Which has had more influence on your beliefs: friends, family or internet?

I was born in 1968 so I grew up without the internet. Like many people , my beliefs were mainly shaped by family, friends and church. Ever since I've had access to the internet, I am influenced very little by my family or friends when it comes to my beliefs(the influence of church ended well before I had internet access). I still consider the ideas and beliefs of family and friends but I now spend so much time reading and listening to other's ideas and points of view on the web, that my family and friend's influence is now just a drop in the bucket.

Even though I have spent more of my life internet free, the internet has been the greater source of influence in the ever-changing makeup of my belief system.

I forgot to add in religious institutions along with friends, family and internet in the thread title.

 

Forget All Of The Above.....It Was My Own

Personal Judgement That Influenced Me The Most....

I Have No Regrets....



Cheers Glen.

 

Yea, life experiences had the biggest influence.....

 

my family 4 sure

 

I'd have to agree with GlenGlen in that I was mostly shaped by my own experience. I spent the first 15 years of my life as an adamant Christian, but that was wholly because of my parents beliefs. Once I started to question those beliefs and dig deeper into religion and philosophy as a whole my entire viewpoint began to change

 

Has finding things on the internet that support or oppose your beliefs had a great influence? Do you feel that you owe little or a lot to the internet as far as where you are now with your beliefs?

 

Even though I had different views about life and religion than my family and friends (actually not sure about my dad sometimes I think he went to church his kids would grow up "normal"), I can't say I formed any my beliefs without influences. I always felt kind of bad about my beliefs because no one in my small community had similar beliefs. After internet access I found many people with similar beliefs as well as some really good books.

Has anyone else had this experience, or maybe something entirely different?

 

The internet has allowed me to explore other religions such as Buddhism, Hinduism, Shintoism, Islam, Judaism, etc. It has not influenced my personal ideas though. I study other religions to understand their viewpoint, but I form my own beliefs only on what makes sense to me.

 

As a child I would say hands down my family and parents.

Once in school, peers, instructors and information from books and teaching.

As I aged the sources changed greatly as the demographics of people and situations I started to be exposed to grew and in many cases changed through time.

I am still aging so I am probably not done yet.

 

Hello WCW,

I find your Wolfpack days to be the most influential thing upon my life.

 

I think I'd have to say the general culture in which I grew up, then lived as an adult. Hard to pinpoint it to family or friends, although they all played their part.

The internet hasn't had much influence at all on my beliefs, but I was in my 40's before I began to use it.

 

Born:1960 - So grew up with and in an ever changing World.
The Life of Black and White turning into Colour saw the horror of Asian War, Home Prejudice and social stigma turn and begin the process of Change.
The Revolution and Optimism of Youth.
Friends were Strangers met, conversed with and embraced with mutual exuberance.
My Parents were always Open and Welcoming to all, encouraged me to grow, allowed me to express my Freedom of spirit and ideology - and - be that whom I wished to be.
Love was a common word, Peace was always preferable to conflict, though I was given a good ethical/moral code for which I let conscience be my guide.

 

I've pretty much done whatever I've wanted, whenever I wanted throughout my life. Parents weren't interested--didn't live with them, so parental influence is out. Dealt with whatever came up--and caused other things to come up for myself. Some fails and some gains. Mostly just a regular guy, doin' regular stuff. They did tell me I was too "independent" for this hospital" when I was in there.

Gramma raised me and 'do unto others as you would have them do unto you' is the main lesson I learned early on from her. Friends? Had a huge amount of them, boys and girls when I was young, so I guess they must have had some influence, somehow. All and all, I'm pretty individualistic. Politics had an influence in there, after I started a working life and saw how that played out in the workplace.

Internet? A nice toy full of info.

 

None of the above; university.

 

Lol. Wcw are my initials.

 

Sonic the hedgehog and Spyro the Dragon