Is life better or worse thanks to the Internet?

This is a topic I tackled in Tuesday Screencaps. Get caught up here. 

– Mike in West Lafayette, IN writes: 

For years, the media was able to operate as a cartel, both print and television. They could collude and control the narrative however they wanted. Anyone with unapproved opinions was simply ignored (with few exceptions); if they couldn’t be ignored they’d be discredited as crazies or extremists. 

The internet has blown that cartel to pieces. We have access to information that paints an unflattering picture of our ruling class, and they hate it. This is why they’re scrambling to label anything they don’t like as “misinformation,” “disinformation,” or even “hate speech.” I’m 47 and taught social studies most of my adult life. 

I received two educations, pre- and post-internet.  I certainly don’t just accept everything I read, but I can now evaluate everything I once learned with a little bit of skepticism.  And man has it made teaching a lot more fun. Count me in as pro-internet, it’s been the great equalizer.

– Jason DM in Kalamazoo says: 

The internet makes the world much better, social media makes it much worse.

– Kevin D. checks in: 

It would have been best if ‘the internet’ froze in time around 2010.

By my recollection that was the era where social media existed, but nobody took it seriously. YT for comedy clips and cat videos, FaceBook for weddings and hookups, Twitter bc you could actually ‘talk‘ to random celebrities. Furthermore while iPhones were out the connectivity and technology wasn’t good enough to be constantly consuming and sharing streaming media.

At that point, we had about 90% of the usefulness of the internet without all its baggage. Which started with 1) people taking social media and the internet at large far too seriously 2) people carrying around a toy in their pocket that allows them to constantly immerse themselves in this modern far too serious (but also totally phony) Web 2.

I wouldn’t go Snake Blisken on todays internet bc it is incredibly useful, but 15 years ago it was also 99% less annoying and lame. I used to think Mike Florio was cool!

Kinsey: 

As someone who lived it, and made money from it, 2010 was a great time on the Internet. In those days, I would make more money from the Internet by 10 a.m. than I would during my actual day of work at a newspaper. Some days, I would make more money before I left for work than I would make all week at my newspaper job. 

At the time, the newspaper was struggling with advertising and would allow workers to ‘beg off’ if we took it as no-pay. I was taking multiple no-pays per week so I could go home and create content to make 2X, 3X, 4X what the day job was paying. 

Hell yes, Kevin, 2010 was awesome. 

I’m forever grateful to 2008-2010. It was an incredible era for the Internet. You could throw in 2012 so it’s an actual five-year span of greatness. 

– Chris B. in Florida (I think he now lives in NC) emails: 

Imagining life without the internet is like imagining life without AC. If you’re never lived without it, you have no idea. If only because I can carry more music in my pocket than I used to have on nearly a thousand LP’s, not to mention on-demand directions, instant weather radar, and probably a million other things, the internet has been a net positive. 

People who grew of age before cellphones never had to deal with changing your phone number every time you moved, and losing track of people because of changing phone numbers. Same with email instead of address books. That said: social media is a better question, because it’s positive or negative value is all in how you use it.

Hopefully, by Thursday Night Football, I will have Homebrew Bill’s beer in my Man Cave fridge chilling for the weekend

I have to say, it’s great to do business with Bill. He took the beer to FedEx and had a shipping slip for me to pay with zero stress. 

Here’s your bill. Here’s my Venmo. Beer is on the way. 

So easy. 

I did my part to make sure Bill’s beer is sold out in a matter of days. Remember, there are only 20 cases of Bill’s pineapple pale ale to go around. 

bill.luhman@gmail.com

How to live a life with three YouTubeTV streams in a house with kids and a wife who watches TV?

– Philly Mick writes in with a question I had before switching to YTTV (#notsponsored): 

I was looking to cut the cord and a handful of friends have YTTV and rave about it, plus the cost of that plus internet is roughly half of what I pay to the monolith known as Xfinity. The only problem I see is that it limits three streams in the house. I have a 3 TV setup in my living room for sports command central, but my wife also likes to watch non-sports shows in another room at the same time. I know you have mentioned that you have a 3 TV setup in your basement for sports and was wondering what happens if your wife or kids want to watch something on another TV? Sorry for the long email, just wanted to see if I am missing something.

Kinsey: 

Here’s what I wrote to Mick via email:

My kids rarely use cable, so I’m pretty fortunate in that respect. That typically eliminates them from using one of the YTTV streams. They’ll use YouTube or play video games, or maybe use an app like Netflix or Disney. 

If I’m deep into a 3-TV setup on a huge Saturday, Mrs. Screencaps will compromise and use an app to watch a show. 

Or, I will use two YTTV streams and then the ESPN app on my third TV which allocates one of the YTTV streams to her. 

When you figure in the quad-box multi-streams that YTTV offers, you’re watching eight games on two TVs with a side TV streaming random ESPN+ games. It’s more content than my brain can process. Quad boxes have changed the game. The sound switches from box to box on your command. 

I have Spectrum Internet — $46.99 a month — and the YTTV sub which is what, $82 these days? I’ve saved $110-120 since switching from cable.  

