How Would Your Life Be Different Without the Internet?

Very isolated.

 

I would have had a much harder time discovering and accepting my sexuality. And I never would have met my bf since we met on a dating site

 

To be quite honest I don't know if I'd be here today. However, all of history would be different if the internet wasn't around, and I might of been just fine without it. If it were to be wiped off the earth at this very second, I'd fall apart rather quick.

 

I'd probably be more social.

 

I would get more stuff done.

 

Pretty much this!

 

I would not have told my family I was gay because EC is what gave me the courage to.

 

I'd probably feel like there was something wrong my whole life, because I'd be finding transgender information later in life. And I'd probably be more outgoing, more motivated to meet people and go out and do productive things.

 

I could've stayed closeted to myself likely for many more years, being greatly unsatisfied and not knowing exactly why, drifting further and further away from the people I knew because there was stuff I felt I could never share with them. I don't like imagining this so I won't.

I've gotten so much information from the internet, I've contacted my friends through it, watched shows and read stories that shaped the way I look at fantasy fiction and inspired me to give it my best shot, I've found the best music on the internet ... if none of that ever happened, I'd be a VERY different person!

 

My career wouldn't exist so I have no idea what I'd be doing. I know I wouldn't have met some of the most amazing people in my life so I'm pretty grateful that the internet exists.

 

Pretty fucked, basically!

Despite the fact I was a semi late-starter with the internet (had to use public access or friends computers till just a few years back) it has been a very key part of my life in many ways. I was introduced to various music, writings and artwork through the internet. It has been instrumental in accessing vital information not available elsewhere to assist both myself and my mother. I use online shopping to get hold of specific things I need but can't travel for. I met my best friend online, and even though she lives some distance away and I can't visit her often we exchange email daily. It has given me an outlet to socialize with people I would otherwise not have had the opportunity to. My sexuality probably would have taken slightly longer to figure out and I wouldn't have had the privilege of learning so much about other people's perspectives.

Without the internet I would probably be profoundly isolated given my limitations. I don't get to venture very far from my immediate area on a regular basis. So unless I was willing to make acquaintances with my neighbours, which would require involvement in such breathtakingly appealing activities as unprovoked fighting, heavy drug and alcohol abuse and bricks thrown through windows... well you get where I'm going with this. Honestly, I can't quite imagine how different my life would be without the internet.

Also, I never would have encountered The Llama Song...

 

I would have so many less friends.
I would be so isolated
I would be close minded
I would be uncomfortable with my sexuality
I would have never discovered my true sexuality
I would never have discovered my religious beliefs
I would never have met so many like minded people
I would have experienced less heartbreak and separation anxiety
I would never have met my boyfriend
I would never have fallen in love with a trans man at such a young age.
I would have never been ok with how much older I look, I am a young teenager who looks like a young adult and I always feel old around my peers but online I communicate with people who don't judge me by my age but by my intellectual properties.

 

Just ask anyone who lived prior to the internet being a mainstream thing. (someone who lived prior to the 90's.) According to what I've been told, life went on just fine, it was just more inconvenient to find out information, truthful or otherwise, or to communicate with people. Home computers existed, but you had to load programs and the data for those programs with disks, like for example a medical program. Another option was going to the library and opening a book. (the horror!) Documents had to be overnighted or faxed or just mailed. There was even a thing called the telegram if you go back a little further. If you needed to do banking you actually had to go to a bank.

The worst thing was that there was no EC or other forums.

 

I wouldn't have gotten into metal, a style of music that has changed my life and contributed to who I am today.

 

Just fine. I met my partner in college, used to write letters to various gay punk-rock pen-pals by networking in person and going to see shows and from personal ads in zines like Maximumrocknroll, where we'd write, and trade mix tapes. Even in a rural area, I found many ways to meet punk/indie sorts, even in the 1980s.

~

I'd probably go out more, get more exercise, and not be as stiff, from typing and staring at a screen.

There'd also be more cool stores to go to in person; Amazon and online shopping would not have closed down all the used book-shops, LGBT book stores, record stores, vintage clothing stores and places that made the vibrant parts of a city so much more of a community, and fun to go to---places you might run into friends, or get to know people.

Things much more isolated and distant now; it also seems like the price-tag of the technology you need to be in the loop keeps costing more, with Apple and all these phones that cost so much...

I think it's helped people feel better about sex, and helped connect various niche groups, but overall, I'm not sure it made things a great deal better, just more distant and abstract.

 

I would've had a harder time coming out and discovering my sexuality, but at the same time, I'd probably do more reading. I doubt I'd be more active since I'm just not that active to begin with -_- It would be different in negative and positive ways. The internet isn't just one big negative or positive for me.

 

Productive.

I would be so productive.

 

The quality of my life would be vastly greater had the internet never come to fruition.

I remember when it first went mainstream: I said "that'll never take off." Then i became addicted. Years wasted, so much more than time has been taken.

It would be a stronger world, a stronger loving world, to die in.

 

When I was young, it didn't exist LOL.

But geez, if it had never been created.
* I wouldn't be "wasting" so many hours per week on the computer (infact I might not even own one) . oh . all that free time I'd have...
* Other than when at work, I'd be even more 'isolated' since the net somewhat counts as "people contact". (basically just like it was back when I was in school - when there was no net)
* I'd have never really known anything about gay/bi/sexuality
* I'd have never had the guts to go to a pridefest