Life Without The Internet

[Gutted]

I've a couple of questions on this.

1. How long have you had internet access in the home, be it through a computer or decent mobile?

2. Have your online activities changed from when you first went online until today? If so then how?

3. Do you think your life would be different if you never went online? If so then how different?

I never actually had internet at home until I was around 17. Until then I was very very social. I went out with friends every day. We'd stay at eachothers houses every week. When I first went online at home, my main use for the internet was to socialize. I wanted to stay in touch with friends and make new ones.

Over time, my internet activities have changed. I do still like to socialize. But people have changed and so I tend to mainly play games online, rather then talk to friends. It's hard to say how my life would be, had I never went online. I lost contact with some friends. Had I not gone online, I think I'd have still lost contact with them when I did. Other friends have moved online and so I don't think I'd see them much. But I think I'd have more friends and I'd still be as social as I used to be before I went online.

That said, overall I don't think I made a mistake by going online. I think the existence of the internet of today would have altered my lifestyle no matter what. The type of person I am followed by my interests in general, kinda says that I suit being online a lot. I mean I like computers a lot and would like to build them and learn about them. I feel more free online and more equal to people. It's pretty much like living another life.

 

[IgnoredOne]

Would have bought a lot more books.

 

[Felix]

1. About 12 years.
2. Yes they've changed. Now I use more forums and imageboards, in the past I used to go more often to regular websites. I used Kazaa, now I use Utorrent. And I used to have a dial-up connection, now I have cablemodem.
3. I would spend more time outside... And there is a lot of stuff I wouldn't know.

 

[Parabolani]

I think the internet is another time wasting distraction that modern man/woman has convinced themselves they need. I think life would be better if we had of decided just to be simple farmers and fisherman.

 

[Bones]

1. How long have you had internet access in the home, be it through a computer or decent mobile?

~ Since around 1995

~ How in the world did I have the patience for a 14.4k Modem?

~ Why did I think a 28.8 Modem was the next best thing since slice bread (as compared to today's speed)?

~ How many AOL disks received through the mail did I throw away?


2. Have your online activities changed from when you first went online until today? If so then how?

~ Not really - but glad I no longer have to use USENET.

(When people broke up back then or were pi$$ed off at their significant other, you would not believe what people put on USENET. :O


3. Do you think your life would be different if you never went online? If so then how different?

~ Life would have been different because I would not have traveled to meet people in Canada, the Ukraine, and other parts of the USA.

 

[Tealeaf]

I think I do the same stuff I always have, although there was no voice chat when I was little.

Also:

 

[nerdygirl]

1. How long have you had internet access in the home, be it through a computer or decent mobile?
Off and on since 1995.

2. Have your online activities changed from when you first went online until today? If so then how?
Very different now. The internet has grown since back then. So have I. I use the internet almost the entire time that I am awake, as it allows me to communicate with friends, relatives, customers, and school.

3. Do you think your life would be different if you never went online? If so then how different?
Had I not started using the internet, my house would be cleaner and I would be dumber.

 

[LoneKiller]

Good thread.

1. I've been online for a little north of 5 years now.

2. When I first began, I frequented many adult sites, shock sites, and game cheat sites, and Warez sites.

3. Without the internet my life would be much more boring and uninteresting. I wouldn't be as well informed as I am now.

The internet has also humbled me a great deal. Because I'm a fan of horror movies and sports such as boxing and mma, I thought that I had seen the most bloody things there are out there. The beheading video of Eugene Armstrong woke me up with a huge slap to the face from reality.

All around, I have been humbled, enlightened, encouraged, and disciplined from the internet world, and I'm grateful.

 

[Parabolani]

Without the internet the world would never have known Samantha 38G. That is not a world I want to live in.

 

[SophiaGrace]

I used to go in AOL chatrooms.

Now I come here.

No one asks me ASL here.

My life is better.

 

[Sci-Fi]

I've had the internet off and on for the past 20 years...man that makes me feel old... It's my lifeline, if I didn't have the internet I fear to think of what my life would be like.

 

[Veilside05]

I used to go in AOL chatrooms.

Now I come here.

No one asks me ASL here.

My life is better.

I discovered the term ASL in yahoo pool cos while I was busy try to play pool, people were busy trying to get me to reveal ASL. The internet really changed alot of things in life.

 

[perfanoff]

Life without Internet? Blasphemy!
:club::club::club:

 

[theraab]

I've had internet access at home since about 1996 - I remember the 14.4k modems and how great the 28.8k was. For all you young whippersnappers out there, back then we had to use a phone line (again, for you whippersnappers, phones used to have cords and be wired into the house).

