Can you imagine a world without the World Wide Web?
Widespread Internet outages yesterday (only about an hour, but wow, it was horrible) begs the question - What would the world be like if the Internet had not been 'invented'?
Lets take a Orwell's 1984-esque meander. Imagine a future without the Internet...
Would we be healthier? After all, we might actually have to get up, get dressed, and go out to talk to our friends. On the other hand, we wouldn't be able to quickly Google the latest symptoms of that pesky rash or find out how many calories are in the latte we are about to consume.
Would we be less busy? How much time do you waste on Facebook, Twitter, or 'googling' random facts that really don't matter? Would we really do something more constructive with that time, or just find another time-vacuum to replace the Internet?
Would we be less informed? That is very likely. After all, the Internet has played a major role in wars, in rising stars (Think Bieber Fever), and spreads news faster than any Wednesday Night Bridge Club could ever have dreamed. (They now play Bridge on their mobile devices all day, while checking their 401(k)s and tweeting about the latest scandal they heard on Facebook.)
Would we be less stressed? That is possible, because I know the never-ending barrage of information, the demands of posting better updates on Facebook than my friends, and checking my phone for new emails every few minutes can be exhausting. Remember what it was like to have to wait until you got home to check your email, or wait for the five o'clock news to see what the weather was going to be like tomorrow? Neither do I.
Would the Dictionary be shorter? Yes. Think of all the words the Internet has added. Internet, 'googling', API, about a million words that start with 'e', like ecommerce, bandwidth... You get the picture.
Would the world be better? I will leave that up to you to decide. It is really irrelevant, because the Internet is here, and it is here to stay. Might as well enjoy it!
