After my incident of losing my Internet modem for a few days it got me to wondering if we are now dependent on the Internet. It seems like there is so much that is done online these days. Yes we can do recreational things like go to social media websites to interact with others. We can also stream TV and Movies online. However, the Internet has taken over our lives in other ways as well. We can now do business online, we can run a business online, we can work online by doing what is call telecommuting. We can even go to school online and pay bills online. In other words it seems as if thanks to the Internet we don't have to leave our homes to interact with the world and all aspects of it. But what happens when we have no Internet connection. Not only do we lose that contact but we can feel like we have lost something that is essential to our livelihood. The irony though is a few decades back there was no Internet or there was an Internet but it wasn't allowed to take over so many aspects of our lives. Now it would seem to losing the Internet can cause us more issues then ever before. So, the question is are we dependent on the Internet? In my opinion I would have to say yes we are and it not just people who are dependent its society on a whole that is dependent on it..
I pay my bills online, keep up with breaking news and use the Internet to find out more about a lot of things that interest me. If I were to lose my Internet connection I would be still able to do all of those things offline. However, without access to the Internet I would not be able to work and would not get paid. As a freelance content writer I rely totally on the Internet for my income. I have had days and when my Internet service has been down, but as long as I don't have a deadline to meet I don't need to panic. I know it will soon be resolved by the service provider, so I just take a day off instead.
I also earn money working online and would hate to see it go away. I do like to have Netflix and Hulu available online. I also use VOIP as a backup phone system.
I suppose I use the internet sometime as though I am addicted but I think not. Should I lose it and I hope I don't, I would merely switch to another form of self fulfillment
Younger generations are. As long as it hasn't changes completely, I remember how to use the Dewey decimal system. I can also look up recipes in cook books, and read a paper map. People don't need to know that stuff anymore. If the Internet went out right this moment, world wide, all of us that grew up decades go will be the only ones who know how to survive... Or at least find a book that can tell us what we should do.
I agree with Jennifer, except for the part about they don't need that stuff anymore. They are not even teaching the younger generation to read, write, spell or do math. They are dependent on calculators, spell check, and Google. They are not learning to use their brains. As for me, ~~~ why, no.~~~~~ I can get along perfectly without the internet~~~~~~~ for a little while at a time.
When we moved into our house last year, it was two looong weeks before they transferred our internet service. It was rough for the first week or so (we didn't have cable either), but honestly, we began to adjust after awhile and just looked for other things to do. I hope we never lose the internet, but I think my family could learn to live without it if we had to.
I would miss the internet terribly if we lost it. Since my two sons live out in the Pacific Northwest (Washington and Idaho), I don't get to actually see them anymore. With my ipad, we can talk and see each other, and it is the next best thing to actually being there. Last summer, Michael took me on a "tour" of his yard and garden, and it was almost like I was there and walking around with him as we admired the tomatoes, squash and all of the pretty flowers. Google is my total "encyclopedia of everything". If I wonder where we got some old saying, or how to make something, I just look it up on google, and usually watch a how-to video on Youtube. I also earn a little extra money online, so I would miss it if that were gone, too. And now, I am even doing more and more of my shopping online, andAmazon and eBay seem to be my favorite go-to shopping places. Of course, Lowes is still my all-time favorite place, and that is not one of the places where i shop online. Got to see all of those plants and flowers in person !
Definitely. Even if we (the people on this forum) are fully dependent on the Internet, society nowadays is obsessed with it, and if it would disappear, then not only would a lot of people be completely destroyed, but also a lot of businesses would fail, given that many companies are online-based or are dependent on various cloud services for file storage.
Yes is my answer to the thread title. I can see young people being addicted to social media and if not, they are addicted in interactive games. The advent of the mobile gadget heightened the reliance of people to the internet. Who is getting tabs of the spelling of words? Just rely on Google and there's no problem. So what happens when the internet is down? People explode. I am predicting that someday people will be totally dependent not just on the internet but on the mobile gadget - smart phone of tablets. With the emergence of the apps, it would be controlling our daily activities and make us like slaves of technology.
My daughter brought our grandchildren, and stayed with us for a few days last week. I don't think the kids went more than five minutes without one of their tech gadgets or another. We drove from Millinocket to our land in far northern Maine, a couple of hundred miles of beautiful country which I would think might be of interest to someone who has grown up in Fayetteville, North Carolina and Baltimore, Maryland. But they saw none of it, because their attention was riveted to games and whatever else it was that they were doing with their gadgets. Kind of disappointing really, but that's what we have today, I suppose.
To me Internet was so vital as the air we breath, and made me turn almost insane the fact of not having it for some minute first, hour then, and long, long days at some point when I was left without electricity for months several years back. Not having Internet was devastating, kind of the end of the world to me. I discovered then my Internet dependence, and how the web had made forget the basic things we learned first; books and encyclopedias have many answers that otherwise we search for using Google. Takes more time doing it by hand, but there is always a way to research offline, as it is possible to read paper newspapers rather than online editions, and listen to the radio rather than streaming music somewhere online. At least we were taught about the existence of those auxiliary/alternative options to the Internet, but what are the young generations going to do without power supply if they cannot even do basic math operations without a computer or technology gadget? However, and back on topic, while I learned not to be dependent on the Internet, my job is, and I need to be connected if I want to make a buck.
My first computer was connected to the TV and programmed with tape no hard drive. Then much later I got the state of the art 386 and began flying. There was the for runner to the internet called bulletin boards service [ BBS] where you call some ones house and they had their computer connected to the phone line there was programs which allowed you to log in and download anything he offered usually there was either a fee or just upload something to him. It was a slow process but worked. The internet has spoiled everyone and it would be hard to go back to BBS. I love the speed although I always think it is slow. If the internet goes I will never get the chance to say go by so I will do it in advance.