well. It's pretty clear that there isn't a widespread rush to shut off the internet, but it is definitely true that some users just don't want to bother with the constant security patching and making sure their anti-spam, anti-virus, anti-phishing, anti-hijacking and anti-spyware software offerings are all up-to-date and working. It still seems like most average users expect their ISPs to handle all of this for them, but the ISPs are afraid to take on the role, knowing that it's quite difficult to manage. There's a real market opportunity if anyone could figure out a simple, no hassle way to handle all of this -- but clearly, we're a long way off from that.
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Use Linux and Quit Worrying
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Re: Use Linux and Quit Worrying
in the case when I send someone an e-mail and don't
get a response. I have no way of knowing if their
spam filter ate my e-mail, they accidentally deleted
my email amid a pile of spam, or if they're just
ignoring me.
E-mail has become nearly useless for casual use.
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Each person's value judgment
Driving could be looked at in the same way: A New Yorker debates whether to keep driving. You can be in a wreck, you can get carjacked, you need to check tire pressure and oil and all kinds of other things. You have to pay for insurance and probably a lot for parking, and unless you are a whiz with cars you'll pay someone to fix problems with it or keep buying a new one that's under warranty. Some cars are easier to maintain than others, and a Volvo may be safer than a Kia. And my heavens, traffic is so awful. Driving is almost worthless there is so much traffic!
While the ability to drive anywhere can be quite a convenience, plenty of people take taxis, subways, bike, walk, etc. There are other ways to handle most things one can do with the Internet too, though I can't imagine living without the convenience. If some people can, good for them. When did the net become a cult that people must not leave?
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Re: Each person's value judgment
She didn't toss it in the trash or give it to the grandkids. Chances are she'll give it another go... But she's 69, many in that demo never even log-on. I doubt that this will happen often among younger users, but even if it does TJ makes a good point. Many can live without the internet just as many live without cars, cell phones or iPods...
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The new ISP
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Re: The new ISP
Lots of businesses do it on their LANS. The downside to it is that it requires fairly hefty bandwidth, so it might not be sensible to those with dialup connectvity.
Sometimes I long for the days when the "web" was e-mail, ftp, and gopher. And you did everything from a plain text terminal.
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