Life without the internet

[speedmaster]

Hey guys,

So I was at my uncles house for the past couple of days, and I noticed that my little cousins would come home from school, open up their laptops (yea spoiled I know) and just hop on their beds, staring at it for hours and hours.

It just made me wonder... I didn't have the internet growing up until about the 4th or 5fth grade, and even that was only dial up lol. When I think about it, life seemed like we had so much time back in the days without internet and all this sophisticated technology. Things were less demanding. We weren't expected to finish as much things in a day. I even remember being outside more. After school I remember, I'd always be outside peddling miles on my bicycle and doing a lot of other fun stuff.

I understand the internet is a valuable tool, and we learn a lot each day by the ability to simply google things. Heck, even supramania is an extremely useful resource.

But sometimes I think the old school way of things were better in some ways. In my experience I have noticed we are generally more lazier and time wasting (e.g. facebook) in this day and age. I'm not ready to completely give up the internet. Its almost impossible to, because everything is so computerized and there's just some stuff we can only get done online. At my university we are pretty much screwed if we can't get access to internet.

Sometimes I just look back at and think about how it would be to live in the 90s again without the internet. Even gas was cheaper back then! LOL

What do you guys think? Is it just me, or are kids these days more lazier and the internet has become the center of their lives?

Have you guys noticed changes in your lives throughout the years?

 

[Kai]

Kids ARE lazier. Even i, the fattest kid around, used to go down the park on my bike and play with bottle rockets!

 

[DreamerTheresa]

I'm personally convinced that this whole lack of exercise/lack of GOING OUTSIDE thing is where all this ADD/ADHD stuff is coming from en masse.

I tend to get S.A.D. (seasonal affective disorder/depression) - but this summer, I had a garden that I tended EVERY day. I never felt the effects of S.A.D. - often, I'd have to go to the tanning bed once a week to make me feel more human. Didn't have to go near it at all this year. And at its worst, in September when the light changes, I wasn't affected.

 

[Supracentral]

Simply put, like anything else, technology can enhance life, or it can eclipse it.

It's all in how, when and why you use it.

The good old days weren't always good either...

 

[speedmaster]

Simply put, like anything else, technology can enhance life, or it can eclipse it.

It's all in how, when and why you use it.

The good old days weren't always good either...

Yea that's true, but I mean, don't you think life is more fast paced and demanding these days because of technology? Whether we use technology such as the internet or not, our society pretty much expects that we keep up with it. Most of us are expected to respond and connect instantly with things like e-mail, cell phones, sms. Privacy as we knew it is almost non-existent. We constantly have to keep our peers updated on what we're doing. Just yesterday I was in a dead zone where my cell phone didn't work, and within that hour I got a couple of text messages and missed calls from people wondering where I was. Some of them knew very well that I was at school.

I also recently read or heard somewhere that more and more people are demanding to have access to the internet at vacation resorts! Of course not everyone does this but from what I've seen and heard, this is true... people still stare at laptops or some sort of iphone like device while they're at an exotic resort or beach. You would think they go on vacation to escape those things! Its sad how they'd rather look at images formed by pixels than immerse their selves in the natural beauty of this world.

 

[SupraMario]

As much as I'm a nerd/geek I've always had the willpower to drop what I'm doing on the PC and go outside. I think most people don't have the willpower to turn off the tv/xbox/pc w/e and go and do something.

 

[iwannadie]

I'm personally convinced that this whole lack of exercise/lack of GOING OUTSIDE thing is where all this ADD/ADHD stuff is coming from en masse.

I could never figure out how a kid who supposedly can't focus on school work because they have ADD/ADHD but they can spend 10 hours straight playing halo. Either the kid can't focus or they can. If they Choose not to focus on homework that's not a disease. I think parents don't want to accept their kid is just lazy so it makes the parents to feel better when you slap on a fancy disease.

 

[7Matt-GE]

i had a whole weekend of no internet/phone it was the greatest thing on the planet.

 

[WeDgE]

I LOVE when I can get away from all the technology. Wish I could force myself to do it more often on my days off and actually get my ass to the gym... :-\

 

[Figit090]

Yea that's true, but I mean, don't you think life is more fast paced and demanding these days because of technology? Whether we use technology such as the internet or not, our society pretty much expects that we keep up with it. Most of us are expected to respond and connect instantly with things like e-mail, cell phones, sms. Privacy as we knew it is almost non-existent. We constantly have to keep our peers updated on what we're doing. Just yesterday I was in a dead zone where my cell phone didn't work, and within that hour I got a couple of text messages and missed calls from people wondering where I was. Some of them knew very well that I was at school.

I also recently read or heard somewhere that more and more people are demanding to have access to the internet at vacation resorts! Of course not everyone does this but from what I've seen and heard, this is true... people still stare at laptops or some sort of iphone like device while they're at an exotic resort or beach. You would think they go on vacation to escape those things! Its sad how they'd rather look at images formed by pixels than immerse their selves in the natural beauty of this world.

