If it were prior to the World Wide Web and The Internet and Message Boards, what would you be doing with your time?

Spending more time with your family?

Making new friends?

Getting your work done?

I dunno... just was curious. Back when we weren't "online", we had to do something with our time, and I think it involved more family and friends than it does now, and really, more time with ourselves.

It's really a little too easy to shut out our world and come online to make connections.

Just wondering... I'm not saying that making connections and friends online are a bad thing, or that posting on a message board is bad... all I'm wondering is if it didn't exist, how would your life be and what would you be doing instead?

My apartment would be cleaner. lol.

Oh, and I'd spend more time on the phone. I used to spend hours on the phone. I've even watched tv over the phone with another friend for hours who was only, like, 6 blocks away from me.

Iam part of the generation that didn't first experienced the internet until high school. Now kids get it at 5 in schools or home.


How times change

But Iam glad I didn't even know of the internet until around 14 (and even then I didn't bother with it).

Iam on here only when bored (which is usually after a night out with my girl or mates).

So instead of doing that I'd proberly be watching some dodgy late night movie

For me, two years ago all I had were message boards. It got me through some very rough, personal times, but it also became so addictive that it kept me from my family and friends.

Once I moved onto a different stage in my life, I moved away from online communities and focused more on what was in front of me, in my everyday life, including my children, my friends, my ex and my current.

For me, it was a difficult adjustment, at first, but after I was finished with medical treatments, I realized what was important, to myself and for me, and shyed (sp?) a way a bit from being online so much, especially on the message boards, the org, really, being the major one.

I have two wonderful friends that I have met on the org, but I do know that my marriage suffered (it was suffering anyway, but escaping online didn't help matters and, to me, was the cowards way out) and my children suffered, at times, because of my escaping here.

CarrieMpls said:

I used to do that with a girlfriend of mine! It used to drive my husband crazy because she lived directly above us! Often times, we'd just sit there, in silence, with the phone to our ear!

I miss that.

thesexofit said:

I'm happy, too, that the internet wasn't around until later in my life.

I was just thinking, earlier, how the internet has altered my life, in good ways and bad ways. And then wondering, when I'm bored, if it weren't available what would I be doing when bored? Certainly doing something active other than forming secretary's butt!

AzureStarr said:

heh

Then you played Tic Tac Toe with me and things were never the same.

I wonder if people said similar things back when the telephone was first invented and in wide use??...

"Before the telephone, people used to actually talk face to face...we'd leave our homes to actually be physically with other people. Now, we're all disembodied voices, becoming too lazy to walk across the street. We'd rather call our neighbor to see if they're home than walk a block to do so in person. The telephone is keeping us secluded in our homes, disconnecting us from one another..."

I'd be an ass in real life instead of online.

I 2 am a victim of Onlinitus!!

I never realized how life altering being online could b and IS in my life!! It almost caused my husband and I 2 divorce, it literally dragged me away from my Faith and has in some ways prevented me from returning back 2 it(Jehovahs Witnesses), mainly because being online now has become an addiction that I cant break!! I am more involved in "life" on here than I am in real life!!! I have more online "freinds" than I have real life ones!!!

And I echo Carries sentiments in that my place will b cleaner and more tidier if I wasnt online!!!

Yet, on the other side of the coin, the internet, like the phone, has become an integral part of life now. U need both tools now in order 2 do things like pay bills, find and apply for jobs, look for places 2 live, because it seems u cant do any of those things the old-fashioned way anymore(In the UK years ago, u could go 2 the Gas and Electricity showrooms in the High or Main street of your local town to pay bills which was much more simple!!)!! Now when u receive bills in the mail u have 2 call the people up on the phone and pay them using your credit or debit card because firms now are so paranoid about getting their money!!!! Whenever my husband and I find jobs in newspapers and we call the places up(ON THE PHONE), they always say "Can u EMAIL us with your CV??" Or I call in a store or something when I see Vacancy Wanted ads in the shop windows and I enquire about the position I get handed a website address and I have 2 apply online for it!! What is wrong with handing an application form 2 me from a desk drawer?????

Life has completely altered in the last 10 years!!

Gold319 said:

So you admit you live in your own little fantasy world YET you still continue to spout your rancid opinions and expect everyone to believe they are the truth!!!!!

Gold319 said:

Firstly..since when have you ever applied for a job
Secondly I am sure if you explain you do not have email they will send you an application form in the post...I guess it saves on the environment as I would simply throw yours in the bin..your a liability!