My friend LB asked this question and at first i thought, it wouldn’t be that much different but after giving it some thought i can honestly say my life would be totally different!

Work – The biggest change is that i would be unemployed – my work is purely through the internet and although i suppose it would be possible for me to do it through the post i certainly couldn’t do it at the same level and it would be a lot more difficult.  Taking on a bricks and mortar shop wouldn’t really be a possibility so i would be stuffed.

Social Life – I’m a bit of a recluse, i don’t have much of a social life but i do have a lot of friends from all over the world thanks to years of internet forums.  I’ve cyber-met some complete idiots but i’ve also met a handful of wonderful individuals who i have now known for years and years (like LB who asked this question).  I’m happy not having an outgoing social life but i still like to feel connected, it’s nice knowing there always someone to talk to.

Pals – If it hadn’t been for friendsreunited (and later facebook)  i would never have reunited with pretty much all of my school friends.  One of which i used to hang out with all the time and who i now see again in real life. That would never have happened without the web because i had no idea how to contact them – it had been quite a while since i’d seen them.

Music /  TV / Movies – Thanks to the likes of Kazaa, WinMX, Torrents, iTunes, Last.fm, Internet Radio, YouTube and online pals sending digital playlists i would never have discovered so many new artists!  My music tastes are quite broad and that is purely thanks to the internet.  I once stumbled upon a website for a woman called Bessie Smith (1920′s blues singer) and from there i developed a taste for all things 1920′s.  Same for TV and movies, i’ve discovered a load of films and TV shows on the internet that i wouldn’t have found otherwise.

Games – I’ve always loved computer games.  I was an 80′s/90′s kid/teen so i grew up with Space Invaders, Pacman, Atari, Commadore 64, ZX Spectrum, then desktop computers and i’ve always loved games. But it wasn’t until the internet that i found my biggest gaming passion – World of Warcraft.  being able to play a game among such a massive online community brought a whole new dimension to game playing.  Plus it’s much easier now to find games you might like by watching them being played on Youtube. I always do that and know whether i’ll enjoy them or not.

Advice / Help – Now i’m not talking about health because i once typed in some symptoms into google and almost went into shock as i was being told i would die!  Tip to fellow hypochondriacs, don’t ever google symptoms!  Go to your doctor.  Anyway i’m talking about techie help.  Helps with all of the electronic gizmos and gadgets i have about the place.  Help buying them, help setting them up, help using them.  Or if you’re not a tech head how about downloading plans to build a fancy garden seat with step by step instructions.  There is a brilliant site called Instructables that is invaluable for DIYers. Sure you could find some of this stuff in magazines or libraries but the web is so much faster.

Shopping – Where do i start.  Being able to compare prices instantly to find yourself the best offers, being able to read product reviews from everyday customers who have actually bought and used the items you’re interested in (this is invaluable to me), being able to thoroughly research the very latest products – unlike in magazines which generally are written a month before hand.  And of course you can even do your food shopping online and have someone deliver it giving you more free time to do whatever it is you do.

I could go on and on but in a nutshell, without the internet my life would be radically different.  I depend on the web for so many things and i truly believe the net has improved my life.  Of course i’m not completely reliant on it and i do switch off.  I spend hours outdoors every day walking, bike riding, photo talking, walking and playing with my dog Pippa, going out for drives in the country, gardening, visiting pals, etc.  And i have the free time to do all of that because of the internet.

I was reading an article on www.wired.com and the following paragraph in particular caught my eye:

…You wake up and check your email on your bedside iPad — that’s one app. During breakfast you browse Facebook, Twitter, and The New York Times — three more apps. On the way to the office, you listen to a podcast on your smartphone. Another app. At work, you scroll through RSS feeds in a reader and have Skype and IM conversations. More apps. At the end of the day, you come home, make dinner while listening to Pandora, play some games on Xbox Live, and watch a movie on Netflix’s streaming service.

You’ve spent the day on the Internet — but not on the Web. And you are not alone. – full article here

I personally spend a lot of time doing my internet stuff on everything but my computer. I often browse my favourite sites from my smartphone, i bought the other half an iPad and after seeing what it’s capable of, plan on getting one myself. I listen to internet radio on my phone, ipod or internet radio, i sometimes blog from my phone. I frequently facebook and twitter from my phone and i notice a lot of my facebook contacts do too. Using iPad i rarely use the web browser, Apps pretty much give me everything i want.

Is the Internet kicking the bucket? Ok maybe not but it does seem to be changing more quickly than ever. Obviously there are a lot of things you need your computer for (like World of Warcraft 8-) ) but it’s only a matter of time before tablet devices catch up. And why not, who the hell wants to be sat at a desk or dragging a laptop around?

Now, i hate Internet Explorer with a passion^[1], for anyone designing websites, forum or blog themes it’s an absolute nightmare! The amount of tweakery pokery you have to go through to get some things to work … well it’s enough to make you scream. Which is why i praised the lord when Firefox came along. It seems like no matter what you throw at it, it just works. Or at least it did. I don’t know what in whore of Babylon hell they have done with Firefox 3 but on my pc it’s almost as unstable as Internet Explorer. It’s often crashing on me when i click on download links.

So now what? There’s Flock browser but that’s just a rip off of Firefox i think with a few social bits ‘n’ bobs bolted on. There’s Google Chrome which although is nice and speedy, it doesn’t display all websites properly. I guess there’s always Safari … but i’d miss my Firefox add-ons! *gahhhh!*. I hope they fix whatever the problem is and i know i’m not the only one having this problem with it. They should have left it as Firefox 2 – you know what they say, if it aint broke …

1. as does anyone in their right mind [↩]