So my roommate didn't pay the cable bill, and they turned us off late Friday night, and I am without internet at home until Thursday at the earliest.

By mid Saturday, I realized exactly how dependent I am on the internet, and just how much of my free time is spent on it. A frightening revelation to be sure.

It's not so much the interactive aspect, such as this and other message boards I frequent that were so noticably absent, but the little things. For instance, I was watching a dvd, and couldn't quite place an actor in the movie. This was starting to irritate me, and so I normally would have pulled up the movie in IMDB and solved that nagging problem, but alas...couldn't do it.

I usually wake up in the morning, turn on the computer and let it boot up while I shower and shave, and then check a few things, my bank account, the weather, my email, my Myspace, and then I usually pop in here to see what you crazy kids have been up to. Again...couldn't do it.

I am finding it increasingly frustrating.

I of course have internet access here at work where I spend way too much time talking to you guys and not concentrating on the job at hand, but it is limited. I can't check email here, nor can I check myspace, or several other sites I normally visit (even the clean ones).

Anyway. That's my sad story for this rainy Monday morning.

Agreed. Two things about this to me. When looking for services in my area, I never use the Yellow Pages anymore. I always do an online search and feel very handicapped when I don't have access. Second, I am amazed how much my kids use the Inter Net now and the fact that my son who is 3, will grow up never knowing what it was like without the Inter Net, or cell phones.

Sometime I try to imagine what it's like to be in the age range of my Grandmother who is in her mid to late 80's. She's seen everything from world war, to landing on the moon, to bank machines, to microwave "ovens" to the Inter Net!

Granddad, did they have cloned human meat when you were a kid?

I agree, but include playing internet p oker in the equation at nite after work. I left my lap top power cord at work, and had a total of 5 hours online this weekend.

It was a drag.

Had to talk to my family, and watch DVDs on the TV instead of the lap top.

boo hoo.


T

I don't think there's anything wrong with getting used to a certain level of convenience or comfort or technology in your life. That's not a dependency, it's not "weak", it's the fruits of human progress and your own personal progress. We should always expect more, desire more, demand more ~ that's how we keep pushing forward. Weakness is the deliberate avoidance of assets and comforts in order to prove a worthless point in some macho game of chicken with Hemingway apologists. Dependence is having to work the land from dawn to dusk and never having the free time to think higher thoughts than basic survival.

Chris, you miss it because you're not a Luddite. That's a GOOD thing!

Thank you Linda.

I am decidedly not a Luddite.

I am in fact a bit of a technophile.

I was just grousing about the overall inconveinience factor. I mean, having to step outside to check the weather? Terribly annoying.

I agree. It's barbaric.

Sing it, brutha!

Many are the time I have said to myself, “Hey, I can save $40, $50 a month if I cancel the Internet at home and only use it at work.” But I’ll be damned if I can ever pull that trigger, and for the same reasons. Access to virtually anything I need to know is right there. I check on store hours before leaving the house, browse restaurant menus for take out, look up information on movies I want to see, rend DVDs, download free stuff, read game reviews, make travel plans, get music, check the news, and on and on and on and on. Spur of the moment stuff, just like you mention. You’re watching TV or having a conversation, something comes up, click click click, answered. Detailed stuff, too, like booking hotel rooms, buying tickets to a ballgame, and whatever else.

I’m wired up and down and all around, and while I sometimes feel like I’ll feel liberated if I let it all go … never gonna happen.

I've gone without internet/cable for months at a time. As someone who can get bored very quickly I like having access to a lot of information or entertainment. When I have been away from the 'net I find I go through my dvds more. Read more. And just make the best of it. I prefer having internet around. It makes for a better day. But knowing my past experiences I can make the best of it if I should decide to step back into the 20th century for awhile instead of remaining fully plugged into the 21st.

My one major complaint/concern about the Internet is that it makes me less productive in other areas. It's far, far too easy to kill time online. Other people flip channels on TV; I flip websites. And I should do less of that.

My downfall as well.

Not to mention all that porn. I mean tons and tons of it. I keep trying to catch up, but I am hopelessly behind. It's like the Supey Woopey thread really.

Last vacation I took, I brought my laptop with me ... but like a total dolt, I didn't bring a power supply. No battery, no plug, so I went without.

Best mistake I ever made. I spent a week with no TV, no computer, just books and beaches. Super relaxing. I came back feeling great.

My honeymoon was the same. We went to a mountain retreat for five days. No TVs in the place, no radios, no computers, just a gorgeous mountain lake, food, and peace.

If we go away with the kids, I make a point of always bringing the laptop. They can watch a dvd on it in the van or at the hotel during down time, and I can use it to read or (if there's free wireless) play online after they're in bed. If it's just the two of us, all technology except one cell phone stays home. We have a much better time because of it.

It's funny how some equate being on line with time wasting. To me, just about anything I do online, including searches on random subjects, is more fulfilling than, say, watching an episode of Family Matters (a k a Urkel).

Agreed, James. I can do loads of things while others might say I didn't do anything but "sit in front of the computer".
Read the news
watch a movie or tv show
play a game
interact with others on a forum
Basically 5 different things, but because it's a few hours on the computer it's "wasting time" to some.

I'm on the computer all day, both for work and leisure, and to me it often feels like wasting time. 'Cause it kind of is; I'm avoiding doing the things I "should" be doing on the computer. That "should" being self-imposed, of course, but that doesn't change how I feel.

If I haven't produced anything during my PC time, I sometimes feel I should have better used that time -- even if I had some enjoyable downtime, interacted with cool people, downloaded great stuff, or whatever. If I'm not writing something or creating some music, I always feel like maybe I should be using my PC time better. I've been on the computer for two hours and don't have a new song, or a new mix on an old song, or some writing done, or some query letters written? Enter: Guilt.

And because I'm a bad, bad procrastinator, this stuff often springs to mind.

The internet and IMWAN is helping me get through being home with a broken elbow.

See, I figure I do enough to justify the goofing off time. At work I support 200 users and 50 servers, at home I help out around the house, with the kids, dinner, etc. By the time I sit down at the computer, I've already done loads of stuff. Could I do more, maybe get back into learning guitar, writing, or drawing? Sure, but while those things interest me, and I'm not bad at two of them (suck at guitar), I'm just not driven enough to do it. Even if I didn't have the "distraction" of the internet or the latest game, I still wouldn't do it. I'd read or something.