Life Without Instant Internet

Isn´t it amazing that, through the miracles of wireless Internet services and super-intelligent phones, so many people in this world have access to the Internet at just about any place and time they desire—in the car on the way to work, at the coffee shop, in a meeting, in class and so on.

Just 15 years ago, the only places most people had access to the Internet, if at all, were at work and school. The idea of being able to hop on the Internet in any capacity even from the comfort of your own home was pretty far out for the average person. Maybe Al Gore could have predicted that in 10 years there would be something called high-speed Internet service on the streets, but for the average Joe, it was probably more of a foreign thought than even a distant one.

Things were just incredibly different. The newspaper was about four inches thick on weekdays and at least six on Sundays. Apparently, people don´t really read the newspaper anymore; just look at the stock figures on all the big newspapers. Where the newspaper was once a necessity for any person who desired to be informed, it has been rendered almost obsolete because the Internet is accessible in so many capacities. For instance, it is not uncommon for an average college student to have laptop wireless Internet access, which means he or she can pretty much read the days news from bed before even taking a shower or eating breakfast.

In the early 1990´s, the public was shocked by two major events in basketball: Magic Johnson´s HIV announcement and Michael Jordan´s retirement. People huddled around TV´s as they overheard the announcements. Today, when Brett Favre either retires or comes out of retirement, the news breaks on the Internet practically before the words leave the man´s mouth. Likewise, the seemingly round-the-clock news coverage of the O.J. Simpson trial was considered over-exposure in the 90´s. During his most recent trial, people could stream healthy portions of the trial on their computers.

And what about music? The local music store used to be an essential for every music lover. Nowadays, though, buying CD´s is hardly a necessity. At the time, people from the East Coast were lucky if they ever even heard of music from the West Coast that was not on MTV, and vice versa. Now, there are Internet forums that spread the word about new music from all over the world, and in some cases, even distribute it.