Could you Live Without Email or the Web?

Can I live without email or the interweb….. let me make this simple…. NO! The internet, and this computer is my life and business. I make my money from this chair. If there was no such thing of the internet, there is not telling what I would be doing. I would love to try not using the web for a day, but I really really think I couldn’t do it. I’d like to challenge anyone to try this.

I don’t think so now i use them i couldn’t see life without them

I realized the other day how much I rely on the internet for entertainment and information. We had to fix our router for about a day and I was bored stiff. I didn’t have anything else to do but watch DVDs on my computer.

I do think we should have universal internet. We could do it; that’s been proven already. It does seem like it has become a public service like a library. It would make sense to up our taxes $200 and everybody gets wireless.

I could if I wouldn’t know what an email is but nowdays everyone needs the web, internet… for work, school, and all days life it’s nearly imposible to live without itt.
Not imposible! see my grandparents.

you cant live with out the internet it every were it a big source of information i got 4 things why you should use the internet

1 you can use it for school it easier then a library
2 it addiccting if you ttry not to use it you could feel the same effects when you are addicted to drugs

3 in commerciel if you want to find out more things about product you have to use the internet

4 it makes live easier you can find out things you could ask your friends or see on tv

20%? I would’ve guessed 10% at the MOST!

Anyway, no freakin’ way I could live without my internets. How else would I play on Xbox Live? T.T

I refuse to think of not having internet, I think I might die.

Couldn’t live/work without E-Mail or the Web.

I don’t use text messaging at all, nor do I use mobile phone very much.

“I wonder why Internet access isn’t considered almost like a public utility of sorts.”

That’s a great perspective to have about the internet and I agree with your opinions about it. However, this is a capitalistic country and there’s no denying how much money is to be made with the internet.

I can see the government making dialup a public utility, but definitely not broadband. At the same time, if you can’t afford the monthly bill of broadband, why would you be able to afford a computer? There’s too many other factors in the equation for the internet to become a public utility for households.

Half of the time those are either old people or people who dont believe in internet
9/10 homes in any given city will have a computer
even if it may be one from 1989

good blog,

hmm i think it depends on the person, i myself use the computer for networking & jobs but to others computers are a waste of time. i think alot don’t understand how to use them and let’s be honest, the majority for users don’t know how to take care of their computer. to many teeny-boppers using limewire and infecting their computers!

i try to take good care of my computer and try to clutter it up with junk, and spam and other ****! :-D

and i could not live without email! i talk to alot of people from different countries and email them everyday.

i also use email for updates and jobs and i check it every couple hours. email is a must for me :-)

ahh there’s my 2 cents :-)

…well i feel like a dope, i meant to say

“i try NOT to clutter…” excuse my blonde moment :-D

Hi chris in short no… but if i never knew about it probs

I think the majority of the older generation (70’s) are afraid of the computer and are timid about learning about them including the internet. I also believe in the near future those percentages of non-internet users and non-computer owners will dwindle as technology is moving so rapidly now. Thus more and more people will not be able to live without email and/or the web. I know I sure can’t!

When we go on camping trips, I usually bring my laptop in case I get bored. Well, I end up using the laptop, and I absolutely die when I can’t access the Internet. Luckily, most of the RV parks we stay at have wi-fi. So yeah, I’m still spoiled even when I’m not in a structure with a solid foundation.

At this one park, I even advertised my blog by writing it down the side of the road in front of our RV. I believe I actually got some hits afterwards.

