QUOTE (Hiroyuki @ Nov 06 2009, 04:25 PM) I think the trouble is that the internet is expanding, it's like the expanding universe, unstoppable: originally there were only intelligent college students and academics etc online but then came the infamous "eternal september" when newbies formed the majority not just for a month but forever.
So the collective IQ of the internet is declining because most people joining it are clueless and in many cases sad to say will never get a clue. I daily work with people who, far from being able to install a codec to watch a H264 video or know what netiquette is don't even know what their browser address bar is for or what a bookmark is. (No, really! I am not making this up. I actually had a colleague complain that her computer stopped working after IT support took away the system box for maintenance....) And these are the people who are (with my misguided help!) signing up for blogging or facebook or ftv accounts...) I see people receiving emails saying "you must send your username, password, and date of birth to this address (which is not their ISP address) or we will cancel your account" and they think this is for real and when I say it is a phishing attack they go like "fishing? huh?" and wonder how I am miraculously able to tell that a request, directed via a hacked host, to send their logon password to an unrelated website based in Korea, is a scam. The fact is that people online aren't what they used to be.
but do you think, that this change ocurred suddenly during the past 3 to 4 years? Because thats the time frame we are talking about here. Otherwise, I agree with you.
Also, FTV is crowded with kiddies lately. Maybe it is the medium (=anime), that causes it. Oh well...
So the collective IQ of the internet is declining because most people joining it are clueless and in many cases sad to say will never get a clue. I daily work with people who, far from being able to install a codec to watch a H264 video or know what netiquette is don't even know what their browser address bar is for or what a bookmark is. (No, really! I am not making this up. I actually had a colleague complain that her computer stopped working after IT support took away the system box for maintenance....) And these are the people who are (with my misguided help!) signing up for blogging or facebook or ftv accounts...) I see people receiving emails saying "you must send your username, password, and date of birth to this address (which is not their ISP address) or we will cancel your account" and they think this is for real and when I say it is a phishing attack they go like "fishing? huh?" and wonder how I am miraculously able to tell that a request, directed via a hacked host, to send their logon password to an unrelated website based in Korea, is a scam. The fact is that people online aren't what they used to be.
but do you think, that this change ocurred suddenly during the past 3 to 4 years? Because thats the time frame we are talking about here. Otherwise, I agree with you.
Also, FTV is crowded with kiddies lately. Maybe it is the medium (=anime), that causes it. Oh well...