I'd say it's ironic to be talking about this on an internet forum but....

It's good to think about.

I agree with you, I have thought about how our society has used technology to "better" itself, while at the same time making that very society more complicated, requiring more and more of our lives being spent on simply learning and adapting to our ever-changing environment. We can't simply accept our world and change as it does, we change it ourselves. We're probably one of the few or only species that does this, yes we have different metal capacities but it's interesting to think if perhaps our ability to reason and invent has given us (as a whole) the inevitability of irreparable damage to our society.

As I've read and heard in the past from other sources, we've only been on this earth for a smidgen of time compared to the reign of other species, and we're already wondering how we can avoid over-population and depletion of natural resources. Who knows the reality of our future, but as a thoughtful species it would be nice if more people thought about it.


In regards to technology, I like it when our power goes out sometimes. It makes things more enjoyable not having technological things complicating life.
The Gods Must Be Crazy - great movie...the introduction of that film talks about how "civilized" man has just made things more complicated, only to spend most of our lives adapting to our complications. It opened my eyes to the idea years and years ago, and stuck with me.

 

[CyFi6]

I think that everyone feels the way they grew up is the proper way. Things are changing at a fast pace, and this generation of kids is going to grow up talking about the good ol days when all you had was a computer and the internet.

 

[ret]

Yea that's true, but I mean, don't you think life is more fast paced and demanding these days because of technology? Whether we use technology such as the internet or not, our society pretty much expects that we keep up with it. Most of us are expected to respond and connect instantly with things like e-mail, cell phones, sms. Privacy as we knew it is almost non-existent. We constantly have to keep our peers updated on what we're doing. Just yesterday I was in a dead zone where my cell phone didn't work, and within that hour I got a couple of text messages and missed calls from people wondering where I was. Some of them knew very well that I was at school.

I also recently read or heard somewhere that more and more people are demanding to have access to the internet at vacation resorts! Of course not everyone does this but from what I've seen and heard, this is true... people still stare at laptops or some sort of iphone like device while they're at an exotic resort or beach. You would think they go on vacation to escape those things! Its sad how they'd rather look at images formed by pixels than immerse their selves in the natural beauty of this world.

I feel like part of life becoming fast paced could just be that we're growing up and more is in fact expected of us, but I'm still a young'n so I could be completely wrong.

As for the latter part of your post, that's just pathetic. :3d_frown:

In regards to technology, I like it when our power goes out sometimes. It makes things more enjoyable not having technological things complicating life.
The Gods Must Be Crazy - great movie...the introduction of that film talks about how "civilized" man has just made things more complicated, only to spend most of our lives adapting to our complications. It opened my eyes to the idea years and years ago, and stuck with me.

Seems like an interesting - and reasonably accurate - concept. While engineers are expected to simplify things, I feel like our professors are encouraging us to make things more difficult at the same time.

As much as I'm a nerd/geek I've always had the willpower to drop what I'm doing on the PC and go outside. I think most people don't have the willpower to turn off the tv/xbox/pc w/e and go and do something.

Same. I only watch 2 or 3 TV series and most of them are only on the air but every so often. I'm not that big of a gamer, I really only play one video game and would still rather be outside. Really my geekiness shines through building/dissecting things.

I think that everyone feels the way they grew up is the proper way. Things are changing at a fast pace, and this generation of kids is going to grow up talking about the good ol days when all you had was a computer and the internet.

Agreed.

 

[RazoE]

Funny part is everyone complains about how the new generation can't do without current technology and all that stuff, yet we're the exact same..

most can say "oh, in my day we had to ride the bus", then your geriatric grandpa remarks with "you stupid kids, I WAS the bus, people would hop on my back," then your ancient great grandmother would tell you she had to catch dinosaurs with nothing but a sardine, which reminds you why you put her in that home in the first place..

but anyway, my point is as technology advances, so does our dependency on it, sure we can do without it, but since we don't have to...then why?

 

[87mk111]

I would agree tha people are TOO dependent on their technology. I work in tech support so I get people calling me all the time about the cable and interne being down and how they dont know what to do without those things. I do like technology, but I also like do other things, usually tinkering/ bulding things or playing music.

 

[Eamon]

Yeah I agree sometimes all this technology can get kind of annoying. Even though I'm only 17 I can't say I remember too much about life without the internet though. One time I was coming home from a party though and my phone was dead and when I got home I had a bunch of texts from my sister saying she was scared. Kind of makes me think anytime I go somewhere people will be worried...

 

[OneJoeZee]

moderation in all things

 

[Jayhall]

I dropped my laptop and smashed the screen. I was computerless for 2 weeks. I was just fine with it. A little annoyed because there was some people I couldnt communicate with ( dont have their phone numbers) but I didnt crack out or anything. Just found other stuff to do. I dont like TV, theres so much garbage on there that just rots your mind so I find I would rather go on the internet, look at information that I find intresting rather than watch some shitty reality tv show about someone elses drama problems. Sorry dont care fuck off with the junk.