Lots of stuff in cyberspace. Grand (Ode to Joy), sublime (Clair de Lune), beautiful (Nabuko-Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves), obscure (mr kablammo at a Bad Brains concert around 1982), useful (.pdf manuals for a gun bought used), entertaining (Lee Van Cleef in Roger Corman's 'It Conquered the Earth'), antique (swami swastika brass medallion), political (www.opensecret.org), informative (SF), commercial, stupid (shotgun nutshot), religious (your choice), remote (Antartica weather forecast), product reviews (YT), war and history (many), and really nasty stuff that maybe ought to be censored.

With due respect to the near unending varieties above. And not only in English...

The most impressive confluence of theory, technology, and accessibility is the Space Weather forecast.


http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/commu...-weather-enthusiasts

It is truly amazing how much easier the internet makes troubleshooting.

My 7 year old son managed to beat a video game that took me two years to figure out in only about three weeks. He would get stumped at a part then consult YouTube to figure it out.

quote:

Originally posted by PHPaul:

quote:

Originally posted by smschulz:
It is but it is not a substitution for formal training and most of all actual "experience".

I get it that you can "Google" and it is a wonder source of information.
But it is not the end-all.

Back in the "day" we used to get Microsoft TechNet sent to us on CD's (not DVD's).
It contained KB (knowledge based) resolutions for known issues that we could consult.
No more of that today, all on the Internet on "Technical Forums" , but it can get you information to consult with.
STILL, it takes actual knowledge and experience to implement.

So yes it is a great thing but not the only thing.

Very true. And I've waded through my share of TechNet CD's...

I remember when cisco switched over from paper manuals to UniversCD. I could flip to the right page and find what I needed much faster in the paper manuals, sigh...

All very true and I have made use of it for construction issues, for building an AR lower, tons of other stuff.

Let me emphasize that almost everything noted is from the INTERNET and not from SOCIAL MEDIA. Would you go to Facebook or Twitter if you wanted real useful information? Hell no.

quote:

Originally posted by JALLEN:

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:
Yet, somehow, we used to be able to figure most things out without too much trouble.

There was a thread awhile back about this. One of the points of the thread was that with all of the information on the net being available to anyone at the click of a mouse, nobody has to learn anything anymore.

This may explain a lot of behaviors being observed more and more frequently.

You might be interested in reading this book:

The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why it Matters

quote:

People are now exposed to more information than ever before, provided both by technology and by increasing access to every level of education. These societal gains, however, have also helped fuel a surge in narcissistic and misguided intellectual egalitarianism that has crippled informed debates on any number of issues. Today, everyone knows everything: with only a quick trip through WebMD or Wikipedia, average citizens believe themselves to be on an equal intellectual footing with doctors and diplomats. All voices, even the most ridiculous, demand to be taken with equal seriousness, and any claim to the contrary is dismissed as undemocratic elitism.

As Tom Nichols shows in The Death of Expertise, this rejection of experts has occurred for many reasons, including the openness of the internet, the emergence of a customer satisfaction model in higher education, and the transformation of the news industry into a 24-hour entertainment machine. Paradoxically, the increasingly democratic dissemination of information, rather than producing an educated public, has instead created an army of ill-informed and angry citizens who denounce intellectual achievement.

Nichols has deeper concerns than the current rejection of expertise and learning, noting that when ordinary citizens believe that no one knows more than anyone else, democratic institutions themselves are in danger of falling either to populism or to technocracy-or in the worst case, a combination of both. The Death of Expertise is not only an exploration of a dangerous phenomenon but also a warning about the stability and survival of modern democracy in the Information Age

sjtill, it depends on the group. Some of the Facebook guitar groups I am in are an excellent source for troubleshooting. Yeah, there is a metric shit ton of misinformation, lies and fake news on social media but there are also some good places to go for information.