Abstinence

I actually have gone days without the computer before; sometimes it is not a big deal. But because I am in four online classes this summer it does make it hard to abstain from using the internet. I guess someone’s use of the internet may depend on their need for it. I agree with many thoughts about the internet though, in that many people these days have been born into a society full of technology it is not very common to be without it. I have read many things regarding the use of the internet and other technologies and how many people cannot live without it in a sense. I am not saying I can live without it, but I am saying it is not essential, except in my case and many others, for school. In a sense I feel like society makes the internet necessary, because everyone uses the internet these days, businesses, schools, organizations, etc. So it is almost as if people need to use the internet because society makes it necessary.

The point of saying all that is because I find that my day without the internet was not hard, aside from that I could not do homework that day. But all that did was not allow me to check my email or get on facebook or myspace, or maybe even shop online. Those are these leisurely things I find myself doing on the internet. It did alter my ability to communicate due to that fact. I communicate with people on facebook and myspace and especially my email, because I handle business and school things on there. I had to call people rather than email, which I do a lot, especially since many people, especially teachers, prefer to be contacted via email. Not using the internet effected my how I spend my time in that instead of being bored at home on the computer I went out and spent my day outside. My boyfriend and I drove to the mall and went shopping all day. This did take up most of the time because of the long drive and spending the entire day at the mall. When we came home I cooked dinner and my boyfriend and I watched a movie.

As Postman discussed, I feel the internet has changed what I think about and the way I think about it. Especially if I do not need an answer to a question right away, instead of staying on the phone with someone I may not want to talk to, or I just don't feel like talking to at the moment, I will email or facebook that person. I do this because the way the internet makes me think about it is; Okay I asked the question, now all I have to do is wait for a response. This makes the communicating more leisure-like and does not keep me on the phone. That is how I literally think about it in my head. I do consider myself a lazy person, and I feel like, even thought email and other forms of communication are essential for good communication, I feel they still are a way to make our lives easier, and in a sense, make us lazier, because what I should do is actually call the person, but I use the internet to make that communication because it is easier in that I do not have to actually make contact with that person.

A day without internet is not so bad, as long as you do not have business to handle on the internet. In my case I had homework to do and emails expected so aside from that, leisure wise, a day without the internet did not hurt me, in fact, it made the day more eventful for me. The internet sometimes may keep a person inside the house and make a person lazy. This relates back to the idea of all the technologies in the world. Some see it as, because there are so many new and different innovative technologies coming out and making people’s lives easier, it makes it so people have to do less. Therefore people do less and grow lazy often times. This is why there are arguments that humans are the laziest beings, because we have so many resources to make life easy.