Be honest. Could you survive without the internet? Could you live without it? Even for a month?

Question

I just realized I can't survive without the web myself. let me tell you, that's one hell of a realization! I grew up long before the web,
and went to actual record stores to find music, real bookstores and libraries for books, got together with real friends for real conversations at real coffeehouses(And STARBUCKS wan't around yet! no $5.00 crappacinos), and had a REAL good time
(couldn't resist that one!).
So, now I find I can't live without the internet, like everyone else.
Not saying its a good or bad thing, but I lived through the whole
transition from no internet to 24/7, can't live without it internet.
I kinda missed the old way. You must admit, pre-internet, things
were quite livable. How can I feel I can't live without something that
didn't even exist most of my life? Here's a hell of a question...If
you eliminated the internet, could people learn do to things the old,
analog, face-to-face way they did before? Or are we past that point now, and stuck with the Web?

Answer 1

I think it is always harder to go back than to go forward. But I can personally survive without it. However it is becoming more and more essential to my working life through the needs of the company's I work for. So it is almost irrelevant whether I can live without it. I am like you born and bred when records were king and books ruled as well. Since I love reading I could find it an easy adjustment to finding what I need via books. Also since I do not download music from the net or movies for that matter, I would have no difficulty buying my music and dvds etc from shops.
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The people who would find it a definite strain would be those who have been born into the technological era of the net and have used it solely for all their knowledge and entertainment needs. They would genuinely suffer and just hate the slow pace and enforced physical needs of actually leaving their own home!
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The net has brought the world to our fingertips. It is an incredibly useful and time saving tool but it also can be a wicked tool. There are nasty viruses and spyware out there and sites full of misleading, disruptive disinformation. Sites that are eager to spread chaos and mayhem as well as corrupting our young. This tool does need to be monitored and it is not at this time being successfully cleansed. In fact the dangerous bits are running out of control it seems.
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So I would say there is justification in an argument to putting careful limitation on children's use of the internet. In this fashion maybe there will still be a need for the 'old fashioned' way of doing things......for some time to come at least. It would be a real shame if we became so isolated in our homes that we neglected to interact face to face with each other.

Answer 2

I could live w/o it. I only got a computer within the last few months, never had one before. It's nice & all, it's a quick way for me to learn about things. But I have a love for books, that I know I will always have. My imagination needs books where I can decide what the characters, etc. look like. But I think in regards to your very last question, we are past the point, and are stuck with the web. Especially the adolescents now, would not know what to do without it in social & educational instances. I 'm just waiting for the day when having the internet screws us over. For example, I feel like one day I will go to the bank & due to an internet crash I will be told I have nothing, with no way of getting it back. Scary.

Answer 3

I couldn't live without the internet either. I think the ones who grew up with it would be totally lost if they had to hand write a letter, put it in an envelope, stick a stamp on it and put it in a mailbox. Then there is the small matter of travelling to a library full of dusty old books and looking up information in an encyclopedia. These kids would have to know how to spell and judging by what I see on the internet, spelling seems to be a dying art. Then there is patience. The younger generation today is so used to getting info so quickly on the internet, they would die of frustration waiting to get it the old fashioned way. I think in time people could learn to live without the internet but I sure wouldn't want to be around the first week of withdrawal.

Answer 4

Could I survive? Yes.. would I be miserable? You friggin bet! I used to live in the suburbs of Chicago, where there WERE bookstores like Borders, etc.. and there was always something to do.... now I live in the middle of nowhere, where our library is hardly ever open, the newspaper comes out after 1pm (and being in a small town, by that time, you basically know the news already), there's no borders.. and the sidewalks basically roll up around 9pm... I function around the internet.. it can always give me something new to do and/or read!
I think most people are like that, because we rely on technology too much now-a-days.... kids are awful spellers because there's spellcheck, people don't use their math skills a lot after school, because there are calculators, etc...... no, we'd have a hell of a time transitioning back to not using the computers and internet like we do now.

Answer 5

the internet. :) with out challenge placed, if the 'internet and international huge internet weren't attainable to me, i might want to no longer have a respectable social existence in any respect....i'm basically way too shy in actual existence to make the kinds of friends offline that I have on line. it is undesirable, once you consider that i'm airborne dirt and dust undesirable to destitute, and am surely in a position to *be* on line courtesy of a) a donated laptop a pal of mine prepared for me to have, and b) a community community lower priced-internet service that helps low-earnings persons to hook up on dial-up. Oh properly...it replaced into both this or air-conditioning, and that i surely want the A/C 3 months of the 365 days, the internet i want 365 days round so I honestly have some actual friends. convinced, i'm lame, bypass ahead, say it. :P

Answer 6

I could survive without it, but my business couldnt. I guess since my business is what supports me then I guess I couldnt survive happily........I would have to go back to work for someone.

I grew up without internet as well. I just think that things would be harder..more complicated without it these days. Then again, maybe we are all just getting lazy.

Answer 7

Very much so. Although I do use it quite often I would still prefer a more simple life when the internet was not available.

Answer 8

Information are best digested through internet but there are a lot of options to get information. Newspapers, mags, television, radio etc. I think i can survive.

Answer 9

I could live without it. Don't do much on it anyway... other than to play around on Q&A. I do very little research on it, and rarely if ever shop on it. Hubby would probably die without it, he orders a lot of baseball and starwars cards, but I'd live just fine without it.

Answer 10

I confess. I sometimes get addicted to the Internet. There are just so much to see. My recent addiction is to watch video clips that other people upload to other websites. They are just fun to watch.