• silverwhisper said on Feb 12, 2007....

  jeez...what's my favorite thing? i think it's the diversity of information that's out there, more than anything else. there are so many useful tools, like babelfish, and news sites, like slashdot and fark.
  
  and hey, asking questions is invariably a good thing, IMHO.
  
  ed

• wombat said on Feb 12, 2007....

  Right now, I guess finding SC has been my favorite thing on the net.  But I also like having info at my fingertips on whatever subject comes up--or the fun of looking for it.  I love Nasa and Hubble photos, getting the news here, even if my tv is on, and learning about other cultures.  I was also hooked on Live Web Cams for awhile--my nosiness at play again!
   
  What was it like before?  Encyclopedia Brittanica--if you were lucky!  My mom still has a set of World Books that I cut my teeth on.  I devoured them one by one and over and over--by the age of ten.

• gingersoul said on Feb 12, 2007....

  Just......you are like me...lol..i am always asking questions......its a sign of an active and curious mind......if you ask me...:-)

  As they say: there is no such a thing like a stupid question....lol..  

  Said so..i love your post because i too try to imagine often how my life woudl be without internet......two words: living hell....

  I have been a late bloomer.....as in almost everything in my life so i had my first personal computer only 11 years ago... after i moved here in Usa...

  Naturally i was already using a computer for work...but i am talking about a comp only for my personal interests. I remember i got my first account with AOL and i had dial up connection...sooooooo sloooooow.......it would take me hours to get connected ...

  But i got hooked immediately....i was so fascinated by all that endless possibilities opening in front of me...i was scared to touch the wrong buttom..lol..so eager to see and read everything.....it was amazing..

  then i discovered the magic worlds of emails..my Italian friends and my family became only close just with one click...I then ventured in my first chat rooms..another world opened up.. ..LOL..

  You want to know how  was before...ok, letters to friends would require you to wait days before arriving. The only quick contact was the phone. A home phone, not a cell. So you needed to be at home at specific time in order to be found by your friends and find who you wanted to talk to.

  Researches of any kind  were longer and more difficult: you were obligated to go to a library, a school library, a bookstore or buy a book. You had to rely only in limited source of informations. Magazines, newspapers, tv news or alternative publications were your sources. I remember i had to take a train many times to go to another city and find more furnished bookstores.

  On the human relationship side....i think internet does really connects people more and better. Before you would easily feel more lonely and isolated or believing you were alone with your ideas and beliefs. Maybe internet has stolen us of some belief of uniqueness.....i mean, i was the coolest in my circle of friends...then i discovered there were thousands of sites where people was sharing many of my tastes, choices in movies, music, books, ideals...

  What i would miss the most would be on thing: speedness.

  I am in touch with my friends and my family with a blink of an eye,  i can see pixs of people and places that before would have required weeks, digital camera are a extraordinary invention..my mom can see any signle day how her granddauther is changing ...before internet she would have seen her only once a year...

  For me i am totally helplessly addicted to internet and i am happy to have this tool: life woudl be a lot more lonely, difficult and unilateral....i would even write this way too long post to you...LOL  

   

• mom said on Feb 13, 2007....

  I used to write more letters, went to the library more, watch more tv.  I like the easy communication that the PC brought.  I also used to play a lot of nintendo games.

• justop26 said on Feb 21, 2007....

  ed: Yes! I forgot about BabelFish! I use it a lot, and it's great because it lets me read stuff I would otherwise never understand.
  
  wombat: Oh yes, Encyclopedias! I think I still have a couple of those lying around... each costing $150+! What a robbery now that we all have Wikipedia! And yes, SC is really a great tool.
  
  gingersoul: Wow, girl, you really love the Internet! :P I also think it would be a lot harder for me if I didn't have my PC and access to the Internet. I can count the times I went to the library: two. And I found almost nothing. I also feel that this big web puts all of the info and people we want at our fingertips. It's amazing! One of the things I really like is being able to communicate with people in other countries, just like you and your mom!
  
  mom: I supposse now you do all of that through the PC. Nice. Seems like the PC helped unify tasks in only one device.
  
  Thank you all for reading and replying! :D

Comment on "Life Before the Big Web: Was it really life?"

Currently tagged	information computer internet influence computers lifestyle (Click to add tags below)
Tag this post	(Separate tags using commas, for example: New York, dating, vegetarian)
Your comment
	Comment Anonymously