I think it all depends on who you are, and how much you want to communicate, it’s a good source to know people to get somewhere to find information, to have some entertainment, to have tools you don’t already have on hand, and in some ways it is cheaper to pay online than to pay in person. A: gas prices are rocketing so you’re paying for that for everywhere you go, then there’s the issue of some places you pay extra for the service of paying your bills through them (like my Sprint, I have a card I use, and I have to pay an additional $4 to use it to pay a bill, I said forget that, I’m paying online for FREE!). You also have to realize when there’s people like me that have NO MONEY (seriously only $1.01 to my name currently, and just found out I’m not receiving the Federal Rebate all cause the economy in MI is terrible to let me even be hired let alone keep a job…), so not everyone can afford to even get a computer to begin with, or pay for internet, and Library is not all that great to use for access, they block certain things you may need, even some block email accounts… they watch everything you do, and it’s easy to steal your information through them, and then there’s the hassle on the time frame, open hours or the fact that every person only gets so long to use a computer, and if you have a slow connection, (my old library would take about 5 minutes to load a page, and we only were allowed 30 minutes at a time.. great I can only look at 6 pages of info when I still have an entire book report to do….). It has it’s benefits and it’s flaws.

A little anecdote, if I may.
I once met at a conference a very senior academic in my field, who has recently retired from his professorship at the University of London. When asked for his email address, he usually replies:
- E-mail ? I don’t use e-mail. I only use Royal Mail (with emphasis on the Royal in Royal Mail!)
;-)

Chris,

Interesting post. For a couple of reasons. I work for a company that does SMS text message marketing. I had some ideas which led me to purchase the following domains a couple of months ago.
smsavatars dot com
smsavatar dot com
textavatar dot com
txtavatars dot com
smstextavatars dot com

There are a couple more of them which I purchased with the idea I would use them later (which is always the case—but I really do). Avatars are certainly a great visual way to recognize individuals when you enter into some sort of social circle. I believe there is a niche for it in the SMS text message marketing world. Anyway, thanks for the post. I was thinking about it lately so it interested me. I’ll certainly be back to your blog.

Chris you’ve put the wrong link to the video to the blog.

Comment Readers,

I know you are all computer geeks in one way or another, but I don’t think a lot of you realize how much some people are addicted to the computer. Here is just a brief idea:

When I get up in the morning, before I go to school I have about 20 minutes after my shower to do whatever. You know what I choose? I choose to check my e-mail and go on MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

At school, I bring my two thumb drives and my 250GB removable HD and just wait all day for either my Photography or Yearbook class where I get to go to the computer lab.

As soon as I get home from school, I get on the computer and read all of the Twitter updates I missed all day. It just feels like I missed tons! I check my e-mail and go into Chris’s chat room and read a bunch of the messages I missed.

Then later, when more people get on the computer, I start IMing and e-mailing some of my friends. Then , some of the good shows come on TV so I take my laptop into the family room so I can keep socializing and working on my customers’ web sites. Even when I am eating dinner I am working on my computer!

That is my day. Do you see a pattern?

I think I COULD go without the computer, but I don’t know for how long. I was born and raised with a computer at my side and I don’t know anything different. I don’t think I could communicate with my friends w/o the computer… I feel like I would just lose touch with the world.

Well, I think that if web was never invented then, Yes, I could just because I would be living a whole different lifestyle. For todays standards… I can’t even live with out my computer. With out internet, I can maybe survive for about 2 hours or so but then I go crazy! Email I am not to big of a fan of. I just love surfing the web

Hey Chris..I think you embedded the wrong video. This is the gravatar video.

Well, let’s see if this works.

I present you, my avatar!

I am actually surprised that 100% have not already used a computer. Those are some interesting results. In the future ahead i think it will soon be impossible to go somewhere without the internet, and or email influencing your life.
As for th email. The email in my opinion is the new mail system. I am assuming that in the coming years the mail carrier service will eventually become no more.
Thanks
BradleyBradwell

Oops. Wrong post, well that’s what you get when embedding the wrong video ;)

I also have realized that I am addicted to the computer! Heck, right now I should be studying for a History test, instead I am commenting on how addicted I am! LOL! How ironic.

When I get up sometimes I check my email, or update my blog ( robonews.wordpress.com ). At school I am working on hacking their WEP encryption so I can get online there (I have already hacked the filters, that was a joke. LOL). Then when I get home I run upstairs to my room, check email again, then go to work.

