The internet: a salutory lesson

[Alain Maréchal]

On Thursday afternoon an SFR engineer severed a cable somewhere around here, the result being that the entire town and locality was without internet for two days. Not internet only; I had no telephone (internet), nor radio (internet) and many neighbours (not us) use SFR's internet television service. More rural areas were without communication of any sort (at least we could go out and talk to people).

Nobody could read or send emails, look at the news, make online purchases, print previously purchased tickets for train, theatre or concerts, retrieve archived documents. Business will have suffered greatly; appointments could not be made, Amazon.fr must have lost (or at least had deferred, which in terms of cashflow is the same thing) a lot of income. Even emails are now stored online, so checking old ones was unavailable. Documents are stored online, some store their music so.

The initial frustration and anxiety led to reflection. We are too dependant on the internet. I certainly am, since we now live far from families and friends. People have clever mobile telephones - I prefer a simple one, phone and text service only (and I dislike using even them). I shall take steps ("I will do such things—What they are yet I know not, but they shall be the terrors of the earth.") . Two days without it have passed, and here I am using it again, but I think a general withdrawal is required, at least a diminution of use. At present I feel the need to respond quickly to email (a habit acquired while working) but I am certain my friends would wait. Those two days were not wasted, it was far too hot to walk out (35-36 at 1600) so I read and listened a lot, although I perhaps consumed rather more Cinsault-Grenache than was wise. So I have decided to live online slowly. I wonder how long it will last, but I will certainly think how I can become less dependant on the internet.

p.s. Research (online, of course) shows that the problem was wider, although it started and lasted longer in Vichy. The SFR network had problems throughout Allier and Bourgogne.

p.p.s. A neighbour tells me he has not read a newspaper or watched the news for seven years. He feels happier as a result. I commend that to those living on those Islands.

[pastoralguy]

On Thursday afternoon an SFR engineer severed a cable somewhere around here, the result being that the entire town and locality was without internet for two days. Not internet only; I had no telephone (internet), nor radio (internet) and many neighbours (not us) use SFR's internet television service. More rural areas were without communication of any sort (at least we could go out and talk to people).

Nobody could read or send emails, look at the news, make online purchases, print previously purchased tickets for train, theatre or concerts, retrieve archived documents. Business will have suffered greatly; appointments could not be made, Amazon.fr must have lost (or at least had deferred, which in terms of cashflow is the same thing) a lot of income. Even emails are now stored online, so checking old ones was unavailable. Documents are stored online, some store their music so.

The initial frustration and anxiety led to reflection. We are too dependant on the internet. I certainly am, since we now live far from families and friends. People have clever mobile telephones - I prefer a simple one, phone and text service only (and I dislike using even them). I shall take steps ("I will do such things—What they are yet I know not, but they shall be the terrors of the earth.") . Two days without it have passed, and here I am using it again, but I think a general withdrawal is required, at least a diminution of use. At present I feel the need to respond quickly to email (a habit acquired while working) but I am certain my friends would wait. Those two days were not wasted, it was far too hot to walk out (35-36 at 1600) so I read and listened a lot, although I perhaps consumed rather more Cinsault-Grenache than was wise. So I have decided to live online slowly. I wonder how long it will last, but I will certainly think how I can become less dependant on the internet.

p.s. Research (online, of course) shows that the problem was wider, although it started and lasted longer in Vichy. The SFR network had problems throughout Allier and Bourgogne.

p.p.s. A neighbour tells me he has not read a newspaper or watched the news for seven years. He feels happier as a result. I commend that to those living on those Islands.

I'm not at my best just now with depression and I've been advised to stop watching the news and reading newspapers to help stabilise my mood. However, as a long time follower of current affairs, I find it very difficult to be out of touch with the world. For instance, I was on days off from work When the appalling Grenfell Tower tragedy happened and it was so easy to get sucked into the rolling 24 hour news cycle until it dominates ones life. (Amongst other tragedies going on just now).


On reflection, I think I would rather be informed than become an ostrich with my head in the sand but the trick is to limit oneself to the relentless exposure.

Yes, I think we do rely on computers too much but it's hard to live without them.

[Petrushka]

I've not read a newspaper for several years and about a year ago stopped watching any news programmes on TV. Being something of a news junkie this wasn't easy but something that Edgeley Rob said on this subject on here resonated with me and it now feels the right thing to have done. Helplessness is the over-riding emotion at the various tragedies that take place but the key is to keep things in perspective and remember that there have always been and always will be tragedies and you seriously can do little or nothing to make a jot of difference.

The time isn't far off when an entire country will be brought down by internet failure, probably by a foreign power. Forget tanks, guns and planes. A whole country can be utterly destabilised by hacking.

[pastoralguy]

One of my justifications for remaining loyal to CDs... (And I keep a large stash of batteries available for when this happens).

