Category: Safe Haven
Hi all,
I was thinking about computer activities that once were a novelty when we first got on the net, but after several years, have sort of become a chore. The only thing that has become a bit of a chore lately is email. When I first got on the internet, it was a marvel that a message could travel from where i am thousands of miles with in a matter of minutes. Now, because all most people like to do these days is set up group mailing lists, where they send stuff that's going around to hundreds of people in their adress book. It's gotten to the point, what with spam, and people's seeming inability to have an email conversation, wanting to do the group email thing and forwards, I wish i could go back to those days when I'd check my email, and wonder if something was wrong with my email service after days of getting the message, sorry, no mail. Tjhanks to a corespondent on penpal world, I do have one penpal who is making checking my email a little more worth while. She does have a group list, and she sends abouit 2 or 3 a day of groups messages, but at least she writes me directly outside of that and we chat a bit back and forth. I don;'t even care anything about email lists anymore. When i download my email, I have a feeling of, ho hum. If I can't get any real conversational email, I'd rather get none at al. So what do you all think? Is there a particular thing you use to find exciting and interesting on th ecomputer when you first joined the net, but has become a bit of a chore over the years? if so, what is it? Did you gradually grow from enjoying it to not enjoying it so much, or was it all of a sudden? Just a thought.
wonderwoman
Interesting subject.
I agree with you. I like more emails that are send exclusively to me asking how i am and things like that. I don't like the emails i get from some people that are just forwards from other emails with jokes or things like send it to 10 people in your addressbook and you will be lucky. I can't believe people take things like that seriously.
I don't think there is anything that i was enjoying in the past and i don't enjoy it now.
Maybe listening to the radio from home online is not as exciting as i t was in the past. In the past i was so impressed how we could hear stations so far away. Now it feels like just terning the radio to listen.
I have to agree with Nikos about the radio thing. I used to be a really active ham radio operator, and it seems like the Internet has takne some of the magic out of it. Having said that, I work in a building that doesn't like radio signals at all. One of the sites I have is our local National Weather Service office. I also have one of our local stations that has the best news coverage saved as a favorite for those snow days when I might need to leave early, or if I just want to hear breaking news. I agree with WW about the group e-mail forwards. I cringe when I see some e-mail adresses. I want to just block them, but when I do, I know I'll probably block a message I might want. I think that's part of Murphy's laws, or it should be.
Lou
Hi modifaded and Nikos,
I now feel that email lists are outdated, and I wish all email lists would just go to forums, where you just read messages on the site, like you do here and on sites such as e-pals, but that's just my humble, or not so humble opinion. If and when I can get high speed internet from road runner cable, our cable service, then my email address willchange, and for a while, I'll be able to go back to those days I was talking about where i'd go days at a time without getting any email. In one way I agree withyou Nikos, some radio stations aren't exciting to listen to anymore, but I like to listen to folk music sometimes, since i like ballads that tel a story. I use to like listening to talk call ins in different states and thought that was exciting, but it's hard nowadays to find a good talk radio station to listen to, since i'm not in to politics or sports. Anyway, once my email address changes, if it does, I'm going to be very sparing about giving it out, and I'll give folks to understand that if mostly all they like to do is send forded jokes and stories, to just keep me out of their address book. Thanks to you nikos and lou for responding to my topic.
wonderwoman
Most email lists I'm on I have it set to know email and just go read it from the site. I'd rather go on the site rather then read a bunch of email a day in my inbox. If a list has the option of viewing/replying from the website, one example is yahoogroups, I use that option. I like getting personal email from friends and some jokes every now and then.
Troy
sounds good to me, only problem is, when I check messages, the first thing i like to do is look for replies to topics i've either created or replied to. Maybe that sounds sort of me firstish, but replies to me or my topics come before all other topics, so that's what i look for first, but on high traffi lists, it's sometimes difficult if not impossible to find them without sifting through a lot of other stuff, especially if you've forgotten the subject title, lol.
wonderwoman
ps, I haven't checked my email today yet, and i'm not looking forward to it at all.
I also used to get excited to check my email. Not anymore, thanks to spam. I like emails from people I know wanting to talk to me. I don't like advertizements.
A computer activity that becomes a chore? Hmm, cleaning from virus, and rebooting it ones it gets filled wiht music and movies. Oh, and transfering and installing stuff.
Well, I agree with you.
Sending attachments can be a chore as well as organizing files and messages. I also think deleting unwanted files and unwanted programs is a chore. I always try to keep my desktop tidy, but sometimes it gets cluttered with icons everywhere, but I clean it up. It’s like doing housekeeping for your computer. Lol! I do these tasks on a monthly basis.
Organizing files in to folders has to be the most anoying thing. I say I'll do it and never get around to it.
Defragging my hard drive is one of those tasks that used to be interesting. Defrag my drive once a week and see how much faster it got.
Now I never defrag because it would take so long and offer verry little results.
Bob
Aw'w'w blimey! Well, defragging my hard drive, doing a virus check and sorting through my many hundreds of Emails in my hotmail in box has really started to become just a chore, so I don't do those things every day manually. I just set the task schedulers to automatically scan for viruses and defrag the hard drive at midnight every day when I'm usually still logged on and I don't check my Emails every day any more.
Jen.
I agree the e-mail thing has gotten completely out of hand. Plus you have to worry so much about getting a virus. I hate hackers!
Virus/spyeware scans, uploading files, and checking email. Especially if you go on vacation for a week. Having to come home and sort through fifty or more emails is definitely not what I call fun. ;)
Hello everyone,
I am on a bunch of listservs, including the LGVX Phones listserv and a few more. A chore for me is cleaning out all of my emails from different listservs. usually what I do is if a subject in a message sounds interesting, I'll read it, otherwise, boom! It's gone forever. I don't have time to sift through email all day. And I agree with everyone, I hate hackers and I especially hate those messages where they tell you to pass this on to ten people and you will get loved or something.
Macy
PS: I know this is off-topic, but how do you defrag your hard drive?
Probably e-mail, and checking stats for ff.net.
It's great to get new reviews, but please, the way we have it set up it's not that convenient.
I also hate MODDing now, it use to be wonderful and all, thinking of beeing in charge of a group, but the effects have worn off.
Now that I've been thinking about it, the thing that seems a chore to me is having all kinds of accounts with different places, just so you can network with a small amount of people. For instance, I know some family members on Myspace, but most of them we never really see or talk to each other in realtime. Even if we were to add each other as friends, we probably still wouldn't talk (not because we don't like each other, but just because we don't talk). Same thing with Facebook and when I used to have Hi5, Tickle, and Live Journal, as well as several other groups/sites I was/am part of. It's just the fact of having to log into each site and update everyone on what's going on at each site/group, or checking inboxes on each site. I do have a little notebook to keep track of all the usernames, passwords, and I can usually remember which email account is associated with what site/group (should I forget my password and not have my little book). But it still goes back to logging into each site where I only have several people I know just so I can have gathered a number of friends/groups I hardly talk with at that place anyway.
As cool as it's been to say "hey, I'm on Myspace" or "I'm on Facebook", or I'm part of this Yahoo group, I'll likely end up removing myself from those things since just seeing all these places I'm signed up to makes me unmotivated to say anything once I've signed in to them.
There are some things I'm keeping like Classmates.com (for communicating with schoolmates, a small few mailing lists not associated with having a corresponding account (like Yahoo, MSN, etc.) for subjects that really interest me), and I will likely just open a Blink Nation account and make most of my stuff public on there since it is not as overwhelming to navigate as other places. And of course I'll stay part of this site since I post to and do a lot on here.