Is life better since your personal PC and Internet connection? POLL ADDED.

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Is life better since your personal PC and Internet connection? POLL ADDED.

Posted: 9/16/2009 2:42:17 PM EDT

Are you old enough to remember what life was like before email, Google, and eBay?
Do you think that this vast amount of information at your fingertips is better than sitting on the porch and chatting (in real life) with your neighbors?
Curious.

Posted: 9/16/2009 2:43:32 PM EDT

[#1]

I don't know about "better" but I sure as hell waste a lot of time on the internet.

Posted: 9/16/2009 2:44:16 PM EDT

[#2]

When I first got a PC and the Internet it resulted in a lot of blistering, now just calluses.

Posted: 9/16/2009 2:47:33 PM EDT

[#3]

Quoted:

When I first got a PC and the Internet it resulted in a lot of blistering, now just calluses.

dude ya got to use lube!

Posted: 9/16/2009 2:57:10 PM EDT

[#4]

Absolutely.

Not only that, but my recent iPhone purchase has changed my life in similar ways. I doubt I will ever again be without a mobile internet device of some kind.

Posted: 9/16/2009 3:01:28 PM EDT

[#5]

Yes and no.

Yes because of productivity increases. I can research and book a vacation in mere minutes. I can comparison shop products without leaving my house. I can buy many products and have them shipped to my house.

No because of time lost doing frivolous things. I'm really glad I gave up Internet gaming. [ETA] Also years of not the best posture has related in neck pain/issues for me.

Posted: 9/16/2009 3:03:41 PM EDT

[#6]

Yes. I don't like the people who live around me.

Posted: 9/16/2009 5:03:56 PM EDT

[#7]

Quoted:
Are you old enough to remember what life was like before email, Google, and eBay?
Do you think that this vast amount of information at your fingertips is better than sitting on the porch and chatting (in real life) with your neighbors?
Curious.

It's got up sides and down sides.

I love having all the info, but if there had been any such thing as cell phones when I was a teenager, I'd never have been able to get away with a tenth of the crazy shit I used to do. My parents would have been checking up on me too often.

People too young to remember should think about this: You can't miss what doesn't exist. It was fun growing up without all the stuff we have now.

In a couple of decades you young-uns will begin to understand about that.

Posted: 9/16/2009 5:13:13 PM EDT

[#8]

Sometimes I forget what it was like without all that shit and wonder what i used to do with my time. I'd lose my mind withount my cell now.

Posted: 9/16/2009 5:18:09 PM EDT

[#9]

I have never known life without personal computers in the house - and it's not that I'm that young, but rather that my family has always been "high tech" to a certain degree. My father has worked in the simulation industry (as in computer, not link trainers

) since before I was born. I grew up on Amigas. It actually wasn't until at least '94 or '95 that the Amigas started to really be replaced with MS-DOS and Windows (95 and on) boxes at home. I believe my parents still have the old Amigas packed away someplace.

ETA - Networks galore too. Null-modem with the Amigas to play a little "Corsair vs Zero" LAN action! And did anybody else here use early Mosaic?

Posted: 9/16/2009 5:20:47 PM EDT

[#10]

It's better for now. I can still buy the things I want and not have to pay sales tax.

Posted: 9/16/2009 5:21:43 PM EDT

[#11]

I don't know if it's better or not but I don't know what I did before the internet. I can search for information on anything! You really have to know your sources but if you use judgement it's awesome.

I think I am smarter, but lazier. I am also more anti-social. Web forums gives me as much human interaction as I can stand.

Posted: 9/16/2009 5:22:15 PM EDT

[#12]

1st net connection was back in 1992. Back then it was mainly ftp and newsgroups, not lounging on a forum for an extended amount of time or surfing Wikipedia awakening the ADD in everyone.

I wish you still had to know how to setup tcp/ip and protocol.ini files to get on the internet, would be a lot less retards.

Posted: 9/16/2009 5:23:29 PM EDT

[#13]

I remember dial up with a slip account all hooked up through a 2400 modem.
Yeah, N81, that's the ticket......

