25th Anniversary of www. how has being online benefitted you?

How has it benefitted you? Any one specific thing? What about your memories of when you first used it?

I am grateful that it has allowed me to "speak to people" I would never have communicated with. Having those communications has definately enriched my life.

I can't imagine myself without it, it's made me more aware than I ever could have been.

On the other hand, I think it's made me very cynical and a bit crazy.

I wouldn't have met my husband without it, and we all tend to learn a lot online as time goes by. I've probably learned more online than I ever did in school, because being forced in a room with other kids was NOT how I learned best. I just felt neverendingly anxious, to the point of nausea, and that does more damage to some kids than these education departments care to acknowledge. I know in some countries, school isn't compulsory, but it was for me.

I have to admit, I miss that dial up sound we all had to hear once upon a time.

My job wouldn't even exist in its current form without it. But apart from that, it's been nothing but a positive contributor to my education, especially when it comes down to language and the ability to interact with the whole world. Of course it has also entertained me splendidly...

I miss the early 90's Internet, when it was just the nerds online, shareware was awesome, and people still talked to each other in real life. I think we hit the point of diminishing returns a long time ago.

It's given me more of an opportunity to learn about anything that interests me. I've also had a slightly easier time making friends online. Overall, it's been good to me. Yeah, I've encountered plenty of morons and screw-ups, but there are plenty of those outside the Internet.

I think I am much more intelligent. I know more and I type so much better now.

I don't know though.. in some ways it seems like it hurt me a little. I am a bit addicted to it and wonder if that doesn't hurt me.

It's saved me spending hours drawing up charts using logarithms by hand - now just click a button - Yay!

I've been able to find a huge amount of low/no cost tools for creativity. I'm able to do things I only dreamed of before.

I've also been able to get amazing insight into the workings of minds.

It's 26 years since I first used the Internet and back then the WWW didn't even exist. I used to love USENET newsgroups; before they became a cesspit of illegal pornography and copyright theft. I met my (now ex) wife playing 'Acrophobia' in 1998 and I used to run a business importing items from the rest of the world and selling them in the UK, so I guess the Internet has had a massive affect on my life.

I still think that there have been far more negatives than positives when it come to the Internet in general...

Wow, I haven't seen someone mention USENET in ages! Remember Gopher?

I remember Neopets, I think my first ever gaming site and website in general I ever used.

And Ask Jeeves! Back then the schools would try and have you use it because Google wasn't the obvious choice of search engine like it is today.

Find information fast and at no cost.
Read manga.
Educate myself.
Earn money.
Purchase items unavailable in my country.
Online games.
Reduced storage needed for physical media.
Network and make friends.

TheDude76 said:

Wow, I haven't seen someone mention USENET in ages! Remember Gopher?

Click to expand...

I do! It's been a long time. Most of the other Internet protocols seem to happily co-exist alongside the WWW, but poor old Gopher seemed to almost disappear as soon as the WWW took hold.

I came very late to computer literacy: 2009.

I reconnected with the friends of my long past youth and I joined the world of the present