The Fucking Internet

On the demise of Barnes and Noble...and perhaps...books.

Perhaps the most disturbing thing about all this is the fact that, as with the demise of Borders, the demise of B&N has nothing to do with what its customers actually wanted, what’s best for mother literature or free speech, or anything other than made-up trends covering for killer capitalism. There’s still plenty of evidence that people like bookstores, for example, and even sales of hardcovers — let alone print books — are holding on. And so the lust for higher margins — whether from Godiva chocolates or ebooks — turned into fool’s gold for B&N. It’s perhaps a typical death in the Free Trade era, when companies lose all sight of their identity in the blinding light of the bottom line … but it’s the wrong death for a bookseller.

The Atlantic has a new article - hat tip, Phil - about how internet dating is problematic for creating healthy couples.

But what if online dating makes it too easy to meet someone new? What if it raises the bar for a good relationship too high? What if the prospect of finding an ever-more-compatible mate with the click of a mouse means a future of relationship instability, in which we keep chasing the elusive rabbit around the dating track?

The fucking internet is a ruse.  It offers this bullshit, utopian promise of something better.  And we cannibalize the good things in our world for this delusion.  Disgusting.  The Atlantic article is onto to something, but it fails to realize the scale.  This touches more than relationships - the very building blocks of the species - but everything:  culture, commerce, government, employment.  This internet - and we are letting it - will throw us into a state of perpetual despair.  Not everything should or can be free.  We must pay for things for them to exist - books, movies, information, news.  Nothing good will come from these delusions.  What is at stake?  Everything that is important.  What are we selling it for? Pennies.

UPDATE:  My solution:  stop internet dating.  Bang the girls and guys around you.  Get married, have kids.  Order the newspaper to your door.  Buy books from bookstores and READ them.  Pay for movies.  Rent movies from the video store.  Buy shoes at Nordstrom because they let you return and try on things.  Play sports.  Stop using tablets and the cloud.  Live.