Last updated on July 29, 2021
Oh, my dear internet! Thank you for making my life easier! Telephone books, street maps, encyclopedias, DVDs, and postcards have disappeared. Gone are the days when a TV station asked me to sit in front of the television at 8 p.m. sharp, now I am getting fed the news by headlines faster than I can digest them. Gone are the times when program makers teased me about having to wait a week for my favorite series to continue. Today I decide what, when and where I watch. With the help of my phone, or tablet I could even binge-watch sitting on our storage shed – just in case I ever feel like it.
Gone is the wandering around in strange cities with a travel guide in one hand, and the crumpled city map in the other. Now I have a GPS system with me at all times, and different apps will keep me informed where the action is. No matter if I look for restaurants, juice bars, the best beaches, or delicious ice cream. Wherever it might be, I will find it and I won’t be forced to talk to the strangers who actually live there.
No more arguing with the bus driver whether or not I can pay for my short distance trip with a twenty. Today, I just quietly hold up my phone in front of the scanner -and instead of change, I get a detailed timetable of every stop.
The list goes on and on. Family and friends are now being updated via Facebook or similar social media pages, and families and friends organize their reunions using a smartphone calendar. Friends keep themselves up to date via social networks, even a picture of the cheesecake we just indulged for lunch can’t be missed. Our bosses can always be reached by email, and I get everything I need delivered right to my doorsteps. We eat out at home. You can’t beat that!
Whatever my heart desires, seems to be only a click away. I don’t have to call my doctor but make an appointment online. I asked for a refill of my prescription online, and we share the daily load of photos we take on sites like Instagram.
Admittedly, I spend a lot of time in front of the laptop, check my cell phone too often and probably some internet companies now know everything there is to know about me. Why deal with the real world, if I can live online so easily?
Living online is easier and more comfortable in my opinion. I am more independent of time and place – and it gives me more opportunities and freedom than a life without the world wide web.
Our online lives are beautiful. We share how we want people to see us. Marriages are happy, the houses are clean and kids and dogs are well-behaved. No tears, no frowning, nothing negative and if we do share something negative, it better be funny and entertaining. We want everlasting sunshine and rainbows -without the rain. We are all happy, happy, happy.
Online I can share my I KNOW IT ALL, and be who I always wanted to be.
But…it comes with a price.
Nobody denies the practical benefits of all the uses the Internet has to offer. We should just see to it that we can still survive without it. Am I still able to fix my bike without watching a YouTube video? And would I still be a good cook without knowing about the mind-blowing breakfast from the Koreas street vendor?
Sometimes I wonder, would I be better off without the internet? Nowadays a hypothetical question with the only possible answer: No.
Would I have more peace without the Internet? Yes.
Would I be less rushed? Yes.
Would I know less? No. Wait…..let me change it to probably No.
On average, we check our cell phones 88 times a day. If it’s just for a minute, that’s 1 1/2 hours. The constant availability and social media has changed us more than we want to admit.
We text and don’t talk.
It almost seems we have to post to exist. People worry if they don’t post daily on their blog what would happen to their blog? We have an audience and they need to be fed. But how often?
Social media works with constant confirmation, we have to post TO BE.
Our self-image depends on the reaction of others. Narcissistic behavior increases, empathy decreases, paranoia is in full bloom.
By using the new technology, we change our perception. We have been trained for short news, but if we only process information superficially, intellectual abilities also decline. We are strongly guided by bold, emotional content on the web that confirms our opinion. We look for solutions without thinking, we just ask Doctor Google or Alexa. By using GPS, the area of the brain that is responsible for orientation becomes smaller. Have we gotten lost without knowing it yet?
Personally, I believe the internet has the potential to endanger democracy – as I live and understand it. Lies are still lies, but nowadays they spread like a wildfire. We don’t have opinions anymore, we have taken a side.
To a large extent, the Internet appears as a Chimera, the fire-breathing female monster in Greek mythology with a lion’s head, a goat’s body, and a serpent’s tail. Profit above, populism in the middle and porn and crime below. 30 years after its invention, we can say goodbye to the idea that the only algorithms in the world would work on the Internet to make people and their lives better.
Every year I take an internet break. This year, to my surprise, it was hard. I communicate with my customers online. I send my quotes, suggestions, and invoices online. We pay all our bills online. How could I even think about limiting my online time to one hour? The truth? It was hard and the first days I felt like a lost puppy but I managed, and I got used to it. A reminder of how quickly we can adjust to whatever life throws at us -even if I am the one throwing the curveball myself.
