Well, Blackspeare, if you are correct - “the time is nearing when a single fee with unlimited use will end and the Internet will be metered,” - and I suspect you are, I will be among the first to use it as I use the Post Office - only when I have no alternative.

Is there anything we humans “touch” that we don’t, in one way or another, completely ruin with our greed?

I think the Internet will become more or less useless to me before metering starts though… the concerted efforts by governments all over the world to find ways to monitor/regulate/censor our use of it will eventually succeed to the point where I, for one, will not venture offering an opinion or thought that isn’t “politically correct.”

I’m lucky though - I was born back in the days when a walk in the woods or to curl up with a good book was what we did as a pasttime. It won’t be a problem for me to return to those “good old days.”

All browsers, communication services such as Facebook, Twitter, etc, mine data from their users for resale to vendors——how do you think they stay in business without charging a fee.  They couple this data mining with appropriate advertisers.

ISPs, on the other hand, charge for their service and do not troll for data though the time is nearing when a single fee with unlimited use will end and the Internet will be metered.

I can only shake my head in disbelief that ANYONE would be so stupid as to participate in any honest way on these sites.

“Twitter” is well named - it’s a site for TWITS.

I see no difference between “publishing” on these sites and putting a running text sign like in Times Square on the front of your house. Or having your telephone set up so it broadcasts all your conversations throughout your neighborhood. Don’t these participants realize that every letter they type is visible BY THE WHOLE WORLD?

Facebook surreptitiously collects private data from
credulous and confident users, and it doesn’t hesitate
to injure its users. Other sites such as Yahoo
Messenger have been offering the same functions for a
much longer time than Facebook, and these other sites
don’t rip off their users. Having been warned only
idiots and willing victims would use Facebook.