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Has the web made you unsocial?
Personally I think I have taken it too far and need to get a life before I crack up.
The problem is, what sort of life do I want?
The web has best of everything, like the following examples will show (imo)
Holiday aka Vacation
holiday over, I either liked or disliked it, and can tell people everything "you" could, if you had spent £3,000 going there.
Love/Romance
romance/marriage over, dated some stunners, married a weirdo, and got divorced, all in 1 night :)
======
Sure thers lots more, but I really think the web is the end of something never experienced before.
In past centuries, adventure and travel was the name of the game, now its sitting on your fat/cute ass and looking at a screen all day.
Over to you guys and gals...
Shak
...
Besides, I'm still not sure my wife understands they why of it all (like why I'm still here @ WebmasterWorld...).
When the little guys are older, then perhaps there might be some issues.
Though, salsa dancing is something you can't get online - sure I can watch it, but if I can't move like the pros I see, then I still have plenty of work to do.
It gave me back mine.
Once I have enough revenue coming in though, I intend to travel the world for a year, and reconnect with what is outside my home.
I would never be able to take the time for myself that I have planned, if I were working for someone else.
So, for now, the Web has stolen my life. Soon though, it will give me a freedom that I would never have seen.
At least, that's the plan.
I cant wait to get the heck out of dodge and leave it till monday or at least 12 hours. It has its benifits, but its not what I want to talk about in my free time.
I could literally not step outside of the house if I so chose and live quite sufficiently - Our local supermarket will deliver food for £4, I could instruct builders/gardeners to carry out property repairs/maintenance over the fone or by email and I could pay my bills either online or over the fone.
With the net, the fone and the postman (well, people have to bill me somehow!), life as a sad hermit is entirely possible...HEY! Don't knock it, UV pollution kills ;¬)
-You get a tatoo that says "This body best viewed with Netscape 2.01or higher."
-All of your friends have an @ in their names.
-You turn on your intercom when leaving the room so you can hear if new e-mail arrives.
-When looking at a pageful of someone else's links, you notice all of them are already highlighted in purple.
-Your dog has its own home page.
-You can't call your mother...she doesn't have a modem.
-You check your mail. It says "no new messages." So you check it again.
-You wake up at 3 a.m. to go to the bathroom and stop and check your e-mail on the way back to bed.
-You turn off your modem and get this awful empty feeling, like you just pulled the plug on a loved one.
-Your bookmark takes 15 minutes to scroll from top to bottom.
i am a little bitter at the internet because I have to get glasses now from staring at this monitor so long...otherwise we get along swimmingly
So, for now, the Web has stolen my life. Soon though, it will give me a freedom that I would never have seen.
At least, that's the plan.
Exactly the same here.
But I _know_ there is something wrong with that, at least in my case:
0] The drug addicts say something very similar about the ability to change their habits.
1] 'work&suffer now, for a wonderful future in heaven', remember me, too much, some wrong [misunderstood?] points of my catholic education.
But, that said, I prefer a lot to do something related to knowledge/coding/math [that's internet for me] for living, than to obey to some dogbert-styled blind workspace's rules.
Even if that means I'm getting more asocial than years ago.
Even if that means that, when finally I'll go out, I'll have to re-learn some fundamentals of not TCPed communication's protocols.
Maybe we at WebmasterWorld should just build a republic in an area with moderate climate.. :)
[edited by: cminblues at 12:56 am (utc) on July 16, 2003]
The wife has started mowing the lawn for me. I get to hold our daughter while she does that, so it's a neutral trade.
I just noticed the TV has been off for over 3 hours-but I have to attend a meeting tonight (Meetings suck-especially when the majority combined have an IQ of my shoe size....including myself)
Saturdays used to be about work around the house (did I mention my wife has got some new tools?)
I'm starting to think I need another wireless to take with me in the boat...
Let's see, what else?
I still haven't done my taxes-and I expect a huge refund. It took a business trip with NO Internet to go through my receipts gathering on my desk for almost 9 months.
DVD's used to be cool to watch on my computer. Now it blocks my website I'm working on. Bought a DVD player for the TV that's been off for the past three hours. It broke over a month ago-too lazy to return it, never watch DVD's anymore.
I'm still ticked I don't have a cool office chair like the one in Boston at the PubCon.
I am making good on my New Years pledge and programming in php:>) (MySql is next)
My login/password printout no longer fits on one sheet of paper-even with minimal margins.
I turn down work. Too busy to give them a decent rate.
My life? Ummm....see www.mylife.com for details:>)
I like the internet. It enables me to live in the middle of nowhere, yet still have friends with common interests... Try to find somewhere to discuss this kind of stuff in Two Rivers, Alaska.
Heck, I have to explain to people how the last half of a businessperson's email (yes, the bit after the "@") is often the same as their website address. I'd go mad if it weren't for the internet and my friends from WebmasterWorld.
That could be taken as proof that I have no life, but I'll deny it.
