A World Without Internet

Jayman

Super Moderator

I was talking about this subject with some friends the other day. We all remember hearing our parents tell us as kids "When I was your age, I didn't have......" and we just rolled our eyes and said "Yeah, right!".

Well now as most of us enter the age where we are becoming parents, we're most likely going to use that line (or maybe some of us already are). Anyway, the direct example I was thinking about was the internet. Our kids will grow up with Instant Messanger, Google, discussion forums, and many more things that come directly from the World Wide Web.

Remember things like Libraries, ACTUAL encyclopedias, going outside in the summer and actually playing baseball with your friends and staying outside until dusk when your parents told you to come back in? Or looking up movie times in the newspaper on a Saturday afternoon, rather than logging on your computer or cell phone?

Obviously the internet has made our lives easier and more convinent in many ways, but in others it really slows us down and makes us lazier. What do you think life would be for us without the internet now? Studies have shown that kids becoming more obese are a direct relation to things such as the internet, as kids would rather sit on a chair all day than go outside and play. Do you think that, as time continues on, we will see more negative effects from the internet?

Dakstang

MMA Moderator

I do think that the internet has brought some negative consequences with it. I don't think it can be attributed soley to the problem with obesity in America today however. We are just really not living in the same kind of world as when we were children. No one has time to do anything besides work anymore. When you talk about one parent households, that time is reduced even more. From my experience it seems that when parents come home from a long day of work they are in no mood to let their kids go out and play because that would take extra effort on their part by sort of keeping an eye on them to make sure they are o.k. They are content with just letting them sit in front of the computer screen, or play video games, so they don't have to expend any energy to ensure their safety. I think this is a very unfortunate part of our society today and it really negatively affects parent and child bonding. Americans work entirely too much when compared with the rest of the world and this severely affecting the children of this country.

Stop talkin' bout stayin' the course
You keep on beatin' that old dead horse
You know they lied about why we went to War
I can't take it no more

Inogenius

Politics Moderator

Good question, Jay, good question.

I think that the internet has really created a much more global world. No longer are isolated to our little communities. In fact, for some, the community outside their house is probably less explored than their community on the internet. Maybe that's just because I dislike my neighbors. The cultural impact of this though is astounding. By posting on a message board, like Wrestling Clique, we're exposed to so many different values, and cultural backgrounds. I guess you could say that it has likely made us all much more culturally aware, and maybe even more accepting?

Besides just the cultural impact, like you said, the impact on the way we live our lives is huge. The internet can result in almost near instant gratification for anything. It's opened up significantly more communication channels, not only to communicate with friends, but also for entertainment, politics, news ... etc.

Ruse the Moose

A world without the internet? That would be a horrible, horrible thing to imagine. Do you know what humans were doing before the internet, television and all other kind of technology that was created? You were out working in the farms, doing agriculture work and other things to keep yourself busy. Know what else you were doing? KILL MY ANCESTORS! Oh well, the past is the past. I'm just grateful that my children have a longer life expectancy than I ever did in my days.

2004... wow, that was a long time ago. Childhood just passed me by.

Jayman

Super Moderator

A friend of mine (Who is over 30) posted this on myspace earlier today, and I had a few laughs. Being 25, half of this applies to me, half doesn't. Pretty true. I can't wait to yell at my kids about this kind of stuff, just as my dad did to me.

Gigglypuff

Your friend has got it spot on Jay, good stuff and I totally agree.

My parents house was on a street, bordered by two other streets to create a traingle in the middle where all the kids from the three streets used to congregate and play games together. We all knew each other and would play all sorts from sports like rounders and football to kids games like hare and hounds and hide and seek. These days i never see any kids outside playing like we used to. Our parents never let us leave the triangle cause that way we could all be seen from all houses and things were relatively safer back then. Im just assuming that kids are all in their houses playing computer games and on the internet or parents just dont actually care about their kids anymore cause theyre all wandering the streets and drinking cider in the bus stops at the grand old age of 12. Whichever the reason, its depressing.