There is always going to be criticism of anything that has as much breadth and reach as the internet. You may embrace the internet and still have a list of likes and dislikes when it comes to its implementation, presentation or offerings. The internet is a unique service that has been allowed to flourish as it was intended. A value-add service introduced to the Public at large where anyone and everyone is welcomed to participate. No other service has been given this much freedom to exist. It has been molested by some governments and that is unfortunate. It has its detractors as anything like this would. For all its warts, it has great potential. Improvements are always in the cards and the user is its strength. What other world wide service offers this much flexibility and influence? It has become one of the world's largest publisher. Anyone can have their ideas, opinions or views published with just the click of a few keys. In the past, publishing was at the discretion of a few ... publishers of books, magazines and newspapers. TV and radio regurgitated these ideas and if you disagreed with them or found them offensive, you had no recourse other than a complaint to an individual. Your point of view was seldom published or acknowledged (editor's privilege). The internet has no gatekeeper and never should. With the Internet, if you find an book or article overly biased, poorly researched, not factual or the assumptions and conclusions incorrect, you can challenge it online and it will be immediately published. This has given a voice to the silenced. Others get to see it too and they can make up their own mind on what is more likely true. The hive-mind of the main stream media will not have assimilated your biological distinctiveness.
Sorry for not reading the whole thing, I'm currently having a headache. These might or might not be in the poll options. Like: Information and knowledge sharing. Internet can be used as a gigantic library. Watching or reading how-to tutorials. List of new software to play with. An easy and cheap way to communicate to the people across the whole world. People tend to show their true personalities in the internet. No idea with other people, but I personally use it as an entertainment. Dislike: Plenty of people misused their anonymity. Bad things in internet happens every single day, from a simple troll to a high-class fraud. Exploits, malware infections. Governments' censorship. Overwhelming ads and annoying web designs. When it's disconnected due to an error.
A wondrous resource, beyond anything ever known to humanity, and yet its pervasiveness is systematically dismantling the interpersonal dependencies that a society needs to thrive upon.
Likes Goes without saying that the whole appeal is the vast amount of information and materials that can be found (things you truly wouldn't learn about otherwise) Electronic Frontier Foundation and other sorts of stuff that do work towards the decency of the internet and its users Ordering junk/shopping. You can find stuff online you'd never dream of finding locally. Combined with reviews and discussion. Discussion forums, but depending on the community Wiki type sites that do organize information well (but not without consequences, see below) Dislikes The dependence/addiction of being always connected, which a lot of people are feeling Lack of widespread fibre optics use or other faster connection methods Lack of being able to self host due to multiple limitations (in a dream world I'd love the idea of more people being able to run a server in their own dwelling without relying on host providers) Facebook and most other social media "Cloud technology" hype Google type monopolies which people tend to use products/services/software from just one sole provider The effect of Wikipedia/search result dependence of "knowledge" (you can't learn everything online and you never will. It's like another form of "booksmart") The rise of memes as a substitute for actually creating something Not everything I can think of, but good enough. edit There's also a lot creators that boast that the internet is free from all the commercial constraints that apparently get in the way of creating works, which is true to an extent. However, they forget that they still have to rely on hosting and funding, so up come the ads and you get pretty much the same ideology of all the so called commercial faults of "being forced to create something that generates the most views/ad revenue". Sure, there's things like Kickstater and Patreon now, but you're still forced to pitch a thing that appeals to the masses to acquire funding- they're stuck playing the same game.
One of the last bastions of free speech/democracy that has allowed to question some major historical events whose official interpretations had been shamefully doctored to keep us in the dark. The latest cause celebre, the NSA scandal is case in point. Unfortunately the powers that be are already threatening to introduce censorship in the near future, disinformation is the most effective way to control the world. There are of course negative aspects, misinformation, disinformation and real facts are intertwined in a constant flow of news that has to be carefully examined and cross referenced in order to formulate an opinion, but it is part of the free speech prerogative…
It's pretty simple really, no list required. The one creation that could and does drive humanity together, is the same creation that is completely obliterating the desire of humanity to actually be together. It is a poster child for freedom, yet every day it is being used to close the doors on that freedom.
A greater diversity of ideas, views and opinions. Free access to how-to videos and articles very helpful. Email, browsing, shopping - all those types of offerings.
Like: It is oblivious to creed, colour, religion, gender and social standing It promotes freedom of speech and freedom of association Free access to how-to videos and articles very helpful ( I forgot to mark ) Email, browsing, shopping - all those types of offerings Dislike: Stuff is there forever - an individual can not delete something they later regret having done so
My problem (dislike) is slow loading websites, that are quite heavy on system resources (CPU and RAM). Basically, JavaScript combined with unqualified website designers have ruined most of the web. Including sites like Facebook and Gmail. When you turn of scripting it´s amazing to see how fast websites load. Of course a lot of websites won´t work correctly, that´s the whole problem. I think that JavaScript should be banned from the web.
What I do like: the amazing amount of info on the web, it does keep me entertained. Best of the web: news, blogs, forums, product info, webmail, online banking and adult content ~ Snipped as per TOS ~.
Somehow I feel that the internet is not as fun and useful (read: boring) as it used to be though. When I read something it's basically has been posted elsewhere. They just copy-paste it or at most make some slight adjustments but it's still obvious that it's not original. Another time, what has been written is way too vague to digest, or way too biased.
1. That I have to pay for it. 2. The time I waste on it. 3. Trolls who troll for the sake of it. 4. Smart people post stupid things because they think they have the authority to. 5. Misinformation or inaccurate info. Suddenly everyone's an Einstein in everything. 6. Internet = Facebook, Instagram, Twitter only. 7. Flash + Sites not optimized for mobile use. 8. Irrelevant ads, especially "Singles in your area" ads. Not interested. 9. Paywall. 10. Geographical restrictions. 11. Wilders. Paranoia playground if we take things too seriously. Sometimes not knowing is better. 12. Everything negative that has been mentioned/listed in the poll options and comments above. 13. That I have to pay for it. I just have to say it again. There you go. 13 is a lucky number.
Likes and dislikes aside, I wouldn't choose to be without it. And I presume the same with everyone else here, as this forum is only accessible by Internet.
Law makers (Govt. legislators) and law interpreters (the courts) have too narrow a focus to be making sweeping changes to the internet. Unfortunately this is where the power lies. The internet that was once, will never be again. I like all the good points too, but they are being quickly devoured by those who lack clarity on the subject. A major dislike.
Well, some are NSFW, while some aren't. Such as this: http://i.imgur.com/AdnrijQ.png I just think internet meme are actually quite creative works, and you can't use them at any circumstances and have to wait for the most opportune moments. Otherwise, meme fail.
Love the openness to communicate. Hate people assuming some level of privacy/security and assuming the internet is the Web and not all the other nice things that run on the internet such as newsgroups, irc, email, ftp, p2p file sharing etc.