In 10 years time will chat/debate forums still be thriving?

[Syl]

I dont think they will. So many people who started posting on forums 10 years or so ago have dropped off posting, just got out of the habit.
People have moved on to either more gaming internet sites or they concentrate more on Twitter type sites where they dont really have to think much or get into debate.

I can see the end of debate and news based forums in sight...and that's a shame.

[Fred Moletrousers]

If so, you'll all be posting without having to put up with me adding my two pen'orth....I'll be within spittin' distance of being 90!

[Syl]

If so, you'll all be posting without having to put up with me adding my two pen'orth....I'll be within spittin' distance of being 90!

We will all be 10 years older Fred.....and time passes so quick when we are online.

[Andy]

And we will still be waiting for Tom's answer to his definition of far right wing.

['Wolfie]

[veya_victaous]

unfortunately I think syl's right

although it could return if people start to get more concerned with the likes of facebook compiling and selling their data
the one thing forums do have going for them in the anonymity and the fact that it isn't linked to everything else.

[Syl]

unfortunately I think syl's right

although it could return if people start to get more concerned with the likes of facebook compiling and selling their data
the one thing forums do have going for them in the anonymity and the fact that it isn't linked to everything else.

I just think many people are losing interest in debate online. The popular way now seems to be to prefer mundane one liners rather than actually thinking about what they are discussing. Twitter,  text messaging, one line comments below newspaper articles...all seem more popular than writing actual full sentences or God forbid paragraphs.

[Original Quill]

It's existed hundreds of years. It's the same process that was engaged in with the Royal Exchange in the 17th-century. See, Pepys, The Diary of Samuel Pepys. People, meeting and greeting, and hours of talking, peak times, and conversations broken into subjects of the day.

[Fred Moletrousers]

It's existed hundreds of years.  It's the same process that was engaged in with the Royal Exchange in the 17th-century.  See, Pepys, The Diary of Samuel Pepys.  People, meeting and greeting, and hours of talking, peak times, and conversations broken into subjects of the day.

I would cite 17th/18th century coffeehouses as the forerunners of forums such as this one.

And you know what Jonathan Swift said of those.."It is the folly of too many to mistake the echo of a London coffee-house for the voice of the kingdom."

[Guest]

It's existed hundreds of years.  It's the same process that was engaged in with the Royal Exchange in the 17th-century.  See, Pepys, The Diary of Samuel Pepys.  People, meeting and greeting, and hours of talking, peak times, and conversations broken into subjects of the day.

I would cite 17th/18th century coffeehouses as the forerunners of forums such as this one.

And you know what Jonathan Swift said of those.."It is the folly of too many to mistake the echo of a London coffee-house for the voice of the kingdom."

How about ancient Athens or the Roman senate?

Or if you like ancient Sparta, where there was equality between men and women?

Or Celtic society?

[Syl]

If so, you'll all be posting without having to put up with me adding my two pen'orth....I'll be within spittin' distance of being 90!

Hey Fred, you are a youngster compared to my OH's mum....we went to her birthday party a couple of weeks ago, she is 104.

[Original Quill]

It's existed hundreds of years.  It's the same process that was engaged in with the Royal Exchange in the 17th-century.  See, Pepys, The Diary of Samuel Pepys.  People, meeting and greeting, and hours of talking, peak times, and conversations broken into subjects of the day.

I would cite 17th/18th century coffeehouses as the forerunners of forums such as this one.

And you know what Jonathan Swift said of those.."It is the folly of too many to mistake the echo of a London coffee-house for the voice of the kingdom."

Yep, Jonathan's Coffee House, to be precise.

[Andy]

On current form, Didge won't be here debating. For some reason, he seems to have had a solo meltdown, a big rant about hate on here and being bored with the place.
This from the bloke who hated lefties and bored the arse of us with some of his posts.
On good form, he is a brilliant poster , but my goodness,,he can have some bad moments too.
He will be back.
He needs this place .

[HoratioTarr]

I dont think they will. So many people who started posting on forums 10 years or so ago have dropped off posting, just got out of the habit.
People have moved on to either more gaming internet sites or they concentrate more on Twitter type sites where they dont really have to think much or get into debate.

I can see the end of debate and news based forums in sight...and that's a shame.  

Dogs has been going for nearly ten years.

['Wolfie]

When I was studying at Hawkesbury Ag' College (University of Western Sydney) in the late 1970s, computers were still being introduced into schools and uni's, and the internet was still in its early evolution, mainly accessed by US Defence dept's, NASA, big government dept's and a few of the more involved universities...

