What has the Internet meant to you?

[WCMO]

Electricity -- don't really know what the economics were, yet that was for a steady and increasing, reliable subscription.  For the most part, once anyone had electricity, they didn't discontinue it.  Grandparents got hooked up when Kansas City Power and Light came thru with main supply lines cross-country, and customer supply lines along old state highways to each town (adding on people along their system, but not very far from their main lines), but most of the rural folks around here still operated on batteries, old generators, or no power, until the Rural Electric Cooperatives took care of them.  I have KCP&L line to house and buildings coming cross-country from old state highway, but coop line is along gravel road bordering home place about 1/4 mile from house from other direction.  Local town actually had their own electrical system before KCP&L came in, now buys some of their power from KCP&L and sells excess back to them.

Based on the reasonableness of my rural water bill, I'd think the least economical system that has been put in place around here would be rural water.  Have a few neighbors that still have never hooked up to it, relying instead on cisterns and their old wells.  Rural water saved some money by just installing lines along the roads, and anything from there to the house, etc., was our own expense.  Whereas, the electrical was provided all the way to the meter, and the phone lines went all the way to the house.  

[k-289]

Had  a  couple  generation back ,  relative , chased off  the  place  several  times,  trying  to get willing  customers to sign up for  R  E  A  -  -  -

Although most of that was  due to UN-FOND  experiences of the depression era - carrying over  -  liken  to  the  sign  of  we  shoot  every  4th  salesman &  3  just  left  -  -  - 

Had  a  neighbor  from WW II  brought home, a  wife  from  Austria,  and  she  was  shocked at  the time of  no electricity-  1946 -  as  they  had  hydro power there before the war - although before they passed on  they  wern't  impressed with the A  O  L  stuff  of  change   -  -  -    

[sw363535]

Progress isn't always progress.....   Its just what's coming... 

I saw this quote today-- on another entry by one of us........ "An old reminiscent luddite like me remembers a little of the good days and I can tell you technology and the quest to buy it did our rural communities little overall good. "  --- a thought that will reverberate in small towns over the midwest --- yesterday my medium sized small town had wifi outages most of the day and has the att apology but no effort to improve the service in an area that they won't even supply a service person.

This is a point I think K-289 is saying as well.   Progress, whatever form it takes, enhances our life experiences but at the same time is very much a "Tool" to be used by the just and the unjust.  Provided for those who can most afford it and only a rumor of availability to those who can't or are just too few to mess with.

And to BA's quote.... technology has made it easier to farm more acres so the young farmers can find work off the farm and out of the county.  It contains the tools to turn dying towns and counties to dead towns.  

Towns die by institution.  "We're dead when we loose our grocery store, or county seat, or good place to eat, gas station, coop, High School, etc etc."  Well Government forces us to "email it in", "file it electronically", "submit by the web site", and now that education is owned by Government instead of the local county, that too will soon be click away and teaching jobs and buildings set empty.  He is right.....Technology works better with large numbers paying the bill.

In my household one can live without neighbors and the rest don't want to.  Tech is not enhancing the growth of small communities.  It is crowd driven and crowd serving...... numbers mean profit...  Representative Republics that make decisions slowly and independently by debate are not improved on by technology patiently waiting for the voter to make a decision.  The best tech can do is make it louder which probably slows down the decision with all the Loud misinformation .

For societies that are top down decision makers,  Tech is a great service because it speeds up the delivery of the decision by the few that makes decisions.  Unless your on the bottom of that society and don't care what the decision is going to be.  But even then you know more correctly and sooner your fate.

In our society we should have had a clue when the porn hound in chief fell in love with it..... followed by every government department ---all of which have been the "hacking" stock of the world.  Most of the prank and telemarketing calls we receive get their information on you from a government technology mismanagement of information.  Internet really changed the definitions of privacy ..... offices you couldn't get into for information unless you were the "ONE"  decades ago have web sites that offer it all to the public now .  We cant determine the difference between privacy and the "publics right to know" (another media screw up indicator).

internet lets us see the candidate for office "bully" the voter and show his bad temper when he has to answer questions. The press used to hide that from us.  But yet the internet gives the advertising "bully" free access to jump into our faces.

Mike probably had thought this out pretty good as indicated by leaving it up so long,,,,,, It is a massive subject. and probably the biggest theft of our time.  Look how long and complicated our evaluation of social media has been.  

We may not have many get the virus in the midwest,  fine by me.  Look how many of us everywhere do not come in contact with others but only through cell phone or internet at home or office.  Even within an office environment I bet there are far more email messages, texts, and calls than actual conversations between staff.

Some grandparents far away get to live in their grandchildren's lives and some grand parents in the same town get blocked out of their lives with internet pictures as a substitute.  

Internet facilitates a lot and gets blamed for even more.

[Hobbyfarmer]

It means the post office is relocated to bills, payments and junk mail (equivalent to spam calls, and small packages.

It means I can get up in middle of the night and see a friend is having full moonitis also because he is posting on a social media site. The good old days I'd probably go out to the shop and putz for a hour or two. Would have been more productive as I've got a Polaris Ranger out there dismantled. Don't know how they did it but that thing sure wore out in many places all at same time. Battery, fuel pump, u joints on front drive shaft, steering sector, suspension bushings and front wheel bearings.

Been on internet seeing how to take some of it apart. That didn't go too well on front drive shaft removal. Wasted two hrs and finally did what it said not to do... 10 minutes later it was out. Wonder if an old grandpa can ever get most of the thing put back together so grandma can use it again?

[sw363535]

Internet is a tool...... 