Yeah I could live without the Internet/Email, but I would have a lot more time on my hands. My grades are already A’s so I guess I would just work more. Not too bad. LOL!

I could definitely live without Facebook. It is so over-rated!

I could live, if by live you mean exist, without the internet and email. I may not be able to function as efficiently as i could, but some work could still be done…excluding my job (I’m staff in at a university library).

I think it I think it may be hard to imagine that that many people have never sent an email or created a document on a computer since most people are surround by or surround themselves with people that do use the internet constantly. And lets be honest there is an economic divide in the country and those figures probably reflect that. I don’t think menial jobs would require you to integrate email into your work and since one’s low wage would have higher priorities than purchasing a computer/internet access you can see why the figures probably speak some truth.

As far as public access goes there is a lot out there. But many probably don’t have time for it, or have to jump through hoops to get to it. Registering as a library patron, giving up personal information, driving x amount of miles from home.

But yes, the speed at which technology becomes affordable is accelerating and will be the enabler for a more level playing field for all to be connected and social/economics barriers to be be lowered, or at least made more transparent.

Of course I couldn’t live without the Internet! IT IS THE GRAVITATIONAL CENTER OF MY LIFE!!! I got used to making blogs…. watching you….. watching porn…….

If the web didn’t exist, I would become depressed and take pills.

In one word, “NO!”

Interesting…I think it might be interesting to compare these stats to people who have cars (outside of the major metro areas like NYC). I think that having a car is much like the internet as far as money goes, without it shopping and jobs and what not become much more difficult but its something that we mostly just assume someone to have much like an email address…

Well i can live without Email, always haven’t been a power email user. Most of my inbox is full of newsletters or “fliers” from tigerdirect or any other online store.
As far as internet, its possible but not pretty. I’m the kind of person to want stuff on my time and with old media (TV, Radio) it isn’t, its on their time. With the internet I can watch what I want when I want. Thats what I love about it. But Really what is a PC without the internet? Minesweeper and Excel?

I think back to my life 15 years ago, and how I called people and snail-mailed them and had no concept of the internet, because it wasnt really “AROUND” for the masses quite yet. Life felt less “complicated” somehow. I felt like I had more of a “life”. ha! With technology, comes a whole new way of being, so many more options, and it isnt always “easier”. But heck.. aLOT more fun! Not to mention meeting and befriending people I would NEVER have had the chance to otherwise.

On the otherhand, I feel I have sort of shut myself off from the ones who dont yet have the http://WWW. Not literally shut myself off, but it’s kind of funny how I put off calling someone and will be like “I wish she had email”. In the past, I was alot more open to using the good ol’ phone, and to getting out that pen and paper and postage stamp…

Wow those statistics are horrendous. Can you imagine meeting someone who has never done a google search? The internet is now more of a necessity than a luxury. If you do not have it, you are missing out on a lot. I can’t see myself living without the Internet, it’s just too difficult to think of.

While technology such as computers and internet seem to many people to be ubiquitous - I think that that perception is more a case of situational reality as opposed to actuality. As in many cases, those who have things have a natural tendency to assume it is a way of life - because it is the way of their life.

There is still, and will be for another 10-20 years, a very definite generational divide where people do not only not Rely on computers as part of every day life - but may actively avoid them. This fact will of course fade to near if not complete insignificance as the tech generation ages, but of the 60+ age demographic I would venture a guess that while there are many who do adapt to the modern technology - just as many see no need to do so.

Right now there are plenty of people who remember, lived in, and functioned fine in life without microwaves, cable, VCRs ,console gaming and cellphones - much less internet and home computing, so it does not suprise me that the percentage of people who do not take part in this generations’ technology is as high as it is.