In the late '70s and early '80s,  companies like IBM and DEC began sponsoring internet access to universities, with access being gained by some Aussie uni's in the early-mid 1980s  --  when I was doing a computer programming course here at Newcastle Uni' in the late 1980s, we compooting students had a couple of hundred hours access time availabe online..

At that stage, the main way of accessing online discussions was via "bulletin board" sites set up for-and-by special interest groups and univesrity faculties. Dial-up modems were still the main way for home users and small businesses to access the internet, and becaise of its crudity, some technical know-how was still required, meaning that the number of users had only increased from a couple of hundred thousand to a few million persons, between the early '80s and late '90s..

Then the World Wide Web -- along with its underlying support systems, search engines like Google and Opera, and later on "social media" sites like Facebook -- were introduced to the world,  making it much, much easier for a lot wider range of people, communities and businesses to access and utilise the Internet.

Over the past half century, "social media" has grown and morphed from where people still relied on face-to-face meetings, the "coffee house" discussions that Fred and Quill described, hardcopy journals, field days and annual conferences and congresses for academia,  to today where information can be shared more widely, more research and development work can happen in-between annual conferemces and workshops; and businesses can advertise more widely, more quickly - and cheaper.

And, at the same time, more negative aspects to that new caing&sharing generation --  online gambling and porn sites, Instagram being overrun by yummy-mummies and wannabees covering every minutes of their brats' potty-training, anti-vaxxers, vegans and faux quack-medicine claims..

Along with the technology that carries and facilitates it, "social media" has morphed from those coffee house discussions and 'town hall meetings' into todays Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and their allied sites --  so, my conclusions after this loopy potted history ?

I don't believe that social media will necessarily implode or disappear up it's own nether regions, but will keep on evolving along with the underlying technologies --  so that they will have morphed into something more again than what we have seen over the last couple of decades...

[Syl]

I think social media will possibly be the end of conversation as we know it. Apart from the workplace and in the family home people will no longer talk, they will just stare at a screen and grunt....caveman style, with just a few tweaks to show that human beings have at least evolved in some ways.

[veya_victaous]

I think social media will possibly be the end of conversation as we know it. Apart from the workplace and in the family home people will no longer talk, they will just stare at a screen and grunt....caveman style, with just a few tweaks to show that human beings have at least evolved in  some ways.

it will change again because the screens will go.

'Google Glasses' already attempted it but the idea was too far ahead of the hardware at the time
but 'Augmented Reality' (AR) is already the direction technology is pushing
the best current example is Pokemon Go, where the Pokemon are digitally added to the environment
but the end goal is essentially to just have it 'overlaying' regular sight.

combined with other tech like facial recognition it has the potential to vastly change human interaction
since we can potentially 'facebook stalk' anyone by looking at them

[Syl]

I think social media will possibly be the end of conversation as we know it. Apart from the workplace and in the family home people will no longer talk, they will just stare at a screen and grunt....caveman style, with just a few tweaks to show that human beings have at least evolved in  some ways.

it will change again because the screens will go.

'Google Glasses' already attempted it but the idea was too far ahead of the hardware at the time
but 'Augmented Reality' (AR) is already the direction technology is pushing
the best current example is Pokemon Go, where the Pokemon are digitally added to the environment
but the end goal is essentially to just have it 'overlaying' regular sight.

combined with other tech like facial recognition it has the potential to vastly change human interaction
since we can potentially 'facebook stalk' anyone by looking at them

I dont even understand any of that.

[veya_victaous]

Have you seen in computer games how all the 'people' have names and life bars etc above their head?

imagine a pair of glasses that did something like that in real life.... but it would probably have something like their facebook status instead of a life bar

what I'm getting at is at some point in the not too distant future, phone screens will probably be replaced by glasses (or even contact lenses)  and the functions we use our phones for now will be integrated into that.
example: You will literally have the GPS 'insert' arrows or a path marker into your vision.

[Syl]

Have you seen in computer games how all the 'people' have names and life bars etc above their head?

imagine a pair of glasses that did something like that in real life.... but it would probably have something like their facebook status instead of a life bar

what I'm getting at is at some point in the not too distant future, phone screens will probably be replaced by glasses (or even contact lenses)  and the functions we use our phones for now will be integrated into that.
example: You will literally have the GPS 'insert' arrows or a path marker into your vision.

It's all a bit sci fi for me Veya....I think I peaked technically speaking when I learned to c&p.....everything else I will leave for you young ones.

