The internet effect
 

Hello, yesterday i took the dog through Priestley clough and Bullough park and got nostalgiac as i grew up in that area and have wonderful memories of playing out etc, as do other accywebbers as iv read all the threads in the nostalgia section. It struck me how quiet it was to say its the school holidays. I also noticed the disappearance of old footpaths (short cuts) i used to take in the area, you know the type- a line of bare soil across a sea of green. We used to make dens on the 'pens' at the top of hopwood street. What im getting at is that kids dont play out like that any more. All socialising is done online. I think this is a shame and will also breed a generation of obese people due to lack of exercise. Its hard to believe that 15 years ago people didnt possess mobile fones like they do now. When i have a girlfriend, all the flirting etc is done by text or online etc, it makes you wonder how folk managed before. I myself love the internet but can also see the downsides to it. Technology has moved on at a ferocious rate this last decade.

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Not all kids are like you say. My 10 year old lives outside and only comes home when he is hungry or we phone him to come back.

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When I was 13 you had to go out to look for smut.

Strangely, hedgerows, and derelict houses were favoured spots, where things like that were stashed.

I'd never have left the house if they'd have had the internet thirty years ago.

:D

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There are negatives regarding the internet, and peoples' habits will be changed for ever.

However, I do thing the amazing benefits far outweigh the negatives, that having the world wide web bring us.

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At the age of 10 (like Groove and Neil's child) I was also out all day with friends, we played in Farmer Jacksons fields (top of Dill Hall Lane) and down on the canal in the old WW2 bunkers and on the swing bridge. A real adventure playground and we didn't have mobiles to keep in touch with home! Don't know if I'd have been different if we'd had the internet then - I do know that I wouldn't want to swap and be a 10 yr old nowadays though. I had a carefree childhood, was very naive compared to todays youngsters and didn't have anywhere near as many gadgets and toys but was very happy all the same.
Glad we have the internet now though, it's a fantastic tool with almost never-ending possibilities. If I'd had it as a kid i'd have probably been an even bigger swat than i already was...:enough::o

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the internet has been a lifeline fer many folk imho, as been said good n bad wi it,but then there always has been wi anything, we used to be out all day unsupervised n had a ball, never did us much harm, whilst i love the net,i can accept things move on, don't always like it, but thats life, i can agree much is being missed by kids today, but don't think thats soley to do with fact we got internet, going backwards aint n option,so accept n move on.;)

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the internet is good if used correctly, im now in contact with 3 of my 1st cousins who live abroad & just found a "second cousin" who lives in montreol, all proven of course am busy with one of my "over here cousins doing the family tree, its damm fasanting(sp) plus ive met a load of nice people on accyweb. mez

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n plus as well as those,yeh met me.:D

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Well from my prospective the Internet is a lifeline, I have met lots of people on line who I haven't seen for years and contacted people all over the globe, in fact just prior to logging on Accy Web, I received a few photos from my daughter in China, of my two grandsons on there first day of the new school term they only went home last week. There are drawbacks too, but if used correctly the Internet is a very useful tool

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I do the same walk with my dog several times a week .

The park I played on as a child , which used to be full of kids , is regularly pretty well deserted , even on sunny , warm days .

Most of present-day children are inside on their computers , play-stations , electronic games , or watching the many children's TV channels .

There is concern now for children's health because of being in a sedentary position for long periods . And that does not include the mental , emotional , and spiritual damage brought about by their overuse of high-tech entertainment .

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I think there is another reason why kids don't "play out" like we did as youngsters JCB is the fact that kids are no longer safe and parents, quite rightly don't like there kids moving far away from there own homes. When I was on school holidays the only time I was seen at home was lunch and tea time and sometimes not even then, if we decided to go on adventures and take sandwiches with us, can remember catching the bus to Cock Bridge then following the River right though the countryside to Whalley or a trek over Pendle Hill, don't think that kind of think happens today

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I agree Jaysay , and I put the blame on that infernal invention called the automobile .

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Some great replys there...i agree the internet is a wonderful thing and opens up lots of avenues that were'nt possible before. I suppose its a sign of the times but im glad we didnt have it when i was a youngster as i would have missed out on loads of experiences like playing out etc. During the summer we would play football till 9 pm or whenever it got dark, now kids play on playstations etc.

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What sort of "Smut" are you talking about?

I think kids shouldn't use the internet till they start secondary school. The idea that you learn more using it I think is a total myth!