Every politician I follow is trying to make the most out of this "so called Pandemic"  To show they care.  To show they can bring home the bacon to Maine.  To show they can borrow more on the account of US Citizens and give it to their voters.  (while the keep a good share in their favorite charity account.  To show they can cash in on this opportunity.

Grocery today  what will be the new money of the future.... after congress wrecks the dollar..... 

Toilet paper ..... Northern looks to be in the lead to print the new $20 bills.

Beef is rolling off the shelves ..... 20-50 lbs at a time... at bargain prices.  and bottled water is good in trade.

No one is touching vegetables and fruit ----- pretty expensive this time of year.... takes work to prepare.

Rhoman noodles near gone ...... yet flour and baking basics are not.

--------------------------------

Study the Princess boat that Japan treated, studdied, and sent home....... results are being published......

Doesn't appear to be the Plague.    So far it appears your infected grandparents have a better chance of dying of something else after the age of 70 than corona.  Don't get me wrong corona deserves respect and we should never send our sick kids out of the house with fever or symptoms --- something we all knew 50 years ago.  Parenting and caring for parents should be near a top priority over our selfish interests(another 50 years back idea).  But get a grip and drop the phone for 18 hours a day.   Politicians cannot give you immortality no matter how loud they preach it.  We all face risks every day --- risks greater than corona or SARS.  More people will die in the US from traffic accidents than from corona for the forseeable future.  If that were not true why are we wearing those seat belts?  

Your parents and grandparents have a chance of sickness but even on that boat they had a less than 3% chance of death and only a 50% chance of symptoms if they were infected.  

I know it is tempting to "divorce" them for your own selfish interests with this excuse a virus has provided,  but keep this idea in mind.  They might get a virus from their sniffling grandkids and have a very very small chance of death....... but if you stop seeing them they will be gone--- a living death.  I am not sure which is worse for the folks in the care home.

The internet is just a tool, interesting, fast, yet mostly mindless babble without validation of credentials or content, and especially not verified truth.  It does not carry the validity of "publishing" (at least not until congress decides to apply publishing laws to it)   Congress has decided the internet world should live apart from the rule of law, even China won't do that, Therefore... Congress is in a fight for it's life and right now the lobbying industry around congress is winning.  Being a statesman is far more difficult than stealing from the taxpayer and taking cash home to the voters.  

Our commodity markets are a great example of internet out of control...... no rules and no oversight.  How many trades are made this last week by human decision compared to a programmed response of a computer system.... How many trades have to happen to get a 5K bushel of corn contract from the sellers hands into the buyers hands?  Only internet trading could take a commodity value down that far at a time when hoarding and shortage is feared.  We can tell our grocery shoppers the price is way down but we don't have any.......... irrational actions happen because computers without rational thought are making trades...... The fed paid off......... IS that theft on a grand scale...??

[crophugger]

I’ve always said social media and the internet will bring an end to the world believe it more everyday.

[BA Deere]

Pay off the national debt with toilet paper.  I love it!  🙂

[sw363535]

What the internet is doing .... is infecting brain activity and rendering human bodies irrational.  Teachers here in this town have decided that students at the high schools can decide their own courses of study and what classes they need to take to get the education they want.  Anyone who care how much the student is not learning is resigning.

I am tired of watching good businesses hire empty shells for employees.  My guess is that most employees are hiring one person and getting half of their mental ability.  If they hold a government job it may be closer to 30% mental ability at the work place.  Many tractor drivers are mentally absent from one side of the field to the other.  

That is the killer for trump..... even if this "pandemic" field trip changes the US consumers shopping habits form instant gratification by spending every dollar they can borrow on empty calories, phone apps, decoupage and accessories.  And even if he can wake up the rich comotose dinosaurs in congress and their young pole dancing fight club babe sisters to  fix the tax code so manufacturing on the other side of the pacific is not worth the freight....... He still has to deal with the "entitled not to work" work force in the US.

Today we locally see just how intelligent our education system is and why our kids need an i-pad to help them make decisions....... Schools here in SW KS are not holding classes for the rest of the year to fight the spread of the corona virus.  Today they announced they will be supplying breakfast and dinner meals for the children, but haven't yet decided on a location for the children to come to get their meals......... That in a nutshell is the US Department of Education now that it is administered by the federal government.  A group of farmers on the local board could not be this embarrassing.

[gurly3801539]

Why are you making them come get meals. Our district is delivering.

[k-289]

IN   THE  NUTSHELL ,  those  neighbor  hoods ,  full  of  unintelligent ,  working  families ,  that  were  2  stupid  to  run  a  MEGA  operation ,  of  the  several  thousand  of  what  ever ,  had  some  wholesome  value  after  all  - - -

They  didn't  ask  for (use)  disguised  money$  of  EQUIP  funding ,  to  enhance  the  investment Quality  of  their  operation ,  and  groom  the  K- Street crowd  pandering  that  has  U S  at  this  destination  -  -  -

Fox  Business  claims   ''50% ''  of  food  budgets  go  to  ''  eating  out '' ,  and  then  we ,  as  farmers  are  told  to  race  to  the  top  with   production  volume ,  accumulating  yield  trophies,  and  on  the  other  hand  be  a  low  co$t  producer and  sneaking  in  with  a  hedge  sale -  -  -

Praying  for  the  option ,  I  don't  want  to  farm  all  the  ground,  except  what  borders  me,  eventuality ,  careful  what  you  wish   for .  you  might  be  a '' stamp '' operation  -   or  have  a  franchise  of  un-inhabited  landscape  - - -