I've noticed an alarming aspect to all this - the butterfly effect.
Attracted to new ideas and fresh sites, onliners log on, waffle and tweet and flash and view and move on.
The superficiality of day to day life is increased by the internet.
Already we know that talent is neither allowed to develop nor wants to do so.
Rather than play small venues night after night, changing lines in songs, adapting, dropping tunes you love that simply don't work and improving tunes you hate but the audience adores.
The X Factor attitude has swamped the meejah but it has also hijacked talent.
So it's fun today, dead tomorrow.
Andy Warhol was so, so right.
But 15 minutes? It's more like 15 seconds.

Nicolas Carr has written about this "butterfly effect" in his essay "Is Google making us stupid?".

"Over the past few years I’ve had an uncomfortable sense that someone, or something, has been tinkering with my brain, remapping the neural circuitry, reprogramming the memory. My mind isn’t going—so far as I can tell—but it’s changing. I’m not thinking the way I used to think. I can feel it most strongly when I’m reading. Immersing myself in a book or a lengthy article used to be easy. My mind would get caught up in the narrative or the turns of the argument, and I’d spend hours strolling through long stretches of prose. That’s rarely the case anymore. Now my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages. I get fidgety, lose the thread, begin looking for something else to do. I feel as if I’m always dragging my wayward brain back to the text. The deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle."



http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/google

Excellent article - must read.

"Pancake people" - in two words, exactly what is scaring me.

Thank you DJ.

The talent of success is nothing more than doing what you can do well, and doing well whatever you do without thought of fame. If it comes at all it will come because it is deserved, not because it is sought after.”Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (the most popular American Poet in the 19th century, 1807-1882).

Perhaps people need a reason to be alive. 'Gods and drones' I think JK wrote recently. Some of the drones need to get noticed.

I have no qualms about slagging off Jade Goody (oh no she's been mentioned again) or Paul Potts. The latter is a gimp who couldn't sing classical opera if his life depended on it.

It's cruel, it's harsh, it's nasty. Yes. But they keep comin' back for more!

does anyone remember Max Headroom ?..decades ahead of it's time.

I loved Max Headroom!! In the days when Channel Four were very good at groundbreaking and creative television. Until the men in suits took over and wanted fast bucks...cue Jade Goody (I've mentioned her again...I'm not Max Clifford I promise), and a whole host of instantly forgettable trash. Trashy TV can be good, but only if it pretends to be nothing more than trash. The Tube (Paula Yates was quirky, sexy and compulsive viewing...unfortunately Bob Geldof thought so too) The Chart Show, Revid, Network 7,...all good shows when Channel Four was an abundantly rampant toddler turning British television upside down.

It should never have strayed from the gloriously reckless path it was treading...but along came a corporate cigar.

I'm no fan of big brother, but I found Max Headroom incredibly annoying, all that stuttering when introducing pop videos, Why???
Also Network 7 was irritating, having info scrolling across the screen, whilst you're trying to concentrate on what the presenter is saying, and all those wobbly camera shots. It was the start of something new, whether it was the start of something good is another matter.
The tube was excellent and exciting. It was the only place (apart from ogwt) where you could see groups perform live on tv.

Twit(ter) is exactly what it says on the tin. Anyone signing up to it is a total idiot in my view. Get a life people !!! Facebook is total nonsense as well.

I can understand My Space - because it is a musical idea and a networking space between mainly people who DO NOT know each other.

Facebook is total rubbish - why network with people you know on-line when you meet them every day or could do if you so wanted.

I have a feeling the ideas behind Facebook are actually inspired by the NWO idea to force people to live all day in their PRISON CELL ( home cell ) where they have MURDOCH MEDIA and BBC thrust at them from every angle. They never need go out at all. Large supermarkets being the only thing left in the UK after this depression.

We need to see FACEBOOK and TWITTER for what they are - totally stupid ideas for totally stupid people.

No thanks - I prefer to go out and meet people or write on a forum like this where many people can still discuss things with some intelligence.

We all get one life - living it via a screen is not a great idea.

And from our weekend thread comes a Tuesday morning Mail front page...

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1153583...-neuroscientist.html

Carr's article is spot on.

I'm appalled at the overall dumbing down that is happening to the English language. On many forums I look into, I've noticed an alarming increase in careless postings... featuring dumb spelling mistakes aplenty, not to mention grammar also going out the window. I think attention spans are so short, people rarely ever think about whatever they type, so they quickly fling it out regardless.

Thankfully, there is a marked difference on this forum. There is intelligent conversation and debate that is written well compared to so many other places which I presume are inhabited by human sheep. Occasionally here there may be differences of opinion but that gets dealt with in a humane manner whereas many other places, it explodes into fights that drag on and on, spiralling out of control promoting negativity.

Facebook is awful. I have a personal account and I created one for my band. Facebook removed the band account claiming it was fraudulent spam! What's more, Facebook fancy themselves as "moral guardians" applying strong censorship, snipping out anything they deem offensive or radical. They don't believe in freedom of speech that's for sure... much of what gets said on this forum would be swiftly censored at Facebook. Also, if you terminate your account at Facebook, they keep ALL your data... photos and all instead of wiping it. Why do they want to keep all that data? Avoid it at all costs.

Myspace I hate as well... just can't trust the Murdoch factor. Twitter? I looked at that yesterday and failed to see the point or validity in it but because it's the current craze, thousands of sheep are flocking to it and are signing up daily. Just because "friends" flock to something is not necessarily a sign that it is "good" and I believe there are security issues with Twitter.

Google? They cannot be trusted either. On myspace, you cannot sort out your mail, unless you install Google Gears. Great. Now you can find mail easily, but Google can now find out everything about YOU since Google Gears is concealing a rather nasty tracking device that sends Google ALL of your surfing data... I made the mistake of installing that... that was it. My browsing severely slowed down to a near crawl. That was when I found out how nasty this plug in is. Naturally I decided to get rid of it but Google make sure it cannot be removed easily. You uninstall it, but it never goes away. Each time you go online, it magically springs into action. I got rid of it eventually, but it was a very long winded chore that involved serious tinkering with my registry. I shudder to think how many have installed this nasty device and are unable to get rid of it because they're scared of tinkering with the registry.

What is Google's game? Why are they hellbent on invading everybody's privacy? What are they doing with all our data? What is it for? If for any reason you have installed Google Gears, for goodness' sake, get rid of it. Now.

The internet then, is as dangerous as the real world. At least we can see CCTV cameras, but online, we cannot always see or be aware of tracking devices that violate our privacy.

And don't forget... in March, it becomes LAW for all of our ISP's to keep logs of all of our email correspondence. That info can be accessed by the Government... allegedly to help track down paedophilia and terrorist activities... Good old Bush and Blair. You gotta hand it to them...