['Wolfie]

Some top-end cars already have "head up displays" projected up onto their windscreens ("windshields" for the Aymerikans..).

And jet fighter pilots onto their visors..

Only a matter of time until the technology filters its way down to every car, sunglasses, motorcyclists' and workers' helmets.

As long as the designers pay attention to avoiding distractions while people are driving, walking, bicycling, operating machinery !!!

[Ben Reilly]

Getting back to the original question, I think forums could become like the vinyl records of the Internet, coming in and out of fashion, never completely going away.

[Original Quill]

Getting back to the original question, I think forums could become like the vinyl records of the Internet, coming in and out of fashion, never completely going away.

No medium will outgrow the human capacity to communicate.  I mean, smell-o-vision?
 C'mon, it doesn't work when you fake it.  If smell is not a communicative device, why would it suddenly become relevant?

So it has to fit within the human capacity to communicate.  Radio worked because we speak and use our ears.  Television worked because we act and use our eyes.  The Internet works because books worked...and all we are doing is writing in real time, or close.  All technological advances must fit in the human capacity to function, existentially, unless we come up with with a way to change the human organism.

[Raggamuffin]

Are some people fed up with socialising though? They have to go out in the rain and talk to people they'd maybe rather not talk to, spend hours in traffic jams just to go to a "reunion", and end up with a hangover the next day. On the internet, you can just log out when you've had enough without leaving the comfort of your own home.

[Syl]

Are some people fed up with socialising though? They have to go out in the rain and talk to people they'd maybe rather not talk to, spend hours in traffic jams just to go to a "reunion", and end up with a hangover the next day. On the internet, you can just log out when you've had enough without leaving the comfort of your own home.

Lol....thats true.
Also, how many people do we actually have the opportunity to discuss any subject under the sun at any given time?
You cant casually bring a real life conversation around to what an arsehole you think Trump is, then discuss the latest Muslim gang jail sentence along with the last good film you watched....people would think you were mad.

We can do all that, then just switch off whenever we feel like without making excuses or seeming rude.

[Original Quill]

Are some people fed up with socialising though? They have to go out in the rain and talk to people they'd maybe rather not talk to, spend hours in traffic jams just to go to a "reunion", and end up with a hangover the next day. On the internet, you can just log out when you've had enough without leaving the comfort of your own home.

So, then, are you saying that anti-social sympathies are a further limitation on the will to communicate?  I'll have to meditate on that, cause I was just talking about mechanics.

[Raggamuffin]

Are some people fed up with socialising though? They have to go out in the rain and talk to people they'd maybe rather not talk to, spend hours in traffic jams just to go to a "reunion", and end up with a hangover the next day. On the internet, you can just log out when you've had enough without leaving the comfort of your own home.

Lol....thats true.
Also, how many people do we actually have the opportunity to discuss any subject under the sun at any given time?
You cant casually bring a real life conversation around to what an arsehole you think Trump is, then discuss the latest Muslim gang jail sentence along with the last good film you watched....people would think you were mad.

We can do all that, then just switch off whenever we feel like without making excuses or seeming rude.

I've found that a lot of people don't even know about current events anyway, let alone want to discuss them.

[Raggamuffin]

Are some people fed up with socialising though? They have to go out in the rain and talk to people they'd maybe rather not talk to, spend hours in traffic jams just to go to a "reunion", and end up with a hangover the next day. On the internet, you can just log out when you've had enough without leaving the comfort of your own home.

So, then, are you saying that anti-social sympathies are a further limitation on the will to communicate?  I'll have to meditate on that, cause I was just talking about mechanics.

Not anti social as such, more unsociable. Maybe a lot of people are naturally unsociable or introverted, and now they have to means to socialise on the internet on their own terms.

[Original Quill]

So, then, are you saying that anti-social sympathies are a further limitation on the will to communicate?  I'll have to meditate on that, cause I was just talking about mechanics.

Not anti social as such, more unsociable. Maybe a lot of people are naturally unsociable or introverted, and now they have to means to socialise on the internet on their own terms.

I was originally trying to formulate a limit on technologies that would expand communication--i.e., you can't go outside human faculties. What you are suggesting is an attitude or preference, and only limited to some people. It would work, but only as a filter. Conversely, if we have a device that expands the capacity, it will be popular.

[Raggamuffin]

Not anti social as such, more unsociable. Maybe a lot of people are naturally unsociable or introverted, and now they have to means to socialise on the internet on their own terms.