Back then everything online felt more novel and I would spend hours searching for random things (these were the days before Google, so you would find all kinds of small, weird sites from your search engine). And there were a lot more email forwards back then (thankfully, that has died down).

Of course life would be different if I had never been online - but for the most part, things would just take more time (like looking up information would require a trip to the library and the hope that I would find the book I needed there, or sending bill payments by mail instead of online, or waiting *gasp* to hear news).

 

[Veilside05]

I've had internet access at home since about 1996 - I remember the 14.4k modems and how great the 28.8k was. For all you young whippersnappers out there, back then we had to use a phone line (again, for you whippersnappers, phones used to have cords and be wired into the house).

Back then everything online felt more novel and I would spend hours searching for random things (these were the days before Google, so you would find all kinds of small, weird sites from your search engine). And there were a lot more email forwards back then (thankfully, that has died down).

Of course life would be different if I had never been online - but for the most part, things would just take more time (like looking up information would require a trip to the library and the hope that I would find the book I needed there, or sending bill payments by mail instead of online, or waiting *gasp* to hear news).

The library. I have like probably forgotten the looks of a library after the internet.

 

[Felix]

(these were the days before Google, so you would find all kinds of small, weird sites from your search engine)

That is something I miss sometimes, the personal pages usually made by a person that is very "passionate" about "X" thing. Those pages with weird URLS... I used to have one hosted at freewebs but the bastards took it down...

I guess now I can find everything faster, an there is a lot more of stuff, social networks and everything you can think of really, but I do miss the individuality that was expressed in those early stages of the internet. Makes you feel a little nostalgic.

And the modem, such an annoying sound... fortunately we don't have to use that anymore

 

[perfanoff]

Haha, yeah, the 14.4k modem Fascinating sound.
One more thing that's missing from my youth is payphones.. they used these magnetic calling cards. They're still around in my country for some reason, but I realized that no store stocks these cards.. only cell phone prepaid cards, lol. Sucks if the only phone you're carrying is not GSM-compatible

Honestly though, even though I did do stuff on the internet back then, it was slow and uncle google was not around. Surfing wasn't totally awesome for me. However, there was always IRC...

 

[Doubt The Rabbit]

I think the internet is another time wasting distraction that modern man/woman has convinced themselves they need. I think life would be better if we had of decided just to be simple farmers and fisherman.

If we were simple farmers and fishermen we'd still be dying from simple pestilence and disease.

The internet itself is not to blame for anything. It's the people who use it. It is but only a tool. The internet has been used to create great things and transfer vital information in the blink of an eye. It's brought people around the world together in order to collaborate and discover groundbreaking solutions to the world's problems.

Could simple fishermen with primitive tools have done this? No.

The internet is something that can be used for great good or great evil or some kind of uselessness in between. Yet, the tool itself does not change. The difference between the internet and what it's used for lies solely in the people who use it.

So it stands to reason that even if the internet were not around, humans would find other ways to become antisocial jerks who waste their lives away through some inane form of entertainment.

That said, I've been using the internet for about 10 years or so. Compared to when I first used it for web-based games and homework, I now use it for communication, web media entertainment, medical research, and porn.
The internet doesn't influence my life in a way that it gives or takes away time for "offline" activities. I am fully aware of the choices I have to spend my time on. It's my mood that affects how productive I am in life. In fact, if my mood were better, I'd probably spend less time on the internet anyway.

 

[musicstoodstill]

Sometimes i go to the library just to touch books and rub my hands all over the pages and then i.....

sigh...those were the days, my friend...

'internet' has the word 'net' in it (aka weaves it web.......coincidence? hmmm.... i think not)

 

[Lonesome Crow]

I grew up without the internet.
I also remember that days when I had to use a freaken cassette tape to upload or start my PC.
The Commedor.....
It was before windows and All you got were green letters on a black screen.
Apple was totally cool...A freaken icon instead of typing out all the path.
Playing an RPG on an apple PC was bascailly just reading honeysuckle...

Trying to get on-line wen the net first came out ????
1/2 hour of that bullshit,...Im outside flying a kite or ******* my gf instead.

To this day Renae still wishes for me to spend less time on the net.
I have addicted personality...of course the net can be an addiction for me.

At the sametime the PC or Net had provided me with a lot more informations faster....
Unsensor or controlled informations.

what do i do when Im not on the net...I have plenty of sex with my fiance.
She's a nympho...What dose that make me?