I can’t remember what I used to do with my time before the Internet. As soon as my parents got dial-up Internet on our Windows 95 computer, I was hooked.
I was around 13 at the time and we used the Internet to send free text messages (these used to cost 30p from your phone!), download ringtones and mess around on chatrooms.
As I’ve grown, so has the Internet. It’s no longer a tool to Ask Jeeves silly questions and troll Freeserve chatrooms. It’s a part of every day life. To the point as I don’t know what I would do without the Internet.
Here’s a list of the things I do online, that I used to do with like, real objects and talking to people and other gross stuff like that.
#BroadbandAndMe:
- Whatsapp my friends on Whatsapp Web.
- Message my Mum on Facebook messenger.
- Order takeaways.
- Book tables for restaurants.
- Check the weather and news.
- Pay my credit card.
- Transfer money.
- Find recipes to cook from.
- Order Christmas presents.
- Sort my car insurance.
- Check what’s on TV.
- Look at cinema times.
- Send birthday cards.
- Watch Netflix.
- Book concert tickets.
- Make friends.
- Check bus/train times.
- Book holidays.
- Order a taxi.
Basically, my life used to be like this:
I’d check teletext for what was on the TV now and next. I’d then check the cinema times in the newspaper and go around to my friends house, knock on her door and as her mum if I could talk to her. We would get the bus into town by knowing how often the buses come and buy presents and a card for Father’s day . I would go to the bank to deposit a cheque in. We would go to the cinema, then come back home by getting a taxi from the near by taxi rank. When we got home, we would meet our other friends at a time we had arranged three days ago and order a takeaway. We would call from mums landline and order what we wanted, then go and pick it up after half an hour. We would then crowd around a tiny TV in my bedroom and watch Scream on VHS. My friends would have to be home by the time it got dark. Then I’d read a book and go to bed.
That’s a million miles away from life in 2017. Everything is done over an iPhone app or the Internet.
Even at work, I am lost without the Internet. I have work email on my phone, I have an app on my iPhone that I can order stock on and another app where I can contact lots of other colleagues to share information and advice. Thankfully there are services such as TalkTalk Business that make it easy for companies to get Internet for their employees. I’d be upset if my work didn’t have wifi!
It’s hard to tell if we have more time now because the Internet makes things easier, or we have less time because we are trying to cram so much more in and do so many thing at once.
I would say I’m heavily reliant on the Internet – to the point where I wouldn’t go on holiday to somewhere that doesn’t have wifi. That is a bit sad, really, isn’t it? That we’re so afraid of not being able to connect.
Can you cope without the internet?
I’ve been using internet since I was a teenager too and now is such a big part of my life: personal life and work too. It’s scary how important internet is in our lives.
That ‘my life used to be like this’ section was scarily similar to mine – in fact every single part was something I used to do! Ohhh the days of watching Scream on VHS (I would actually be too much of a wuss to watch it now I think haha). That seems a world away now because the internet is so completely a part of my life; not having it would make my day to day life look very different to what it does now.
Sophie xxx | Sophar So Good
I think 99% of us will be lost without the internet, myself included but on the other hand, it’s always refreshing when I take a break from the online world and just send time outside. I guess we just need to know how to balance everything.
You just summed up my childhood! I remember dial-up internet; that horrible noise it made as it connected, and having to get off the internet every time somebody wanted to use the phone. Haha! I definitely couldn’t live without the internet now; I tried it once and it sucked. Never again.
What did we all do before, you know you have life a changing development when no one can imagine their life before or what they would do it the internet went down Lucy x
So I am exactly like this – I cant imagine being without wifi either. Till I went to Cuba! Internet there is painful to access at best – almost impossible. But it was a fantastic experience. We had long conversations, took pictures we didn’t post on social media and generally enjoyed the moment. It was a detox which we enjoyed.
First of all I really enjoy traveling without data. It makes it so that you are more present. You spend your time preparing in the hotel room but then when you’re out and about you have to rely on the information you have or talk to strangers. It’s wonderful.
Also you forgot to mention chat with the Death Eaters. Guess we are not that important to you after all.
It’s weird, I’ve been using t’internet since I was about 13, when our family first got an Atari back in 1990something – with AOL. I use the web for a ton of stuff but I can, and have, done without it (on the whole) when on holiday. When you live somewhere which literally only got 4G a couple of months ago and things like JustEat or Uber aren’t practical (ie: there are no service providers for them) I think it’s easier to adjust…. it is definitely harder to disconnect from the net when you are a blogger though.
I was 6th form before the internet kind of kicked in, and even at uni it was white on black emails and slow internet. We didn’t have internet at home when I house shared until I pretty much moved in with my now husband, although my mum did have it. If I wanted to do stuff online I used to go to the Virgin music shop to use theirs or the library.
I’m the same, I prefer to go somewhere with wifi, although when camping we made do with 4G on phones. It is scary how much we rely on it when we don’t have it though.