If . . .

If we didn’t have the internet . . .

I would  get up in the morning, drink my coffee, and get on with my day.

Since we do have the internet, I get up, drink my coffee, check my e-mail, check my facebook account, write a status on twitter, and then move on to the next thing.

If we didn’t have the internet . . .

I would still use the yellow pages

I would use encyclopedias to help my kids with their homework.

I would ask people for directions to their homes, rather than google mapping them.

I would talk on the phone more.

The list could go on and on.

These are just a few of the things I thought about when I was watching coverage of the upcoming inauguration, and they were talking about how Barack Obama is using technology to communicate with citizens of the country.  Things that are so normal for me today are things that I would have never thought of as possible when I was a child.  I remember getting e-mail on prodigy in 1994 (I think) for the first time.  At that time, I was working for a large publishing company, and my boss telecommuted from another city, but we still didn’t have e-mail or internet of any sort at work.  That was only 15 years ago!  I often think of how much easier that job would have been if I would have been able to communicate with my boss and our authors via the internet.  Of course, it might have increased our work-load, too!

4 thoughts on “If . . .”

  1. It’s a different world, just like the country song says! My kids pretend calculators are phones- when we were kids, calculators looked NOTHING like telephones…

    Being a parent definitely enhances one’s perspectives!

  2. Since reading this, every time I get on the internet I start thinking “If…” thanks to you!

    I know I’d be doing other things, some useful and some not, but I definitely don’t want to go back to the way things were. In the ’70s when we were in Liberia it took weeks at the minimum to receive mail from home, often months, and occasionally a letter or package would show up a year or more later. Ham radio helped some of our friends, but you had to know the right people at both ends of the connection.

    Even worse (1985) was the difficulty of talking to Mark by phone when we lived on Kwajalein and he went off to college in New York. The phone service was wretched and limited. By the time we were in Hawaii and Jay was in college in Houston (1989), he got a part-time job that gave him access to e-mail and Dad/John had access at his work, which we could connect to on our home computer. It made all the difference in the world.

    So I’m very thankful for the advances in technology, even though they offer the temptation of wasting time. I never dreamed that it would be so simple to keep in touch and to share pictures, etc. One of these days I might even join Facebook!

  3. Lenise,

    I can certainly relate to the kids using the calculator like a phone. Charis still does that at 5.

    Mom,
    Sorry to get something in your head that you can’t get out. But your example is exactly the kind of thing I was thinking about.

  4. Sometimes I get discouraged by the internet (or rather the time I’ve spent on it.) But, oh my. . . was it ever a lifeline when we were overseas. And kept my relationship with my mom and sister and I close. Still, I’m glad Hubby and I did our long distance relationship via handwritten letters. . . there is a romance to that, that I don’t think we would have had by email.

Leave a Reply to Mom/Ruth Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *