COuld you live without the internet?

It's be a pain in the ass not having it, it's so useful for getting information, I'd have a bit of cold turkey, but I'd get over it, I'd certainly give it up before beer anyway!

 

i could. all the people i care about i can get in touch with another way apart form the internet more or less.

 

i could.....no problem ......i am not addicted.................shut up

 

LOL, well i am a net adddict thats for sure. But i equally love the great outdoors! I do need to spend less time on this thing and more outside...roll on the summer!


K

 

Same here, I've met soo many great people through the internet... And now I stay up late (2 hrs time difference!) talking to some of yous, which has led to (sometimes quite severe) lack of sleep, lack of social life "in the real world", and me being late from work in the mornings... :&

 

clear signs of a web junky...............

 

My work in a history theme park has shown me a lot of luxury items really aren't absolutely necessary for life, I could probably live without most technology... but I certainly wouldn't like it! I would miss the broad range of options most, more than anything in particular. I make friends easily but also leave people easily; having moved halfway across the world and, several back several years later, I am not someone to stay in touch with old friends at all. Nor did I keep contact with anyone after high school or any other major 'moves' in my life. But I do so many different things on the 'net... sharing fanfiction, looking up just about everything about anything, posting on forums like this, finding fun items you can't find in local stores, listening to country music which isn't on the radio here at all, playing games, dabbling a bit in home business... just everything. I'm old enough to have lived without internet for over half my life, but it'd be a pretty dull and limited world to have to go back to after experiencing it all...

 

I wouldn't even bother trying not to come online at least once a day. I help run a large international advice site for teenagers, so basically I need to come online to make sure everything is running smoothly.

 

I don't use the internet that much really, but is still a very useful if not essential tool. I wouldn't say that I personally have realised all of the ultimate benefits of this technology (i.e. meeting close friends or loved ones through it), I haven't had that yet but it may only be a matter of time. I've said it once and will say it again: the internet is one of the best inventions ever and it's not just some short term 'fad' that will die off in a couple of years, it's got a firm place in the future. I think obviously you can go without the internet just as I was without it before 2004 (when I got my own PC) or 1998/9 (when I surfed the internet for the first time) but now it's here I don't want to part with it as I feel I'd be denying myself something which has so many uses. I mean okay I admit there are a few small downers (viruses, noisy PC fan! Etc) but I feel the advantages well outweigh the disadvantages

 

Unfortunately, this is far from certain, which is one of the reasons that the lack of enthusiasm for the internet in much of this thread makes me quite sad. The internet is the most potentially liberating and empowering technological development that this planet's ever seen. And people are apathetic about it. If you haven't got enthusiasm for the internet, you haven't got enthusiasm for life. Make use of this tool before it's taken from you. Big business would very much like to see a locked-down version of the internet developed around digital rights technology that prevents the distribution of media rather than enabling it. If they have their way, the future of the internet will simply be as a platform for delivering rights-protected consumer content such as video and music. It'll be castrated to the point where it's no longer about exchanging information, but simply about being sold things. Don't think it'll happen? The first major step is the release of Sony's Cell chip today. This technology is going to be levered into millions of homes in the form of the PS3. This chip is specifically designed to control access, not enable it. And it's got the potential to be the cornerstone of the next-generation digital network.

The only way the internet will survive in its current form is if people use it and fight any watering down of its functionality. The internet depends on a global data network to survive, and it will survive only so long as that network is contructed around the free distribution of data. That can change. Value what you have before you lose it.