Is there any point in even using the internet anymore?

[InDarkestNight]

The Internet's been going downhill for quite some time. It keeps becoming increasingly unusable to me. Lately, I've been questioning why I even bother to post anything online anymore. I ask questions anywhere I get nothing but trolls, disinformation, or in the case of this site just completely ignored (though when I do get a reply its shockingly good, at least by internet standards). I could go on a tirade on why I hate the internet, but honestly that list would be a mile long.

 

Lately the only sites I bother to go to are this one for mods, and youtube. Frankly, it seems the only thing this computer exists for now is Skyrim. I've actually been leaving the thing turned off for ever increasingly lengths of time because if I'm not playing Skyrim, I literally have no other use for it.

 

Now, I just read an article about how youtube is going to be cracking down on adblockers. Now, to be clear, I didn't install an adblocker because of youtube. I finally cracked after I got sick of seeing ads that shocked and disgusted me. Conveniently, it happens to also work on youtube. Youtube was really getting on my nerves for the longest time. It never once showed me an ad for something I was actually interested in. For the last like year or so before I started using an adblocker, it was just showing me those stupid liberty mutual commercials. I got so beyond sick of seeing that man in those videos saying the same damned thing in every single ad, and the rate of ads increasing lately just made it even more annoying. Quite often I would just close the web browser in the middle of a video I was interested in just so I wouldn't have to see those damned ads again. It was literally DRIVING ME AWAY FROM THE WEBSITE.

 

Now, youtube is apparently plotting to block you from watching more than 3 videos per day or something if you use an adblocker, and even claiming they're going to make it a breach of their 'terms of service'. Now I would be willing to add them as an exception, and I understand they need the revenue, but honestly their ads just made the whole site unbearable to me. If I can't watch youtube without seeing those god damned repetive liberty mutaul ads, I see no reason to use it at all. Of course, I've already been questioning why I bother to use youtube. I don't listen to music anymore (long story short, I was into a genre that I recently found out wasn't what I thought it was, and I was utterly disgusted when I did find out), so honestly I've had a hard time finding anything to watch on youtube. Brodual doesn't upload anymore, and I'm sick of Heavy Burns' repetitive videos that all have an excessive amount of padding and don't say much of anything other than 'so and so mod exists'. Haven't been able to find any other mod reviewers that interest me either.

 

Point is, I'm going to have to abandon youtube now, a website that I used to have set as my homepage simply because it was the one I used 99% of the time. I only decided to change that for privacy reasons.

 

Lately, I've been having problems with skyrim too. I recently realized that its probably been years now since I last truly played the game. In fact, I can't even remember what my last playthrough was. I'm sick of bugtesting non-stop only to still have a load order I have to abandon before I get to level 5 even for one reason or another. I had to quit SE years ago because it was just too unstable on my machine, and I was sick of having to dance around bethesda's stupid mod-sabotaging updates anyway. Not that I mind playing LE; its nice being able to run any mod I want without having to worry about what version of the game it was made for, and for some reason its far more stable on my machine anyway. Of course, I realize I won't be able to do that forever. People with windows 11 can't get the thing to run at all, and if I can't play LE I'm not playing Skyrim anymore. f*#@ bethesda, I like my mods, I like what I turned my game into with mods, and I don't give a s#*! about their cheap knock-offs of mods I never felt inclined to use anyway.

 

Either way, I've been thinking that maybe its time to give up on Skyrim. By doing this stupid 'relic hunter challenge', I've realized I've basically turned my game into Oblivion, which I despise because I couldn't play it. I'm sick of starting new playthroughs over and over trying to find a build that can actually progress to level 10 at least. I'd like to return to my old survival mods, but skytest is essentially abandoned and honestly I'm sick of the outdated models and its lack of compatibility with mods that add new creatures (yes, there's the intergration project, but it just copies over the AI, it doesn't adjust stats so you end up with stupid non-sense like indricotheriums having less health than mammoths, and they don't add in baby animals like the vanilla animals have). Point is I'm wondering why I even play Skyrim anymore. I've been playing the same game almost exclusively for over a decade now, and honestly I rarely get to play it much because of my endless efforts to get a stable load order (though my recent problem is due to difficulty, which I can't seem to do much about).