Myself, while being part of the pre-CD/cellphone, etc generation - while i COULD live (as in not be dead physcially) without the internet and modern technology , i would have little desire to do so. My pc’s are the hub of my entertainment at home and the functional cornerstone of my job (not a necessity but man would it be a pain without it) - these days the only use I have for television is to watch House MD, and even that isn’t a necessity (since it could be watched streaming or via torrent if I wanted to bother - I just enjoy sitting on the couch to watch it, and don’t have a pc based media center running things for the tv…yet)

I wouldn’t want to live without our current technologies and entertainment, but I can see where it is still a commonplace condition.

I don’t think I could live without my computer, E-mail, instant messaging(MSN, mostly) and the big one, the internet. If I didn’t have this, the biggest social network and biggest source of information… on. the. planet. Hopefully the internet wqill advance itself to where we don’t have to have computers anymore, or at least we can go into the internet so we don’t have to be stuck at a desk all day staring at a screen. But, if not, I find that the internet is fine without that, and that this is the ultimate form of entertainment, and arguably, one of the most addictive things known to man kind.

To be honest, I don’t think that I could live without the internet anymore. Being disabled, its pretty much the only way that I can access the world outside where I live anymore. IM’s keep me in touch with old, and new friends. As well as various online retailers letting me do my shopping.

I am of the feeling that the internet will very shortly become a public utility such as the water we drink and shower with. The internet is the backbone of the information generation we find ourselves in today. I believe the best way to empower disenfranchised youthes in all corners of the earth is to expose them to the internet. I believe the internet will makes even more of a significant impact on the average humans lifestyle by the second. I currently use the internet as my personal professor. I use the internet and my computer to gain about 85% of my knowledge speaking conservatively. Increased use of the internet will drastically impact the dependency of several off-line sources of knowledge on any given subject matter. It is a conspiracy theory of mine, that the powers that be are shaking at the prospect of free knowledge for all. I am only 21 and look forward to seing the world my kids live in, and the role the internet will play in their lives. Can you imagine?

even my grandparents have used email for a few years now
and they live in a bus that they drive in between Canada and the USA, they use pocketmail to keep in contact with our family spread across the continent. My grandfather even asked me how i could decide what to do on the internet, with its endless amounts of information and content.

I don’t know if I could live today without internet. Recently I had to purchase a projector bulb for my 8mm projector without the internet I would have never found one. I rarely send emails but i do read them daily.

I have always been thinking that at least 89.5% of Americans used email/internet. I was definitely, extremely surprised that 21% never sent an email…and it goes on…
Just like how I would never be able to live without the internet, just like today where my wi-fi signal went down a couple of times, internet should be a public resource like books. Even if there is poverty, the government should allow this, because really these days you can’t learn anything without the internet.
But I also think that it is not possible (on a short term) that the US could have all Americans to use internet because:
-Gov. cant reach out to every poor in America to provide internet, and it’s most likely that the poor would rather ask for money.
-It is not very easy to get use to if 30% of those people never has used a computer. It might be possible in the long run, and with tons of money spent on internet education, but not without all that.
-Some country sides are actually extremely difficult to receive a signal, which means internet used will be intermittent.
I 100% agree with you, Chris, that it should be a public/friendly source but it will be difficult to manage to get there. I’m sure that there are plenty of other reasons for my opinion towards the topic and plenty of counter-reasons, but thats simply what I believe.

Could I live? Sure, but then I’d have to be sent to a mental institution!

Live Yes - Survive No

I can live without contact, and relish the times when I do so.
In fact, I bought a cabin two years ago with no phone service, no chance of internet/TV without a satellite and VERY erratic cell service. I can be by myself, comfortably.

I guess most of the other respondents are younger, urban/suburban and/or unaware of how poverty works.

I’m actually surprised that as many people have access as the article indicated. I’m very fortunate in that, while older (51), I live in an urban area, have a job that requires e-mail
access and computer skills. However, I came from rural poverty and can understand how the gap exists and more importantly, how difficult it will be to bridge. I have a neighbor by my cabin that lives completely off the grid for ~$2000/year.
And he’s quite happy - I often envy his lifestyle, and think about giving the rat race back to the rats and moving to the cabin.

