The Internet

[shazza]

My friends,

does it not amaze you that we are living in such a globalised culture, able to communicate with many new people all over the globe. It's like the current orbit that controls the way we communicate.

Where would I lives be without the internet? Can you picture or cope in a society that does not have the internet, mobile phones or modern technology?

I myself just can't imagine it, and it just seems so insanely difficult to communicate. What happens if you're lost in the streets of New York and want to find someone, it just seems so frusterating without mobile phones.

I was watching Seinfeld the other month and I began to think just how many episodes would be different and less-funny in today's world, purely because the use of mobile phones.

I don't know how I got onto the internet and mobile phones, but yeah, how has internet/mobile phones changed the way society has become and could you cope in a society pre-digital age?

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

I don't really know if my life would be less or more boring, it's too hard to imagine. Without WWWJDIC I wouldn't have been able to acquire this knowledge in Japanese and without TPM my English would be worse, if we go to facts. I've also got many ideas for drawing and such from the web. And I just love the idea of communicating with Australians, Americans, Austrians, Singaporeans, you everyone!

Now why did I use plural for Austrians...

[MToolen]

I don't think I would ever talk to anybody if I didn't have cell phones or the Internet, real life people included. Then again, I wouldn't be able to plan as many things or know as many people (or occupy my time with TPM, Facebook, and TF2), so it'd probably work itself out. Still, I think it'd be pretty boring. I wouldn't have a tenth of my jokes from webcomics and little to no knowledge of a variety of topics, even though there are some I wish I could unlearn.

[classy_cat18]

Let's see. No TPM, no VGCats, no Angry Video Game Nerd, no 8-bit comic...

...and...

Have to wait...for dubbed Bleach and Naruto...

*screams* NOOOOOO!

[Drago]

I would have to imagine I would be a healthier, yet less cultured person. For one thing, I wouldn't be sitting at the computer pretty much every waking moment that I'm home. But who knows where that energy would go. Probably on my Wii instead.

And lord knows I would have failed a lot of my assignments, having to have actually studied.

[RedStarWarrior]

I met my RL GF on the interweb.

[PancaKe]

Its hard for us to say what the net is like because the net has always been a part of our lives, or at least computers have. We got the first computer in our house when i was 3, so 1992? (gosh that sounds so long ago).

And people who have not had the interent, and then it was introduced can't give an accurate answer either because their usage of the internet is completley differnt to ours. *sigh*

I don't know.

I haven't used a library for study ever. I send like 100 txt a day. Thank you for free messages virgin mobile. If you're on virgin mobile, give me your number. =)

Yeah. <3

[Jeff]

I remember life without the Internet. I was about 10 when we got our first computer back in '94, and even then we didn't have an Internet connection for a while. We got a new computer in '98/'99, and I really didn't have a reason to use the Internet until I got Pokemon Red. Pokemon.com was probably one of the first websites I went on, then I searched for pokemon and found TPM. Before I used the Intenet to get all my pokemon info, I used to buy magazines and guides (I might even still have some old magazines laying around). So, probably the biggest thing the Internet has changed for me is how I get information.

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

I forgot to mention. To be exact, I don't own a computer. I use the one in Kuntoutuskoti to write Japanese material and some TPM replies beforehand and then I go online in Mielikkitalo. I also handwrite some replies beforehand and print topics to read them where I don't have an access to a computer. If you want to know what Kuntoutuskoti and Mielikkitalo are, check the topic "Truth about Mikachu Yukitatsu".

[shazza]

Some older generations in the past couple of years are getting pretty addicted to the internet and seem to not be able to cope without it, as well as our generation.

My dad, who is 59, says he cannot recall how he lived without the internet and mobile phones and isn't aware at all how he was content with the way he previously communicated.

[PancaKe]

I like it when old people are so excited by little internet things.

My dads girlfriend was so amazed when I showed her that I'm on youtube brushing my teeth. She was like "wow oh my goodness thats you! You're on the internet!" I didn't have the heart to tell her my presence had been on the internet for the last seven years.

[mistysakura]

Case study of Ada's day without a mobile phone: Ada accidentally leaves her bag on the bus on the way to a picnic with friends. Panics. Walks to park, borrows a stranger's mobile phone to find out where friends are. Friend arrives, can't lend me her phone, but gives me $5. Ada walks to bus stop to find phone number of bus company, then goes off to find public phone to call bus company. It's Sunday, so no one's staffing the phones. Ada hops onto bus and spends the last of her money buying a ticket while getting the bus depot's direct number off the bus driver, then borrows more strangers' phones for that purpose. the guy at the bus depot asks for my contact number and I go "uh... I don't have one any more." Squee!

Although I barely actually use my phone, hehe. I know people who still don't have mobile phones. *shrug*

[PancaKe]

Oh goodness Ada, what happens next? Did you get your phone back?

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

Well in Finland, there's more than one mobile phone per citizen. And still I know people without one. So some people actually have two or they might have taken the old one to a flea market or simply thrown it away, I don't know what the research is based on. Anyway, Finland has a population of about 5,300,000, and according to Wikipedia, it's on the 111th place. Long distances in less-populated areas, Nokia being a company originated in Finland, and perhaps people's stereotypical quietness when 'talking' face to face, partly explain the frequency.

[shazza]

I feel I know an awful lot about Finland than I did say, a week ago.

[PancaKe]

Its been a recent topic in conversation all over misc. We should pack our bags and move there.

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

I just hope it's not just because I always talk about it.

[PancaKe]

It probably is. Haha. But its not like thats a problem. You should just talk about Australia more.