 

What's the point in even using the internet? Its flooded with misinformation which is getting worse every day, I'm beyond sick and tired of trolls, I'm sick of every insidious entity on this planet psycho-analyzing my every move with me not being able to do a damned thing about it, I'm sick of getting this stupid LotD load order to work, I straight don't even want to use youtube anymore. What's the point in me even opening a browser anymore? I hardly even see much of a reason to turn my computer on other than for skyrim. Maybe I need to just unplug it, read all these books I've been hording for years and not reading, and let this overpriced piece of s#*! just rot like my TV has been for 20 years now.

 

Seriously, why bother using the internet anymore, even my computer? I just struggle to find a reason to do so anymore. I don't even know if I'm ever going to get an answer here honestly, given my experiences on the skyrim boards. Where else can I ask this anyway? And don't say reddit, I refuse to go to that website anymore too, or just about any really.

[Guest deleted34304850]

it seems that you've hit a point where your use of the internet and your expectations of how people should react to your posts are making you unhappy.

maybe you need to reassess your expectations and maybe do something else for a while?

[JimboUK]

Skyrim LE works on Windows 11, not that it matters because it it get the impression that you're playing it out of habit rather than for enjoyment. It sounds like you need a break so yeah, turn the computer off and open one of those books.

[Pagafyr]

Pedant.

 

LOL

[InDarkestNight]

it seems that you've hit a point where your use of the internet and your expectations of how people should react to your posts are making you unhappy.

maybe you need to reassess your expectations and maybe do something else for a while?

Who likes being ignored? I like learning things, and I'm sick of asking questions all over the internet and rarely getting the knowledge I want. I can't even get people to fact-check things I find, such as Mihail's recent claim that you don't have to backport meshes. That question got deleted btw, just to add insult to injury. I hate misinformation, I want to know truth, but it seems I'm literally not allowed to know it. I don't know why I keep asking anything on the internet honestly. I can't remember the last time I got an actual quality response. Then again, I was posting on reddit just a few months ago, and before that I was posting on stackexchange, so maybe that had something to do with it.

[xrayy]

internet is just a network to get worldwide in contact with other computer owners. it is on you to use it or any services related to it or to just ignore it, it is the infrastructure like a street network.

it is your sole responsibility to use it that it serves you as a tool to get or transport information. it does not exist to fulfill individual expectations but to serve as a means to be able to transport information digitally.

on a street you can use car, a motorcycle and so on. the same applies to the internet just digitally. your can use what ever you just need a computer with an interface to connect and to another computer via the www server infrastructure. this directly related your slightly misleading topic title.

 

your content and what you describe is not the abstract use of the internet as the www infrastructure but specific game and platform related problems using the www while you use the internet to connect with them.

steam or youtube are game or media platforms using their own rules, drm, handling ads and cookies and so on with some consequences you describe. and skyrim is just a game you can use over the steam platform. you are free to use or ignore them all. before you can use steam (and skyrim) and youtube and most other platforms you must accept the terms of service. so if you are not interested in a specific connection install a firewall and configure it the way to cut platform specific connections so they cannot connect with your computer.

 

my 2 cents to the skyrim or fallout updates via steam: it is a well known and discussed annoyance. some say this is the only way to update a console player. it never worked and it will never work without severe consequences for many pc using a script extender. so be aware to configure your steam updates to prevent automated updates and make a backup of your game files before any update!

 

it is also your responsibility to avoid misinformation. nobody can help you with that. but you are not alone with this problem. so be aware an check your sources.

[Fkemman11]

You have to give to get in my experience. You bring something to the table or you don't and get ignored. If you're relying on the benevolence of fellow users on the net without giving them anything in return, then you've misjudged and overstepped your boundaries.

