Can you imagine a world without internet?.......................

You may have noticed that I haven’t really posted that much these last few days. Well I had a traumatic experience that is going to take awhile to recover from. I had no internet for an entire ten hours. I know what you’re thinking: “That is terrible” or more likely “I think its time you got outside and did something useful”. Well yes it is terrible and that is just silly no one likes to go outside. Seriously though I get outside plenty, in fact I enjoy going out and doing things offline so I was wondering why having no internet is such a big deal?

At first I didn’t really know why it bothered me so much. I figured it was because in the back of my head I know that I can’t connect to the internet on a whim or maybe it was because I have to wait for a phone call from the internet company so I couldn’t leave the house. It comes down to the fact that when I am actually at home I rely on the internet to give me something to do. Having to wait by the phone all day is really boring even when you can watch recorded TV shows and when no internet is available you are limited to what you can do by yourself.

I was actually so bored I started on some much needed cleaning but I couldn’t do it for more than a few hours. The thought had occurred to do some blogging but even though my computer worked fine I would be unable to research the few bits and pieces of information that I wasn’t clear on. So I sat at home periodically checking for internet while waiting for a phone call telling me that the internet was fixed and that I could go on living my life.

The real problem is that I have been so accustomed to having access to the digital world that so much of my life revolves around it. When I don’t have the internet it feels like a part of me is unable to function at full speed even though I am perfectly able to continue working on something else. When I don’t have internet I feel completely lost. It is particularly odd because I have gone weeks without internet in the past but just the fact that it wasn’t there when I needed it was a terrifying feeling.

Since my experience I have decided that Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs should be adjusted to include Internet under the Physiological requirements. Internet has become a massive part of most of our lives and it is something that we will only grow closer to as we get older. I don’t think this would apply for everyone but it certainly applies to me and anyone who was born in the 1990′s in a first world country. I would almost say it is more important than having shelter but in reality I think I could get on without internet longer than without shelter.

In the end I was able to get internet back, hence why I am posting this, and I was able to claw myself back into the digital world. All kidding aside I did realize that my life is much more involved with the internet than I realized whether it is gaming, socializing, blogging, emailing, or most importantly solving boredom. Now I have to ask myself: Am I okay with how much the internet is in my life? Quite honestly I am perfectly fine with my daily internet usage. I don’t spend all day online and if I spent no time online I would have to find another interest to keep me busy when I get bored.