For my household… the Net -is- like a utility…. it is on the same level of importance as our electricity, and our rent….of course with two college students, and two kids being home schooled, it sort of has to be. Also, I do save money with the net. Perhaps not in the traditional sense, but if you think about it, by using the net for my children’s school work, I save money on pens and pencils, as well as paper and such, because -all- their records are kept online, and 90 - 98% of their assignments are done there as well. It comes down to a huge savings in the end. Then of course there is money saved on school lunches, and gas and the like, so not only am I saving money for myself, but I am doing my bit for the environment as well.

When im away from my computer for a certain amount of time I start getting cranky haha, Id consider it a utility its one of the better ways of getting work done and communicating. I think technology is a better way for family and friends to communicate when they are long distances away.

i could live without email but i could not live without the web!

You know technology is getting into our lives in a strong way when my dad wants me to build him a computer…lol. Personally, I could “live” without my connection, but I wouldn’t want to. I don’t rely on it for work like some do, but it definitely helps me out alot. I think the internet is something that everyone can benefit from, there are some that just don’t understand it and people fear what they don’t understand.

Why don’t you have a Junk email address for those crappy websites and a good email address for personal friends and trusted sorces?

I think it is always harder to go back than to go forward. But I can personally survive without it. However it is becoming more and more essential to my working life through the needs of the company’s I work for. So it is almost irrelevant whether I can live without it. I am like you born and bred when records were king and books ruled as well. Since I love reading I could find it an easy adjustment to finding what I need via books. Also since I do not download music from the net or movies for that matter, I would have no difficulty buying my music and dvds etc from shops.
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The people who would find it a definite strain would be those who have been born into the technological era of the net and have used it solely for all their knowledge and entertainment needs. They would genuinely suffer and just hate the slow pace and enforced physical needs of actually leaving their own home!
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The net has brought the world to our fingertips. It is an incredibly useful and time saving tool but it also can be a wicked tool. There are nasty viruses and spyware out there and sites full of misleading, disruptive disinformation. Sites that are eager to spread chaos and mayhem as well as corrupting our young. This tool does need to be monitored and it is not at this time being successfully cleansed. In fact the dangerous bits are running out of control it seems.
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So I would say there is justification in an argument to putting careful limitation on children’s use of the internet. In this fashion maybe there will still be a need for the ‘old fashioned’ way of doing things……for some time to come at least. It would be a real shame if we became so isolated in our homes that we neglected to interact face to face with each other.

it’s like sitting in front of a computer without internet. you try to open internet explorer but it says the page cannot be found. i feel really ‘claustrophobic’ when that happens. i just feel really disconnected.

I would be lost without my internet, computer, for emails, i have stayed closer with family and friends that live in different cities. I love my laptop and the internet, the best thing ever invented

I really could not imagine life without the internet. I am addicted; it is like a drug. I use the internet to get my movies, news, and communicate with my friends and family. If you think about it the internet is the gateway to anything you want. You can even use it as a phone and television, so it eliminated the need for other appliances. I really think that for me the internet has become a necessity and I could not live without it. Also for me it has replaced the phone and the mail. you can get all that on the internet, and usually a lot faster.

I think I can live without email. Living without the web would be very hard. The internet is one of mans greatest inventions and it has been intertwined in our society it will be very tough for me to live without it.

One Word. NO. I could not live without the email or the web. If you’ve seen the south park episode i feel my family and i would be exactly like that. it’s the only way i do things. if it went out for one day i’d be in the fetal position in the corner of my house. that is truely how i fell. thanks chris.

The problem is the telephone companies limiting the speeds and not making enough effort in rural areas. It is not commercially viable, which is why I think the government should take control providing high speed access to everyone bringing everyone into the 21st century and letting businesses remain competitive with the rest of the world.