Without the Internet, more restrictions to fewer things would inevitably become more important again. Conversations, for example. I believe without the Internet, there would be less uncertainty and less fear.
But without the internet there would also be fewer opportunities to break the boundaries. And therefore also a lot less future. A future with risks, or without?
Sometimes I am glad I am older! I don’t envy the young generations. They have a fight on their hands that they know nothing about it -yet.
They will have to find a way to keep us human! Perhaps that’s the biggest challenge they will ever have to face.
(What? I have to be kind? Where did I find that?
I feel very bad about leaving the world in such a mess for my children to clean up. I just hope they have the fortitude and foresight for the job. It will probably require a middle of the road approach and a lot of compromises to even get close. Oh, wait, am I talking about our country right now? Think about it!
I don’t envy the young generation at all, as a matter of fact, I just recently said that I am glad to be older now. I don’t like the mess we have created. I can only imagine how harshly we will be judged in history books all over the world in 20, 40 or 100 years.
As a student of history perhaps the only solace our generation might have is that we won’t be the first to have done a lot of selfish harm, though perhaps not with as many existential consequences on the planet as ours have done. Maybe it’s also a bit of solace that the damage didn’t start with our generation and possibly our generation may have been the first to realize how bad things have become. Unfortunately, that didn’t stop most of us from continuing our wicked ways and if anything the few changes we did make have only slowed it down a little. I too wish I could feel better about the future
It seems we all feel the same way and it see it clearer now with age. Perhaps a form of regret because most of us didn’t do anything when were younger.
Good piece
This post spoke to me. Thank you
Thank you for reading it. 🙂
Very thoughtful piece, Bridget. I think you’ve really outlined the dilemma we all hold in tension. I can’t imagine giving up the convenience aspect of our “well connected” life, but we’ve lost a lot, too. You’ve touched on some points that really do trip me up sometimes. Balance isn’t always easy to find. Very nicely profiled!
Thank you for such an extremely well-written, thoughtfully provocative post.
Just simply outstanding.
I had a bit of an ‘ambition moment’ some months ago and tried to express some of the feelings and musings and thoughts you have so eloquently put down here.
(Note to self: “Self, next time you think you have some profound sh*# to say, put some real work and effort into it; don’t cop out.”)
What I am trying (and probably failing) to say is that I am jealous!
YOUR post says everything I wanted MY post to say!
And of course, I am joking – about the jealous part – once again,
Great Job.
Bravo!
Oh…
Here is mine below.
Be kind.
Cheers,
–Lance
https://texantales.com/2020/10/21/the-good-old-days-are-right-now/
I am glad you liked my post and I flattered that you found it thought-provoking.
(Trying to be kind, but people make it damn hard.)
Bridget
Yeah, it’s kind of a ‘work in progress’ for me too. Hahaha
Love this! I remember all of uni day and grad school days, with the library card catalogue system. The library had six floors. Because of this, I will always love google.
Very thought provoking Bridget!
I know, I can’t help it. 🙂
I think that as long as you use it for good, then it is good. Once you use it to front, then it’s not as good. I don’t post pictures of my house because it’s rarely clean enough to post. I don’t post my perfect children because I never had any. I don’t post my perfectly behaved pets because I don’t have any — and if I did, I wouldn’y post pictures of them being good because they never are. And honestly, food doesn’t last long enough for me to take pictures of because I’M HUNGRY! I post because I want to. Not for any other reason. I don’t get the rest of it — I am also the only person I know that doesn’t have any social media outside of WP, which I got before Social Media was a thing. But if I didn’t have google, I’d probably go crazy. I still struggle to remember what I need to remember, but I add to my knowledge. I don’t just use it to answe3r a specific question so that I don’t have to think. l also try to remember phone numbers without the use of the phone book (oh, all my numbers are in the phone book, but I try to actually remember the important numbers in case…. in case of I don’t know what becasue there’s no payphones anymore. But I remember the top 10 numbers that I need to. But GPS is awesome when I’m trying to find the restaurant everyone’s talking about but I can’t find it. But I never use GPS when I’m traveling. You get a better picture of where you are with a real life map. If you can’t figure it out, you can ask (by the way that one image, the young man was very polite considering what he was doing!) If you can’t ask/understand, then there’s GPS as a backup so you’re not just trapped where you stand. But every time I think about all if it, it’s kind of awesome how far we’ve come and kind of frightening how far we’ve fallen at the same time.
Have a great day and thank you for making me think!
Your welcome.