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Re: The internet effect
 

Well during the school holidays on the fine days, himself has been taking the tinlids down to Mercer Park...which has been a hive of activity and juvenile energy......with the swings and the other recreational equipment being fully used.
Even on the damp days they have usually walked along the Canal banks and fed the ducks.
They have made a den out of a huge cardboard box that our new fridge came in.
This box has been a house, a submarine, a fort, and is now in the process of being transformed into a space ship,with a panel of instruments and buttons(all coverein in shiny foil).
We have briefly looked at some interesting things on the internet......Spindles is interested in Weather.....hurricanes, tornadoesand that kind of thing.....so it has been fun but also educational.

The internet is a tool......it can be used for good or evil depending on the person using it.......a bad person will use it for evil intent, but most of us use it to enlighten ourselves.

Re: The internet effect
 

I must agree with you here on the second count. My experience with the teenagers I teach over here is that they don't think they need to study anything in depth any more because they already know everything and can just click on the internet and look it up. This is possibly a negative to be considered -we may risk losing experts in many specializations, or at least progress being made in certain fields because of this sort of inverse logic!:confused:
It would be practically impossible to keep kids off the internet till the age of 11 though - they probably use it in Primary school these days anyway..

Re: The internet effect
 

I would struggle to survive without internet shopping.
I buy everything on line. Yes - I mean everything!

Being sensitive to petrochemicals is a bind -
...exhaust fumes, air fresheners, perfumes/deodorants etc.

Shops, people, transport - all of them use them and/or generate them.

I didn't choose to be a recluse but have grown to like it - hassle free!
with the help of 'ignore list' here ;)

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Or perhaps you lack the imagination to use the internet to enhance Your teaching?

Surely now that so much knowledge is at the click of a button, the teaching could be so much more exciting if only you point them in the right direction?
:)

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Yes well it's every where now so I think maybe it's beyond the point of no return. Also the level of communication though you can cover more subjects and have a wider range of people to communicate to how it is over all of lower standard and as it's not face to face you can behave in away that you would not do so if you were face to face!

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Perhaps pupils could use the internet to plug a few of the gaps in their education, that their teachers hadn't filled particularly well.

'24,000 poor teachers may work in the state system'
'Bad teachers letting down children' - Telegraph

:rolleyes:

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By smut do you mean pornography? So I take it these days you are always looking for smut on line :rolleyes::D

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No.

When I was thirteen I collected saucy seaside postcards.

It would mean I was searching for them online nowadays, rather than having to physically hunt for them, as I used to do.

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I know age is a bit of a touchy subject on here at the moment, but actually...I'm no longer thirteen.

;)

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Hey, Garinda .. thought you may have received one of those E-mails that are circulating. Received one the other day with lots on (the one you have posted is there). If you give me your E-mail address, will forward to you. It's part of a collection by Ian Wallis .. you may have already ?

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A classic Rindi reply:D:D:D

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My other half has invigilated for the GCSE exams at here local secondary school for the last five or six years and it astounded me when I heard that kids are allowed to take calculators into exams:eek:the only thing we were afforded was logarithms back in my day

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What, a clay tablet & stylus ? :D

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Ok, thanks, will do.

(He posted, hoping she wasn't about to send him tons of XXX rated spam.)

:D

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What i was trying to convey (and perhaps didn't manage) was that the mere accessability of facts does not equal "knowledge" -that is an acquaintance with facts, truths and principles acquired over time through direct experience or the application of study or investigation, it is a state of "knowing". For example we can read about the symptoms of a disease on a web-site, we acquire the facts but that doesn't make us a doctor, in fact our own GP who notes our symptoms then refers us to a specialist in a specific field -his own knowledge being less than that of a Gynaecologist or Oncologist etc. This conviction that it is enough "to just look something up when you need it" is where the error lies, it takes years of experience and study to reach excellence in any field.
That is what I was trying to get at - we live in a "get rich quick"/"have it all society" and that is reflected in the conviction of a lot of young people that school is a waste of time and there's no need to put in more than the minimum effort in anything they do. I am a great believer in education as the answer to many evils -you may have gathered that already, but when society rewards football players, show-girls or X-Factor winners and judges with massive cheques and flaunted luxury lifestyles what can you expect your average teenager to aspire to -excellence or the easy way out?:thankya:

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I remember getting my first Casio Scientific Calculator back in 1976 (from Wardleworths), it took me through many exams, I still have it and it works perfectly. We had lessons on how to use it correctly. We also had to learn to use a slide-rule. At junior school maths was split into "Mental Arithmetic" and "Mechanical Arithmetic" - do you remember that J? I always remember a fantastic line out of the "Liverbirds" -where Polly (can't remember the surname!) says that whenever they mentioned Mental Arithmetic at school she used to wet her knickers!!:o
By the was,I apologise if i got a bit hot under the collar in my last post but it really gets to me when you see bright young people throwing away opportunities...

