The Pros and Cons of the Internet
The Internet can be a wonderful tool, but it has its dark sides.It can be a colossal time waster. I wonder how many printers spend precious hours surfing the Internet and sending e-mail messages back and forth rather than going out the door and selling something to somebody. Quite a few, I\’d wager.
The Internet encourages bad manners. People can say mean, untrue, hurtful, and ignorant things in e-mails and on list-serves and blogs without the risk of having to deal face to face with those the comment\’s effect. I remember one particular reader who had become so incensed by something I wrote in my editorial that he bombarded me with hate e-mail that culminated in a message alleging that I had a \”comb-over.\” Heck, I don\’t have enough hair for that.
The Internet also offers up a mind-numbing amount of information of dubious usefulness. Sure, I can do a Google search for \”printing\” and be told in 0.09 seconds that there are 599,000,000 references to \”printing\” on the Web. (No lie.) But that is of no value whatsoever. OK, I can refine my search to \”quick printing\” and trim the hits to a mere 84 million, but so what? As that new \”old saying\” goes, we\’re drowning in information and thirsting for knowledge.
Also, the Internet has removed most of the gates that used to help us revise, correct, and evaluate information before it was disseminated. When I first went to work in newspapers, there were several minds and sets of eyes that went over a story before it hit the press. Now all some yahoo has to do is compose a message of dubious content and hit a button to send it out into the world where it is given the same weight as well-researched, thoughtful and actually true offerings. (I won\’t even get into spelling here.) And the Internet can give folks like that a highly inflated sense of their own importance. They are out there competing for attention with the New York Times or Washington Post, whether they have anything of value to say or not. \”Look at me! I\’m somebody.\”
Finally, the Internet is also a remarkably cheap and easy way for con artists to disseminate their scams, infiltrate your computer, or hijack your personal information with little or no risk of getting caught.
Don\’t get me wrong, the Internet is a valuable tool and I use it every day. That said, it is just a tool and is no better or worse than the people who use or misuse it.
ok, i understand what you are saying, however there are many specific web-sights, some harder to find than others, that can be helpful to the print buyer and printer. such sites that have printing quotes (by print buyers) online for printers (who must pre-register and some $) to be part of such a service. what are your comments about using the internet for such services? connecting prnt buyers with printers across the internet.
I use the internet to find vendors. I have found two real good vendors which others should look at for envelope printing there is http://www.econoenvelope.com and for color printing http://www.partnerprinting.com both companies have been a real help for my small pinting company.
Hello Tony,
I came across your comment on the 2 companies for small printers/brokers and YES I have used them and totally agree…..great resources for printing! Took me 2 years of searching online suppliers before I found them……they receive most of my print orders now…….
Hi Bob,
I run a small print brokerage in Perth Western Australia and in the last 4 or so years my phone has virtually stopped ringing and my email hasn’t stopped beeping. This situation does have its advantages as I do not need to react immediately to an email as one needs to do with an incoming phone call. I can peruse the inbox and address the urgent issues and leave the non-urgent or all the other crap until later. And all my proofs are emiled out. On one hand I agree that email depersonalises communication but to my mind the efficiencies that we gained far outweigh the former.
Cheers,
Peter
Offset Printing Your Posters…
The next time you plan your poster printing project, you need to make a decision on what kind of printing method you are going to use. In addition to the graphic designers, writers, poster printing design, and layout, you also have to plan what is the …
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There are so many alternatives out there, that when one uses the internet one can be overwhelmed with choices.
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