I don’t think that this much of a digital divide should exist but I also don’t think that Internet access should be as easily available as OTA radio and television. If you are someone that doesn’t have Internet access, you probably aren’t reading this, you do have access to the Internet and your probably don’t even realize it. You probably pay school district taxes, depending on the area you live in and if you own or rent an/a apartment/house. Chances are your school has a public library.

Encourage people that you know that don’t have Internet access to go to their library and find out what they are missing.

Something interesting that I recently discovered. I work at a university and one of the professors that I serve has a get-away place in the middle of no-where in Texas. Apparently because he lives in the middle of no-where, he has the ability to pay out $16.99 per month for an unlimited satellite phone. Talk about a digital divide but at the same time this person gets an international cell phone and basically pays nothing for it. Great deal if you ask me.

did u know that 57% of all statistics are made up on the spot

including that 1
lol i think

‘DMM” WHY MOST BE KICKED ?

well I use MSN every day…. the internet and youtube every day… CS 1.6 every day… (allmost)…. well HELL NO! xD

*giggles* I like this conversation! Honestly, I can’t stand the web or email or anything. I miss the days when I receive real letters from people - there’s just so much more appeal for me to get something in my hands versus over the computer.

I think it would take a little getting used to not having again, but I could certainly get used to the change… it’d simply force me to find people in the area to get acquainted with versus over the internet (some of whom I may never see anyways… even if they lived next door!).

I met my husband online though when I was 12… if you asked me then… I would have said “absolutely not.” We are having our fourth child now too! I had to move from Seattle to Connecticut after my high school graduation so that I could be with him everyday. So I guess it’s a matter of perspective and how someone uses the internet.

In my opinion… right now I’d say I could surely live without. :)

Kind Regards,
-Shaina

There is no way I could live without my computer, email, or the internet. I work from home using all three (medical transcription). My husband isn’t near as addicted as I am, but loves having the ability to type in a line of a song and immediately find out who sings it and the title. We used to spend hours trying to figure out silly things like that.

Well chris. i think that the generation like my grandpa, are not that interrested in the internet and Pc stuff.
but our generation and the ones that are comning has the Internet and pc like a aprt of their life already.
when my internet doesn’t work when the Service provider has a problem. I become so paranoid that i just need to get out of home go somwhere to distract myself.
it is more then just internet it has become a part of your every day life.

When i i was a kid, i didn’t know what internet was so it was ok, i cared about other things, when i got dial up it still didn’t affect me so much because it was awfully slow so i didn’t surf the internet so much, when i had dial up i would rather use internet at my school, it was much faster. Now when i have dsl i can’t live without it and i can’t get use to , not using it , it would feel like i would loose my hearing or gone blind, i would feel crippled, i use it everyday as most of them in here, if there is a internet connection error then i rush to phone to complain to my ISP and tell then to fix it,
it’s so good to know that i can quick and easy can gather information by using my fingertops and that aren’t restrained getting information from books, question is if it is so good to be so attached to internet and technology , what would happen yo us if a disaster struck, would be able to function without the technology that we take for granted everyday, we would but we would be much crippled, it would be hard.

I read the article the other day. What I found fascinating is the way the results were expressed. Twenty percent have never sent an email.

Wasn’t it but a few years ago when this would have been phrased `the internet is only in about forty percent of homes’ ?

My, how things change.

-lefty
ThermionicEmissions

that one was probly made up

I could not possibly live without the internet what-so-ever.

I have grown to the internet so much that i really don’t think i could survive without it!

I don’t know if I could, but I know it’s possible. My mother doesn’t know how to send an email, even if I’m always on the computer. I have been through a network card crash for three days, it wasn’t funny and I had to cope by finding other ways to do a lot of stuff — even listening to music.