Posted: 9/16/2009 5:24:33 PM EDT

[#14]

no because the femlaes i have met through the net have been batshiite crazy!!

Posted: 9/16/2009 5:28:33 PM EDT

[#15]

Yes, I remember, now I have ARFCOM for non-horny times and can score pie so much easier, like ordering a pizza, not having to pay except for liquor. If they don't come to me, delete

!

Posted: 9/16/2009 5:35:56 PM EDT

[#16]

Before being online I spent much more time outdoors, or working out, doing instead of talking, not to mention a lot of time online I argue or debate. that accomplishes nothing in life. But yet I can't seem to do without being online if possible.

eta a goal in my life is to eventually not be online.

Posted: 9/16/2009 5:38:55 PM EDT

[#17]

there was life before the internet?

Posted: 9/16/2009 5:53:50 PM EDT

[#18]

I could easily do without a tv.....my computer...hell no!

Posted: 9/16/2009 6:00:39 PM EDT

[#19]

Quoted:
there was life before the internet?

I guess. Never experienced it, though.

Posted: 9/16/2009 6:08:57 PM EDT

[#20]

Better...yes. It's another tool in the box.

I still chat with neighbors, do things outside, etc.

The internet only takes over your life if you let it do so...

Posted: 9/16/2009 6:12:42 PM EDT

[#21]

Big time waster for me, fun though

Posted: 9/16/2009 6:22:29 PM EDT

[#22]

i'm a bit addicted to the internet, so i think i'd be better off without it. a little more bored, but better off as a person and member of society. oh wait i have no friends, so i'd just be bored.and still not party of society.

Posted: 9/16/2009 6:23:14 PM EDT

[#23]

I am too young to remember anything else.

Posted: 9/16/2009 6:24:53 PM EDT

[#24]

Quoted:
I could easily do without a tv.....my computer...hell no!

This!

Posted: 9/16/2009 6:38:28 PM EDT

[#25]

Too young to know any better.

Posted: 9/16/2009 6:39:47 PM EDT

[#26]

with out the internet I would be stuck with Victoria's Secret catalogs, it would be like middle school all over again.

Posted: 9/16/2009 10:39:52 PM EDT

[#27]

Quoted:
with out the internet I would be stuck with Victoria's Secret catalogs, it would be like middle school all over again.

Sears and Roebucks catalogs, youngling.

Posted: 9/16/2009 11:25:50 PM EDT

[#28]

Of course life is better:

-No more calling down the phone book and then driving around town looking for something (been there done that when I was a teen)...just order on the web for a MUCH cheaper price and have it delivered to you.
-Email.
-The internet has given Americans the ability to unite and share info with people around the world and expose lies and propaganda by the Government by using blogs, just ask Sarah Palin...she tried to take on/battle the internet and it ruined her (you can't defeat the internet!)...maybe her and the remaining old farts in the Republican party will some day join us in this technological world we now live in and they can finally win an election one decade.
-Quick access to endless info on all subjects (repairs, historical fact checking, looking for recipes, discussion forums, etc).
-We can order mags on the internet w/o paying stupid prices for them in a private shop where they think every customer is clueless, and you save gas money...if someone wants to purposely get ripped off due to wanting to "support my dealer" than so be it, but the dealer should at least have a website these days.

Just in the last few years alone the internet has almost completely re-shaped things in most aspects, technology is a beautiful thing.

Posted: 9/17/2009 7:28:38 AM EDT

[#29]

Quoted:

Quoted:

with out the internet I would be stuck with Victoria's Secret catalogs, it would be like middle school all over again.

Sears and Roebucks catalogs, youngling.

JCPenny too

Posted: 9/17/2009 7:30:05 AM EDT

[#30]

In some ways yes (access to information) in a lot of ways, no.

Posted: 9/17/2009 7:32:01 AM EDT

[#31]

Any information I want is at my fingertips... I've learned more useful information about history, government, science, etc... online than I did in school.

I suppose the fact that I don't read about celebrities has something to do with that.

We got the internets when I was 13, but I feel that I can vote because I went internets and PC-less for over a year (when I was reallllly poor). My life sucked then.