To top it all off, I woke up last night at 2am with the feeling that a bomb had gone off in my left ear. As I sat in my bed writhing around like a snake and moaning like a diseased cat, I contemplated the best course of action. I could call home, but that probably wouldn't have been the best course of action given the time of night. So, I got on google and searched "severe earache."
Sure enough, the first hit got me exactly what I needed. Utilizing some q-tips and a bit of mouthwash, the ear pain went away almost immediately. I was astonished for two reasons. One: Someone had figured out that mouthwash apparently relieves earaches. Two: The internet just saved me hours of pain.
Let me repeat that so you can take the trip with me: The INTERNET saved me from hours of pain. I came to the realization late last night that we entirely take the internet for granted anymore.
Think about the last time you were bored. What did you do to relieve said boredom? I'd be willing to bet at least 70% of the people reading this did something internet related (after all, how did you end up here?).
Our reliance on the internet in this day and age is simply incomprehensible. As I drifted off to sleep, I started thinking about how important the internet is to me on a daily basis. All of my classes have their syllabi posted online, I communicate with my friends and family back home almost exclusively through email/facebook, I pay my bills online, I even read all of my news online.
Television is no longer the ruler of our nation. The internet is here in all of it's intangible (think about it: where is the internet?) goodness. So give some thanks today, people. Think about the internet and all the neat things it does for you. Reach out and say hi to someone you haven't talked to in a while. Look something up on wikipedia. Learn something you didn't know at the beginning of the day. Whatever you do, don't take this excellent invention for granted, if only for today.
much respect
josh
1 comment:
For the past two years I've imposed on myself a "no internet" week. That meant no browsing, email, Facebook, etc.
The thing was, though, that I truly couldn't disconnect myself. When I stopped by the library, I used the card catalog - and to my dismay, the catalog was a webpage. Also: I still sent text messages to my friends. And if you want to get technical, the network used to send texts is just a hop skip and a jump away from the internet.
I'd like to do it again, but unfortunately I don't know if it'll be possible to do it around the same time of year. (Mid February.) It would most certainly cause my grade to dramatically decrease. I need to be able to easily contact professors. The homework and quizzes we do in my math class is based entirely on a web app. You get the idea.
Anyway, the experiment is super enlightening. I'm still hellbent on doing it again, so I might have to move it to next summer.
I'm not sure if I agree that TV is "no longer the ruler of our nation". 99% of households in the US own at least one TV, while only 42% of Americans have internet access. I don't doubt that these numbers will have an inverse relationship in the coming years, but in the meantime I'd just leave it at "The TV is no longer the ruler of this generation."
By the way, sources:
http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats2.htm
http://www.csun.edu/science/health/docs/tv&health.html
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