But I think people are getting kinda crazy when it comes to technology in general. I don’t know anyone around me who uses RSS in any flavor, and I do (as an enabler, like you’ve put so well). On the other hand, my cell phone is now four years old and I have no intention of changing it soon. It’s about sending and receiving, right? It’s been doing a hell of a job.

NO..I rely on the internet and e-mail for my living. I am a web designer and desk top publisher specializing in non-profit and public service organizations and a full time, non-traditional university student striving for a degree in Communication Design.

I would like to see the Digital Divide reduced and eventually closed. The more access people have to information the better off they will be. The recent attempts at city wide WiFi are a hopeful sign, but the cost to the cities is proving to be too much. I would propose a slight hike in city sales tax to cover city wide WiFi is not too much to ask of the “Haves” to provide more people with the chance of access.

I was actually guessing 80%

My mom never emailed and has touched the computer but only for writing. My dad is still on dial up and refuses to pay for DSL. Crazy if you ask me. He rather drive to the library than to get the services. It would be sweet if it was free so I don’t have to give her IT help over the phone or through remote via dial up (on his side).

I could probably live without email because I could just as easily pick up the phone if I need to talk to someone. However, I do not know if I could live without internet. I have learned so much through the internet, I cannot imagine all the things I would not know if the internet did not exist.

Wow. 30% of people have never used a computer to create a document? I find that hard to believe. Unless there are still people out their typing all of there documents on a typewriter.

Can I live without email or internet, Yes I can, I lived without a computer for 2 years, but I’ll be honest when ever I’m at school or at a friends house maybe I checked on my hotmail but other then that is not that hard to live without a computer you just have to find better things to do, like go outside and enjoy life.

98% of the UK, some indirectly (i.e. through a family member)

well, chris, someone my mum sits next to in church who is 90 years old has just bought herself a new computer, she loves surfing the web & is quite experienced at doing so. I love it when older generations of people know how to use computers just as well as the average user today.

There is absolutely no way I can spend my life without the Web, email yes, but not the internet. Email is actually something I rarely use since I use instant messenger.

I would kill myself if the internet were gone.

Thanks for the post Chris!

I have to tell myself every day “lemme look that up” and there is no telling how I would even do that without the internet….library? XD

Emails are my main form of communication with folks out of reach.

As for text messaging, come on, it’s quicker to just call someone and say what needs to be said, or heck, nothing is as cool as a beeper.

Besides, nothing is more demeaning than being seen with fingers interlocked around a clamshell phone typing on a tiny 12-key keyboard….T9?

Wow….how many people dont have internet is amazing. As for me, i doubt i could live without email or the web. Everything i have is on it, and it is one of the main things i work on. So, if the web was gone, i dont know what i would do in those wee hours of the morning bored to death :)

If the Government has complete control over the internet, *they* can start to limit what is put onto the internet.

That said, I wouldn’t mind having public wi-fi terminals in public areas. Laptops are becoming inexpensive. Libraries, schools, government buildings, etc, etc. Anyone who uses the government buildings for any reason (like getting unemployment) can have access.

For those who cannot afford a computer, there cold be a few computers for public use as well.

Maybe there should be a not-for-profit organization that pays for technology for those who cannot afford it. One of my neighbors are struggling and cannot afford the connection, let alone a new computer that is compatible with the internet.

The kids do go to school, so it’s not like they’re completely without.

I could not live without email or the web because my whole life I have always had internet access. I find it hard to find something to do when my internet service goes out during an ice storm or severe weather. The internet is my whole means of communication to my family and friends. Now that we have internet and email and IM’s, giving phone calls on a landline telephone is dead, in my eyes. A lot of the things that I learn about anything comes from the internet. Nothing can provide as much information as the internet or even come close.

I could live without email, I dont think that I could last that long without internet, I do so much stuff online that I would be bored stiff if I had to go without it for more than a day. I mean, I can find stuff to do for a couple of days, but I use it so much now (probably too much) it would be hard without it. it wo