-You get a tatoo that says "This body best viewed with Netscape 2.01or higher."
Dunno about that... in my case it would probably read "This body best viewed with Budweiser 6pack or higher." :)
As to whether the internet stole my life?
Yeah.. in a big way. long story. you don't wanna know.
Then I got it back. And realised it wasn't that much chop to start with.
These days 'compromise' is the aim, with a goal of having the best of both worlds.
If you didn't have some kind of offline life going on, you couldn't really be having any children, could you? ;)
I DID turn down an opportunity to fish a tournament in 2 weeks 'cause I need to get caught up on some stuff..
Does that count?
Does that count?
Hmmm... close. It would probably pass if I were a fisherman (or a guy, maybe).
The WEB has even drastically changed my whole communications style and processes. Even if my very own daughter is on the computer using the same home network in the same room, I would far rather communicate with her by AOL/IM than verbally.
My best friend of over 20 years had to notify me by email that she'd gotten married and moved to Northern California because I was always on the internet and she hadn't been able to reach me by phone. I can't even contact her now because I don't have her email address any more and mine's changed.
>>what sort of life do I want?
I've been thinking about that a lot lately.
Great topic, Shak!
The Pubcon events are one of the few times I get to talk face-to-face with people who share the same interests and a similar way of thinking.
Also, my friends now span several continents which broadens my outlook on life and my understanding of the world in general.
Sure my 'real world' social life took a bit of a hit initially, but it is gradually picking up again, but this time based around folks in the industry.
What we need is a pubcon every month - Brett?
;)
(.)
few hours ago I was at the bar, girl was pissed I wouldn't go home with her, now here I sit reading WebmasterWorld, you tell me...
I said the web took away my life, not my brain :)
Shak
Hehe, ironically, leering at the employees probably would have got me in less trouble with my girlfriend. :)
Don't get me wrong-- I have a boyfriend, a family, friends and relatives in the area, a sparse but lively social life in the real world. But I wouldn't have any of those things readily available to me without the Internet.
I communicate with my family almost exclusively through e-mail.
I met my boyfriend through a mutual friend, so I met him in person before I did online. But our courtship was almost entirely online, mostly via e-mail. I knew him for six months before I saw him twice, but I knew him well during those six months.
I have only e-mail contact with my sister, who is an Army lieutenant serving in Iraq.
I have only e-mail contact with my cousins in Norway.
I have only e-mail contact with my best friend, who lives in London. (And only spotty contact at best, there, but that's her fault for never checking her email. Obviously her life is structured differently than mine.)
I set up almost all of my socializing with my friends via e-mail and IM-- "I'll be in town next week, here's my phone #, wanna meet somewhere?" etc.
I have a cellphone with lots of minutes and free long distance and i hardly use the darn thing. I can communicate much more effectively with my mother via e-mail, and we're much less likely to offend one another.
My father is the family's only holdout, because he types so slowly. He's on National Guard exercises in Kansas and getting in touch with him is nearly impossible. But I KNOW he has a military e-mail address and hours sitting at a computer with nothing to do-- if only he thought of email like I do, he'd be much more connected. But he doesn't. His life is also structured differently than mine.
I email websites of photos I took at family events to everyone who was present and everyone who couldn't be present, so everyone can see the pictures and hear the stories.
I think I'm becoming more and more typical-- my way of using the Internet, that is. More and more people are living as I do, using the Internet as an important supplement to life. I live a lot of my life online. I meet very few people online, but I keep in contact with a massive number of my friends that way who I would otherwise lose.
That's not even mentioning all the forum and newsgroup postings. I get all my information from the Web, on everything from pet care to car shopping to where the best grocery stores in the area are. All my music is on my computer, all my photos are on my computer, all my correspondence is on my computer.
So...
The web made my life possible, from the time I was in high school onward. I have email friends I've been corresponding with since 1995. I was only 14 then. This is deeply ingrained in my worldview, and I wouldn't know how to live without Internet access. From the time I was old enough to socialize on my own, it was done on the Internet. Dial-up is hard enough. Now even with a stripped-down, first-job, paying-student-loans budget, I still splurge on my monthly bill for DSL. I would more readily scrimp on food than I would on Internet access, because it's more important to me to be in touch with my online world than it is for me to be fat.
Dave
But the web also forced me to add exercise to my life, least I die walking up a hill some day. I used to unload trucks once in a while, etc.
The web helps me garden better and this year I'm making more time to take care of the property with fewer mis-steps.
The web helped me plan some renovations to my place, which I have now begun doing.
But the web also has me hooked -- I need to FORCE myself to break away and do all those things I mentioned. And in London, I went 5 days without checking email. Never thought I could live through that, but it was completely fine. Lots of spam to delete, but the world did not end.
We are lucky to be living in such an age.
Lots of spam to delete, but the world did not end.
That was my impression too. I'm still a little skeptical though. We might be stuck in limbo without realizing it.