[InDarkestNight]

 

it is also your responsibility to avoid misinformation. nobody can help you with that. but you are not alone with this problem. so be aware an check your sources.

How on earth do you do that? You can't trust anything. For years during the Trump administration, I kept switching between different news sources every few months or so, because I kept finding out over and over again I was actually watching communist misinformation! Even shools aren't reliable. When I was taking a research class just a few years ago, the teacher praised me for using politico as a resource. It wasn't until later I found out that it started as a white supremacist website. The textbook she gave out for that course even listed breitbart as a trustworthy news source. Then there's the issue of all news stations in the US making up news just so they can get information out faster than their competition. I mean, one study found that the only news station where more than 50% of the stuff they said was true, was PBS news, and it was also coincidentally the least popular out of all the ones they studied. Fox news is also infamous for spreading false information. Also, I live in a town ruled by far-right people. My sister is even dating one. I'm surrounded by misinformation all the time. I straight don't trust anything the locals say, regardless of what it is. I've seriously met schizophrenics that are far more in touch with reality than the right wingers in my town.

 

The internet and the entirity of America is just an endless sea of lies. You can't find truth. Its impossible, and its only getting worse with every passing year (the latest problem being deep learning AI spreading false information, which has forced both stack exchange and reddit to take extreme measures to curtail the problem because their platforms were dominated by these bots!)

 

If someone speaks against the far right, they're probably a communist. If someone says they're a free thinker, they're probably nazi (I did use to have a problem with white supremacists assuming I was one of them for saying the same thing, seriously). If someone says they can be trusted of that they're a skeptic, they're probably a conspiracy theorist. Now we have the freaking government wanting people to believe in UFOs. Schools for years have been telling lies about the Civil War. Accusations are coming out of every organization in America, showing that nothing is as it seemed (though not in the way conspiracy theorists were claiming to be clear). You can't trust anything. There is only lies. You can't know truth. Your only choices are to be completely deluded or ignorant, there is no other option. Such is life in modern America.

[JimboUK]

 

it seems that you've hit a point where your use of the internet and your expectations of how people should react to your posts are making you unhappy.

maybe you need to reassess your expectations and maybe do something else for a while?

Who likes being ignored? I like learning things, and I'm sick of asking questions all over the internet and rarely getting the knowledge I want. I can't even get people to fact-check things I find, such as Mihail's recent claim that you don't have to backport meshes. That question got deleted btw, just to add insult to injury. I hate misinformation, I want to know truth, but it seems I'm literally not allowed to know it. I don't know why I keep asking anything on the internet honestly. I can't remember the last time I got an actual quality response. Then again, I was posting on reddit just a few months ago, and before that I was posting on stackexchange, so maybe that had something to do with it.

 

 

There's a good chance that those who read your questions don't know the answer, I wouldn't take it personally.

[Dashyburn]

Zen out OP, once you settle yourself with the fact that this entire society is on it's way to hell in a handbasket, escorted by evil lies and stupidity, that has broken into a swift jog of late and that there's fk all you can do about it, you can achieve a peaceful state of existence in the magical realm of "Whygiveafk" :)

 

But seriously though, right now as I type the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine which is under Russian control is wired to the teeth with explosives. In addition the water levels in the cooling ponds storing spent nuclear rods are slowly lowering as seen in satellite images taken a month apart, the plant is absolutely enormous. Now if the most spoilt child amongst all the other spoilt children playing in the world sand pit doesn't get you to play the game how he wants, don't think for one second that said most spoilt child won't pack up and leave, kicking everybody's sandcastles to dust on the way out.

 

As if I need to add anymore than that, the US put forward a proposition to update article 5 to include the detonation of a nuclear power plant that will cause harm to NATO allies, so double wham.

 

If you can Zen out even when you know s#*! like this is going on without any mind altering substances then you will be at peace. Might as well keep playing Skyrim, it's still getting better after a decade, rejoice :)