[Serial_Apologist]

I'm with Petrushka on this one. Mobiles have increased even normal people's tendencies to expect instant response. I've managed to do without one - just about. A week ago my landline phone rang while I was attending to a call of nature. I dashed through to where my phone is. After eight bleeps the line went dead. I checked using 1471 and phoned back the caller. "Why is it always you who takes so long to answer your phone?" he asked irritably, "everyone else answers straight away!"

I've always allowed 20 bleeps to sound before giving up on a phone call, which just seems reasonable. I'm in two minds about the internet: useful undoubtedly through it is for access to information, data, reports, road maps, missed broadcasts and so on, I worry about the response payback in terms of fast information feedback on our expectations of and relations with our immediate surrounds and fellow human beings, let alone the above reasons, particularly as epitomised when it comes to motorists' diverted attentions threatening fellow road users and pedestrians, while always confronted by mobile users cluttering up the pavements.

On the other hand, I would never have made the acquaintanceships I have, here and in other like places, or derived the huge benefits from so doing. Should I fret that this attitude has sacrificed libraries which, were it not for "the net", would still have existed and given employment? Writing letters to real persons at addresses clearly marked on official council documents instead of sending emails into virtual space? Forever hoping to goodness not to find my online accounts hacked into and raided, stressing out over how the hell to get in touch with my bank, which doesn't know me from Adam now that my regular branch, let alone any branch within two miles, has been closed down? And finally, in the end, wondering what will happen, when, as it eventually will, the global criminal "fraternity" manages to overcome the most sophisticated measures devised to circumvent hacking, along with undermining the entire global system with viruses, including the money markets, which I don't believe in anyway but am forced to go along with for my own and everbody else's financial survival? How far will our survival mechanisms and capacities to respond have been compromised?

[Pulcinella]

I too am with Petrushka on this.
No TV news since the referendum.
I skim through a daily download of the paper (Times); more interested in the comments and the cartoon than the news.
My partner and I tackle the cryptic crossword (usually successfully!) at 5, as we open a bottle of wine.
With luck, the stimulating effect on the brain cells more than compensates the deadening effect of the wine.
The news (and the constant exposure to things I could have no influence on) was certainly making me depressed.

But the bits of work we still do (partner more than me) depend on the internet, as do the landline and the stereo (Sonos), so we are bereft when it goes down.
Are we TOO dependent on it?
Yes, and like others here I think and fear that a major disaster may well be not that far away.
I keep paper copies of most bank statements etc, and have a spreadsheet of savings accounts and money invested, but that is just as much to aid my executor in the event of accidental death than anything else.

Best not to get too gloomy about it, though that is sometimes easier said than done.
Cinema early Friday evening and Minster evensong then Britten's MND last night, so there's a backlog of crosswords to do.

[Cockney Sparrow]

I've been advised to stop watching the news and reading newspapers....

On reflection, I think I would rather be informed than become an ostrich with my head in the sand but the trick is to limit oneself to the relentless exposure.

Good as they are, I've decided to try not to listen to news bulletins, Today, World at One and PM on Radio 4. I heard a News dept editor/big wig on "
Feedback" and he said that the 6 O'Clock news and the Midnight News on R4 are set up as a balanced summary of the news of the day. When we were on holiday in Spain (inconveniently fixed to return the day of the election - in time to vote!) we kept in touch by listening to "News Briefing" - 05:30 and the Six O'clock news on the iPlayer - so very dependant on the internet.. No, or few instances where interviewees are barely able to draw breath in response before being browbeaten by the interviewer and endless repetitions. (But its still possible to find specific items such as Diane Abbott and Boris Johnson floundering as they wing it on air).

[teamsaint]

Some common threads developing here.
I know some people think I am a very suspicious person, but, for all the many great things it brings, over reliance on the internet, including storage of data in clouds, is really not in our best interests.We really don't understand who controls the internet, or the motives of those who might seek to misuse internet failure. As the OP points out, most of us are already a lot more reliant on potentially fragile systems than is comfortable, even at the personal level.
As for the news, it's interesting that so many of us , who do seem to be concerned with developments in the world around us, seem to be switching, rationing, controlling our consumption of news. I stopped buying newspapers( which I loved !) more than 20 years ago, principally to spend the time ( hopefully) more profitably. But more important is understanding how news consumption affects our own state of mind, and in particular feeling negative about things over which we seem to have little control. And the other side of that coin is to use the freedom gained to try to develop positive moods and actions which can affect the world, or our part of it , for the better. Which is not always easy, or indeed simple.

I've also been strongly of the opinion for a very long time that what we see on the BBC, broadsheets etc, is not THE news, but SOME news, presented in a way that suits somebody else.

[Serial_Apologist]

Re recent news, one thing however which I have found salutary has been the responses of the general public to recent terrorist atrocities and the Grenfell Tower fire. The good in people transcends the bad, which I still maintain to be generally circumscribed by the values of having an unequal, unsustainable and deliberately wasteful economic and political system determining how we survive and lead our lives.

[oddoneout]

I've also been strongly of the opinion for a very long time that what we see on the BBC, broadsheets etc, is not THE news, but SOME news, presented in a way that suits somebody else.