You’re not human if that tribute last night in Columbus failed to bring a tear to your eye 

I saw this video & instantly thought of Millennial Dalton D. from South of Crater Lake whose wife wants two bathrooms renovated during football season

– Chris B. in Florida (I think he now lives in NC) emails: 

Regarding bathroom vanities, the advice I would offer is simple: ONE BATHROOM AT A TIME. I’ve done it, and I have basically no skills. If you aren’t retiling or reflooring, it’s a one-day job at most. You could probably knock one out in a couple of evenings, especially since those vanities are already assembled, and it’s more of a plumbing project to add a sink.

Ice solutions & Man Caves®

– Husker in the PNW writes: 

My man cave is also my work from home office and while I started with some work issued monitors they have all been replaced at this point. Middle screen is a 32” curved 4k screen surrounded by a 27” flat 4k and a 27” curved 1080p. All three screens are hooked up to either my work laptop or my personal pc and go back and forth between the two as needed and on the weekends are showing football. I recently added the mini fridge in the room much to my wife’s chagrin that the kitchen isn’t all that far away, but when three games are on, or more if some multi-screen engaged, then it is not all that easy to find a good time to reload. 

I am a sometime gamer and virtual pilot enthusiast and as such I have the flight gear that I can hook up and along with that to improve the immersion of flying the picture of the “Buttkicker” is a device similar to devices that many higher end theaters use as well and it is a haptic transponder. In simple terms it turns bass into vibrations and this works well when flying virtual planes so you can feel how fast or how much strain on the plane. Or when watching action movies you can feel the bass of the gunshots, bombs, and bass of the soundtrack. The room has some of my children’s art to take up the space on the large white wall and there is enough room to add a couple of buddies into the room to enjoy the at home sports bar experience. For the audio experience I have a high end set of headphones for movies/games, and then a decent soundbar for general viewing/football games. 

The room really came into its own during the middle of the dark masked times and my wife finally said the magic words, that room is yours and you can do what you want with it. I keep dreaming of a future state where maybe a floating shelf is removed, or both floating shelves and add a 42” tv to the wall up there to really complete the in-home sports bar. See what Black Friday brings….

– Chris B. in Florida (I think he now lives in NC) emails: 

The best ice solutions are the simplest, unless you’re making drinks that require crushed ice for the ladies. I use those big square cube silicone trays; the cubes cool the drink quickly and melt slowly so your drink isn’t diluted. I also use one of those trays to freeze cocktail ingredients; as the ice melts (a little more quickly with carbonated liquids). I’ve been experimenting with different flavors of colas and juices to put into cheap bourbon (current selection is vanilla cola, e.g.). I’ve also used one of the trays with about 30 little cubes to freeze maraschino cherries in a little juice. You scoop one out and flavor the cocktail.

Is the option/veer offense gone for good at the college level?

– Joey P. asks: 

With the exception of the service academies, why do you think the option/veer offense has all but fizzled out in college football?  They used to be the rage for decades on end.

Kinsey: 

There are definitely football experts reading the column who can answer this one, but here’s what Lou Holtz said years ago in the book, “Blood, Sweat, and Chalk” by Tim Layden:

“I think it’s one word: recruiting,” Lou Holtz told Layden. “Once alumni started treating recruiting like it was a season in itself, it became very difficult to run the option. All of a sudden, [if you were an option team,] you couldn’t get the dominant quarterback, because you weren’t going to throw the football and get him ready for the NFL. You couldn’t get the dominant left tackle, because you weren’t going to teach him to pass-block. 

“You couldn’t get the dominant running back, because he wasn’t going to be featured enough. Now, you can still win with the option even if you don’t get those people, but if you’re not getting those top recruits, the alumni start to think you’re losing and you’re not exciting enough.”

Do we have any readers who’ve eaten at TGI Fridays (not in an airport, that doesn’t count) in the last month? Tell me about the experience.

I should’ve had Fridays on my chains thare going to die in the next five years list. That was a miss. I’ll stand by my Bob Evans prediction. My Wendy’s prediction wasn’t the best, but around here, the chain is dead, which played into my prediction. 

Email: joekinsey@gmail.com

– OutKick’s Gunz tells me via Slack that he’s a Fridays guy: 

3 for all

you get your mozz sticks, potato skins and wings

also had the steak and mashed

and if you’re an awards member (brushes shoulders off) you get free chips and guac when dining in

Walgreens and Big Lots are the next to go

Will you miss either of these chains when they’re gone? I did get a great high-top patio table and chairs set from Big Lots last year at a phenomenal price. That said, I haven’t been back inside the store since.  

Email: joekinsey@gmail.com

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And that’s a wrap on this Wednesday in the middle of October. The sun is out. It’s a raw 39 degrees on a cloudless fall morning. 

Go do great things today in this incredible place we get to call home. Go dominate work, or another day of retirement. Head on a swivel. Go out there and find pieces of content for this column. Be productive. 

Email: joekinsey@gmail.com

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