Chapter 10

An interesting conversation arose in my English class this past tuesday. The following question was posed: How would it effect you personally if you woke up tomorrow and the internet no longer existed? How would it affect your community? How would it effect your profession? Now, take a minute to think of that before you read my response.

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Ok, now, this is an expansion of the notes that I jotted down during class to add to the discussion. The first thing that popped into my mind was that scene from the IMAX 3D version of Order of the Phoenix where Ginny "reducto"'s the rows of prophecy balls and everything comes crashing down and little glass fragments are flying everywhere in 3 dimensional slow motion. Back in reality, my first thought is, I would be out of a job and have a degree that has become pointless, and I have been working for years toward a bachelors degree in a program that would no longer exist. I would have to start over in a completely different field.

Next I thought about school in general, mainly penn state. A lot of professors make use of Angel for communication, grade tracking, posting assignments, and even quizzes/exams. This would all be pen and paper again. Not that it was so long ago that I sat in a classroom and took a pen and paper test. I've just gotten used to the convenience.

On the topic of convenience.. its easy to shop, pay bills, get directions, and gather general information online. It's so simple to hit up google or mapquest rather than the way we used to do it prior to those sites. I have had hand-written directions to follow, I have spent hours in a library doing research, I have written checks to pay bills, and I still do the majority of my shopping in actual stores. It wasn't so long ago that we didn't have these conveniences, I personally have just adjusted too nicely to them.

Entertainment wasn't much of an issue for me, I do play games online, but I also read books (the printed paper kind with covers) and go out to movies. I listen to music, on the radio, actually since I've had to recover my hard drive I don't have much downloaded. Thats not to say that I don't enjoy playing games online, or downloading podcasts and music. But this is probably the only area of my life that wouldn't be completely affected by the internet disappearing.

Communication is another area that may get some taking used to in having to go back to the prior way (I hate the term "old way", I am not old.. just older.. and did things differently previously :) ). I had pen pals, I even wrote letters to friends that lived in the same city as me over the summer when we weren't in school. We also talked on the phone, but at 12 or 13, it was nice to get mail once in a while. Now, its very simple to write a quick email, chat with someone on aim or yahoo messenger, or meet tons of new people at any number of message boards or forums. I moved from philadelphia to harrisburg, so I use email and messengers to keep in touch with friends and family. But could do this over the phone or through a letter, but like I've said before, I've gotten all too used to the convenience of it all.

One of my classmates wrote a similar blog about using texting and ims to communicate, and he's absolutely right, there is no replacement for human contact. I'm not quite as bad as someone who sends and im or text to someone next to them. Although, I must confess, I have sent an im to someone I was on the phone with. But, what happened there was that we were chatting on aim, and the conversation got a little complicated so my friend called me. We stopped our aim conversation while we were on the phone, but I needed to send her a website addy that was relevant to our convo. It was easier to im it.

Any thoughts?