That has always been the case but I think that the modern demand for instant,constant 'news' has perhaps made the situation worse - to our detriment I fear. If there is no time for consideration of, or reflection on, what facts are known, just the incessant demand to say or post something, anything, to keep the audience and give a superficial impression of being on the ball with any given topic/crisis etc, then such utterings cannot help but adopt the accepted/required viewpoint of who - or what- ever is making those demands.
I stopped watching TV news more than 25 years ago after a particularly harrowing incident was shown(without warning) which suggested that the pre/post watershed considerations had been ditched, so I couldn't have it on in case my young children were in the room. Abandoning the regional ITV news followed it some 15 years later when the new company's definition of 'local' and 'sport' made it irrelevant and boring. Day to day the R3 summaries let me decide whether I want to follow up news items, and access to FT online and having the weekend edition of the excellent local paper(to replace RT given up in exasperation last year) provides more than enough useful, interesting articles to read and digest for a more balanced(I hope) view of the world. I too prefer to try and be positive within my local and personal spheres of activity, rather than fretting and agonising over, or(worse) just plain gawping at the awful things that sadly do happen. My version of 'Think global, act local'.

[Alain Maréchal]

Stimulating responses. Some random thoughts:

The Grenfell Tower tragedy: what appalled me, when I read about it,, was that there was GAS in that building. Who permitted such a stupid, very stupid, in fact really absolutely devastatingly stupid idea in a tower?

Banks: I'm aware that banks are closing in the UK. Here, I have three branches of my own bank in the town, as well as branches of all the major banks and some I have never previously heard of. They exist because one pays for them. Free banking does not exit in France. As a general rule, one gets what one pays for. You are becoming a low pay, low tax, low fee, low service economy. France might, since a week ago.

Newspapers: I knew somebody who stopped reading The Times when the news first appeared on the front page, and somebody else after the journalists dispute. Neither went back to newspapers.

BBC news. I rarely see it on television, obliviously (I have just noticed the mistake, but I let it stand, I like the word), but I do sometimes look at it online. What surprises me is that it gives the same news for hours at a time. Many years ago, about 1990, some acquaintances were involved in a weekly television programme (U.K. Channel 4) which admitted that ALL news was biased, so the way forward was to allow biased news as long as the viewer was made aware of the presenter's point of view. It did not survive.

Ironically, I have spent time on the internet producing this post. I ought to learn my lesson.

[french frank]

I'm less concerned about bias on the news, as my time being wasted with unnecessary news as the price to be paid for hearing something that interests me. Sooner or later the news I want filters through - and if I want to know more I … use the internet. One thing that suits me about the BBC online news is that I can judge a story by the headline - it's often all I need to know: I want to know more or I don't.

I can't understand the assumption (or reality?) that people want to hear the news every half hour or so, especially early in the morning, in case something has happened.

[P. G. Tipps]

I'm afraid I'm completely the opposite to most here it seems ...

I like to know what's going on in the world. Yes, I know I only get a tiny fraction of that and even then the news is highly selective, and often subject to biased/PC reporting, but it's an imperfect world so I take what I can get.

Yes, the main news right now can easily depress one, and I'm certainly no exception, but I'd hate to think I wasn't told about the bad things that can happen to people as well as the good. Ignorance is not exactly bliss as far as I'm concerned.

If nothing else the really bad news can make one realise how comparatively blessed most of us are ... ?

[Lat-Literal]

We older people need to be fully aware of what is taking place here and then do our very best to inform. It has strands. Those who decide on a political position at the age of 15 or 16 and pursue the line to their deaths are miserable and dangerous obsessives, wherever they stand. The grossly inflated media is their lifeblood. At times., elsewhere a bludgeoning repetitive media hype is either used with malevolence or it inanely fills in time. "Oh you are against young people". No.....and you the parent or parent type who accuses so are the ultimate drip, however responsible in your power role. With so far as respect can be genuinely conveyed, move one big step aside. As for the mobile, it is the new cigarette. Expect significant "unexpected" pressures on the NHS. Tell you what though. I'll take my batalions to a Somerset field and lie to you we will pay for your treatment.

2017 - the year that I rationally turned against all of them and when on the brink found an appropriate contentment, I thoroughly recommend it. It's absolute sanity and hence bliss. No colours? Now that's what I call forbidden colours - and right - the systems have lost their way and all sides are old hat - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kf0HYeQp760. What the hell is the point of the media? Unequivocally, I shall never vote again. No politician reaches me. I've outgrown them while just doing nothing - and simply standing still. (ok, I've shoved in a Sakomoto track - the man is none too well and extremely underrated - not Corbyn, not Cooper, not Cable, not Lamb, not May, not Hammond and not Farage)

[EdgeleyRob]

I did post something on this forum a while back as Pet mentioned.
Yes it's been a few years since a psychiatrist virtually ordered me to stop getting involved in political debate,reading newspapers and watching the news.
I was in a very dark place and probably wouldn't be here now if I hadn't taken the advice.

Best wishes Pastoralguy