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'In fact neither actress really had a Liverpool accent - Polly James was from Oswaldtwistle.'
The Liver Birds - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(Incidentally, she wasn't. She was from Blackburn, but her parents moved to Ossy.)

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And you were allowed to take the Napier log book in with you on your maths GCE, which in effect was a table of calculations i.e. a rudimentary calculator.

Things move on, e.g...no more latin.. duco, ducis, du..(cue 12yr old snigger).

A calculator is no more or less a tool than the log book, slide rule or abacus.

The internet, like a log book, a calculator, abacus or even a power saw, is just a tool. As long as you are informed how to to use it correctly..it's just as valid

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Using the internet as a tool shows only one thing...you know how to use the internet.
If that is the skill you are testing then all well and good.
But to have learned something means that there has to be an observable change in behaviour, which can be attributed to something that has been taught....or certainly that was what I was lead to believe in my CGLI Adult Education Cert.
I honestly can't say that the internet would fulfil that criteria......you still interaction with teachers...you can be a long way down the wrong road if you have no-one supervising what you are doing.

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And going into a maths exam with a log book only shows that you can read not that you can do the math..yet that fulfilled the criteria 40 years ago.

My maths teacher taught me how to use logarithms, I was not expected to do the complex mathematical formula needed to tell me whether COSa was greater than 2xSINb, I looked it up in the log book, like I said todays teachers should inform students how to use the internet, it's no different, it's still falls under the remit of 'teaching' and 'learning'.

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The internet is a source of information, but it isn't all good information. Teachers are guides and motivators...well, the good ones are!

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I've just done a test.

At school I was asked to write an essay on the relationship between the American Civil War, slavery, and the Lancashire cotton industry.

Visits to libraries produved virtually nothing of relevance. Just the odd useful line in an encyclopedia.

Searching online now, using a few key phrases, produced reams of information, that would have made the task much more interesting, and rewarding.

The internet can't replace a teacher, but it must be the most amazing tool for students, in helping with research.

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What saddened me is after doing a clear out, I offered one of my neighbours (a woman who has custody of her 8, 12, 13 yr old grandchildren ) a National Geograpic world atlas , she said she didn't want it as the kids didn't read books , pointed out it was an atlas , a book of world maps .......response .. "Why do they need maps" .... time to give up/wasting my time ....
Folks will disagree , but my thoughts/when I'm in charge of things , it will be compulsory for every home to have a bookcase containing books of some sort

:mad: :mad:

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Yeh less of the lip scouse:D:D

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Evidently I'm a tad older than you mobertol as it was just plain maths in my day:D and it was Polly James, her mother and father lived in Havelock Street in Ossy, saw her in the Stop and Rest in Ossy, in the seventies, with here parents having.

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I already do have a quite large book case SJ but only has books by the likes of James Patterson, Dean Koontz and Steven Kink:rolleyes:

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As soon as i saw the surname I remembered it -brain obviously taking another rest in that moment...It was a brilliant TV series, Carla Lane was a really good writer, I had the pleasure of meeting her at a Hall dinner at L'pool Uni back in 1984, nice woman and very unassuming.

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So you are saying that you used to find saucy postcards in "hedgerows and derelict houses" back in your childhood!

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I don't think he was talking about the postcards there....I think he might have been referring to real live 'smut.
But I'm sure you know that really.:D

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Rindi was a very resourceful child:cool:

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Yes.

Why, were they your's?

Most have been sold, sorry.

Can be very profitable, rooting.

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See this ... well, they seem corny now, but very forward for their era.

How the saucy postcard is back with a twist and a wink-wink | Mail Online

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I used to stash my cache of smut, along with a few packets of Embassy and the odd bottle of Strongbow Cider in a locker in the miners' changing rooms at the disused Scaitcliffe Pit. By smut I mean a pile of back copies of Parade magazine which featured pics of young ladies in swimsuits - the sort of thing that you can see in any popular newspaper these days. One Sunday evening I turned up to discover that the lot had been nicked. Gutted, I was.

Apologies for thread wander...just an old man reminiscing. Please carry on with your discussion. ;)

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Ah so it was yours Wyn:D:D

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Right, so Cashy nicked my pints in the Pickwick, you nicked my girlie mags and fags...you two owe me big time!! :D

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Ya a proper little Butch and Sundance me and cashy :D