I was originally trying to formulate a limit on technologies that would expand communication--i.e., you can't go outside human faculties.  What you are suggesting is an attitude or preference, and only limited to some people.  It would work, but only as a filter.  Conversely, if we have a device that expands the capacity, it will be popular.  

Yes, I'm talking about attitudes or preferences, and maybe a lot of people have a preference for the internet rather than real socialising, in the same way that a lot of people like to watch the TV rather than socialise. We're told that a lot of young people spend too much time on the internet, and that it's not healthy, but maybe they prefer it.

People spend time at work talking to other people and/or the public, they spend time in traffic, in queues, and just trying to get around, so maybe they want more time on their own in their own homes.

[Syl]

Lol....thats true.
Also, how many people do we actually have the opportunity to discuss any subject under the sun at any given time?
You cant casually bring a real life conversation around to what an arsehole you think Trump is, then discuss the latest Muslim gang jail sentence along with the last good film you watched....people would think you were mad.

We can do all that, then just switch off whenever we feel like without making excuses or seeming rude.

I've found that a lot of people don't even know about current events anyway, let alone want to discuss them.

What amazed me a couple of weeks ago, the new Dr Who had started, and apparently one episode transported the Dr back to 1955 Alabama.... it relived the time when Rosa Parks refused to give her seat up to a white person on a bus.

Google almost went into meltdown whilst hundreds of thousands of people looked up who Rosa Parks was.
Surely life changing historical events shouldn't be taught via Dr Who.

[Syl]

Maybe people are just losing the art of communication.
We have just been for a meal out, almost every couple was ignoring the person they were with and concentrating on their mobiles.
One lad had a tablet and actually had earphones on whilst his partner was glued to her mobile.....so little actual conversation going on.
Funny old world.

[Raggamuffin]

Maybe people are just losing the art of communication.
We have just been for a meal out, almost every couple was ignoring the person they were with and concentrating on their mobiles.
One lad had a tablet and actually had earphones on whilst his partner was glued to her mobile.....so little actual conversation going on.
Funny old world.

Maybe they have nothing to say to each other, so they're grateful they have their phones and tablets with them.

[Syl]

Maybe people are just losing the art of communication.
We have just been for a meal out, almost every couple was ignoring the person they were with and concentrating on their mobiles.
One lad had a tablet and actually had earphones on whilst his partner was glued to her mobile.....so little actual conversation going on.
Funny old world.

Maybe they have nothing to say to each other, so they're grateful they have their phones and tablets with them.

If I felt like that I wouldnt bother going out. I think some must use telepathy to communicate, I swear the couple got up to leave at the same time without exchanging a word to each other.

[Ben Reilly]

Are some people fed up with socialising though? They have to go out in the rain and talk to people they'd maybe rather not talk to, spend hours in traffic jams just to go to a "reunion", and end up with a hangover the next day. On the internet, you can just log out when you've had enough without leaving the comfort of your own home.

Lol....thats true.
Also, how many people do we actually have the opportunity to discuss any subject under the sun at any given time?
You cant casually bring a real life conversation around to what an arsehole you think Trump is, then discuss the latest Muslim gang jail sentence along with the last good film you watched....people would think you were mad.

We can do all that, then just switch off whenever we feel like without making excuses or seeming rude.

I've found that a lot of people don't even know about current events anyway, let alone want to discuss them.

Well, thankfully there are plenty of outrageous TV shows for people to pay attention to! Otherwise we might have to realize how truly fucked we are.

[eddie]

Maybe people are just losing the art of communication.
We have just been for a meal out, almost every couple was ignoring the person they were with and concentrating on their mobiles.
One lad had a tablet and actually had earphones on whilst his partner was glued to her mobile.....so little actual conversation going on.
Funny old world.

Maybe they have nothing to say to each other, so they're grateful they have their phones and tablets with them.

If I felt like that I wouldnt bother going out. I think some must use telepathy to communicate, I swear the couple got up to leave at the same time without exchanging a word to each other.

If I felt like that I’d leave the relationship...what’s it got to do with “going out”?

[eddie]

And yeah, plenty of couples sit in the same room and stare at the TV - this has been going on for years - yet nowadays it’s tablets and phones that people think are in the way of the couple’s conversation.

[Syl]

And yeah, plenty of couples sit in the same room and stare at the TV - this has been going on for years - yet nowadays it’s tablets and phones that people think are in the way of the couple’s conversation.

Well true, it wasnt so obvious because people sit inside and ignore each other watching TV.
Its more obvious now because people are outside ignoring each other.

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