Just like you dear reader, there was a time when I lived without computers, without internet access, without my favourite websites. It was even a time before blogging came along to civilise the planet.
In those long ago days, how did we fill our time? I can hardly remember.
Anyway, that was then but this is now. Nowadays we seem to rely upon computer access for almost everything. It's where we read the news, watch videos, communicate with friends and family, go shopping, study reviews, find pictures, read maps, plan journeys, do banking, pay bills, blog and blog and blog and find out about Pete Best. Pete Best - who was he you ask?
Randolph Peter Best (né Scanland; born 24 November 1941) is a British
retired musician who was the drummer for the Beatles from 1960 to 1962.
He was dismissed shortly before the band attained global fame and
is one of several people referred to as a fifth Beatle.
Sometimes it seems as if you can find out anything, everything via the internet and it has become an integral part of most people's lives.
Last night, I was tapping away here in the internet when I suddenly lost my wifi connection. There seemed to be no reason for this to happen. In fact I was in the middle of making my scathing blogpost about G.I.Joe/Action Man Pete Hegseth. Perhaps Google had detected this and outed me like a bunch of ICE agents dragging a brown person from a building.
I felt a little lost such is my reliance upon this magical internet connection. It was not the first time it had happened but in the past some straightforward jiggerypokery upon the keyboard or with the router has quickly restored the connection. However, this time round I was not able to get reconnected until earlier this evening when investigating the functionality of the little USB wireless adapter device that I have plugged in to one of the ports on my desktop computer.
For some unknown reason, this ingenious aid had malfunctioned but thankfully restoration was simple. What a delight and a relief it was to again see the tiny triangular internet connected symbol in the corner of my screen. The Great Yorkshire Pudding was back in the game! Whoo-hoo!
Synonyms of reliance are dependence, assurance, faith and trust. It is as if I have come to really need the internet in my life. Maybe you feel that too. It has become our rock, our touchstone, our guide, our sounding board. I do not really like admitting this but without the internet we are utterly lost, floundering around in the darkness as we must have been before.
It's a blessing and a curse and I'm far too dependent on it.
ReplyDeleteAnd you can go back forth to no TV and very little radio. Telephones were very low tech. And now we are controlled by the internet. Good post here.
ReplyDeleteWe are totally dependant on the internet and worse, if there was a mass failure, there aren't systems in place now to do things manually. It really doesn't bear thinking about.
ReplyDeleteThere will always be books to read.
ReplyDeleteAll things must fail eventually. Shame we now have so many things that can go wrong.
ReplyDeleteSynomyms of reliance are dependence and addiction.
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ReplyDeleteMy late husband was a radio amateur. He often told me that in areas where through catastrophes like an earthquake, or through war, the internet doesn't work, the only reliable means of communication are radios, and that it is often the amateurs who save the day (so to speak).
ReplyDeleteI guess up to a certain age we still remember how we did things before the internet, but the "digital natives" certainly can't know.
I think the last paragraph is overly dramatic, I am sure we could survive without it. What it needs is a bit of policing, especially around IA, and aren't some high tech people visiting Downing Street today to work out some rules. And also remember to have some cash lying around should the worst happen.
ReplyDeleteI remember pre-internet days. I got a lot more reading done and my house was cleaner.
ReplyDeleteNow searching for the 'little triangle' - if I can't see it, does that mean I'm not connected?
ReplyDeleteCongratulations to Ian. Make sure he takes care of his knees.
I live in the deepest darkest countryside. There is no mobile signal, there is only one choice for broadband provider and power cuts are not uncommon - an outage of an hour or two is not uncommon.
ReplyDeleteBut not all bad, as I type this sitting in the patio I am listening to a cuckoo.
How did we function before the internet?
ReplyDeleteIt is frightening and it is true.
ReplyDeleteHere we are. I do not know how we could go back.
We had a nice set of the World Book Encyclopedia and my kids would use that to look up information they needed for school homework. Or they would call my Dad as they referred to their Grandpa as "the smartest man in the world" as he could find the answers to all of their questions.
ReplyDeleteI probably spend a lot of screen time on my laptop and smartphone. Before they came along I probably read newspapers and looked up things in books.
ReplyDeleteJiggerypokery...what a descriptive word!
ReplyDeleteAs you said, we use the internet for everything these days. There's almost never been a technology that has so transformed every aspect of our daily lives -- maybe fire? The wheel? The internal-combustion engine?
ReplyDeleteI love the connection but hate the ease of time wasting.
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