The Internet Depresses Me... *Rant*

[Rain Man]

I have been using the internet for nearly 10 years now. Although I have gained a lot of knowledge from it, I think I was happier before I ever came across this cyber wasteland. It seems as though life's beauty can not be truly expressed though these windows to another world. Everybody online seems shallow and soul-less to me, they lack the magic you see in your friends, family, or just regular folks on the street. It is the same with TV and even music. It seems as though this form of electronic entertainment filters out the true emotion and magic and just leaves you with... the plain result. I don't know if it's just me that feels this way... But...

Eh, first let me tell you where i'm coming from, I have run into a few problems in life a few years ago and it drove me to a somewhat reclusion. I'd still do things normally but I just needed a whole lot more time to myself. I recently came back from a vacation by the sea and being exposed to this generic form of life i've been living for so long, i've forgotten how beautiful it is in different surrounding, and how beautiful the beach is. By the beach, I have reclaimed lost childhood memories, I remember what it is like to be a kid and just be happy. The magic of life has hit me by that beach and I felt so damn good, all my stresses and problems just melted away as I enjoyed sitting by the sand and listening to the music all those local musicians were playing. I noticed music is a lot more beautiful when it is not coming from a record. I felt great, and I felt that everybody else was feeling the same way. Now I come back home, to my internet, to my T.V., to my same surroundings, and I already need another vacation... Now I feel like everybody feels as depressed as me...

I don't know, I lost the whole point of this thread... Does anybody know what I'm trying to say?

[Wotan]

I know the feeling.

I used to work on a boring office desk, coding boring office applications. Gaining stress, rsi and never seeing the sun, it made me wonder and made me think a lot about the few years I spent on this earth.

After a while I quitted the job and took a simple factory job, just picking boxes up and putting them down. I was much happier to do that work although it paid much less. Now I work three mornings in the factory and work two afternoons and one night in a coffeeshop.

I now have much more free time, and are most times in the park with friends or playing gamecube mario football slam. I visit the cinema 2 times a week, go the beach regular etc.. But still this doenst feel perfect, and I miss the money I used to have around while working the stress job :confused:.

[lagstronaut]

if you don't embrace the things that make you happy inside, no matter how unlikely they are to be acheived, you're dead inside

maybe it takes an experience like this to make this apparent to you

[Rain Man]

You're saying that you spend too much time on the net?

Try this.

Turn your TV off, get away from your computer, and go take a walk, preferably to some place nice. Leave the ipod at home and just listen to the beautiful noise of the world. If it's dark look at the sky, the moon, the stars, and the trees all around you. Don't do nothing, just look for a while. Now come back in, look at the interesting paintings in your house, pick up an old book and read a few random passages from it, maybe look in the bible, too. Now turn the TV, music and whatever else back on and do what you were doing before. Do you see the difference? Get what i'm trying to say? This ain't how life is supposed to be.

Notice how the paintings, books, and the outside are nothing like what you see online or on TV or in popular music. It is as if it is a different world, why do you think that is?

[WeedGremblin]

Be glad Rain Man

Some people never realize what you have stumbled across


The question is, is ignorance really bliss afterall?

[The Colonel]

I know exactly what you mean. A good way to foget about life is to go hiking and camping. A few weeks ago i spent a week in a small town in south Texas called Marathon, which is about an hour's drive from Big Bend National Park, and hiked the 3rd tallest mountain in Texas. You have to forget about your home life and focus on scaring off the mountain lions.

[NextLineIsMine]

It sounds like youre missing some key elements to a satisfying life, friends, career, love, etc... the internet is just a place for shits and giggles in the time that doesnt involve the above.

Be careful with that bible, when people dont feel fulfilled they look for any answer to fill the space, thats why the Gideons put them in hotels for lonely people.

[Rain Man]

I have thought about this. I put my Tv on one of those music channels, reggae. It was some woman(or man?) singing something about jesus in the slow, Marley like rythm. I am fascinated by these jamaican folk. Seems as though this music is inspired by what I was talking about, nature. I might of known that all along, but I just realized it now. I think I might have figured something out here, something that just might drive me to happiness. I have to figure out how this electronic world and the natural world connect, I can then try to balance this out and not be so confused and frustrated about it. I have already figured that when I look at art, I see magic, when I read a book, it is also magic to me, because I can uniquely interprit the visuals in my mind. The internet however, there is nothing magical about it.

I have absorbed myself into this world way to much. Billionfold is right to say that I might be using the internet way to much, but then, so do many who post in message boards. I don't know, maybe this is my problem, maybe it something more...

Right now, I am trying to see if I am not alone in thinking this way, does anybody else feel the magic in the outside world? The good and different vibes you get from going for a walk in the park, or sitting by the ocean, or going to a nice restaurant to eat, or even just sitting at home staring at an interesting piece of art hanging on your wall. It's a stupid question, but damn it, I never asked anybody. It seems in these modern times, everybody is too busy with they're lives to notice these things anymore.

[GHoSToKeR]

The remedy; go outside, smoke a joint, and just walk around. :)

[thcbongman]

I get exactly what Rainman is saying. Listen to the album "The Sophtware Slump" by Grandaddy. It touches on this exact subject about the nature of what technology has brought out in human kind. A world where technologies had brought us so much benefits, but at the same time, brings a sense of disconnection from the increasing pace of daily life.

I know all too well. No matter the level of communication, it can't replace the connection when you interact with a person face to face. You can't feel the full emotion of their words.

[Rain Man]

Well, I slept on it and today, I feel a lot better about it. Good thing I had a chance to write all that down and actually figure out what was bothering me. It seems as though when I am depressed, I forget what it was that made me happy. I feel pretty good today, I got to try to keep myself positive, and not think so much. :)