I never really thought about how important the internet was until yesterday. Until then, I always took it for granted and thought it was a given to have. I never gave a thought about how hard life would be without any internet. Now I finally appreciate the luxury of having a personal internet connection in my house.
Now you may be wondering why I talk about such a minor event. Well, this led me to realize that I take many things for granted without a thought about what life would be without it. I'm going to use my iPod as another example. At a first thought, it may seem like an unneeded luxury to have an iPod touch. It is somewhat unneeded; I survived perfectly well without it in fifth grade. But naturally, I slowly began to take advantage of it. I now use it for many daily activities like planning, communications, and much more. Without my iPod, I wouldn't know what time to go outside to meet my friend and walk to school, I might forget the dates of major events, I couldn't listen to music without opening my laptop.
My theory, which I am naming the expansion theory of humans, says that we don't need many things that we think are important to life, but after we get a luxury, we slowly incorporate it into our daily life so much that we can't live without it.
Hey Andy!
ReplyDeleteOver winter break, I challenge you to go for 7 consecutive days without the use of texting, online chatting, iPods, electronic/online/computer/video games, facebook, forums, video streaming, and all other forms of internet surfing.
I am throwing down the gauntlet – as a matter of honor, you can’t refuse.
Hint: “I can do it, but I don’t want to,” can’t be used as an excuse. Schoolwork is permitted (but no cheating!).
After a week, write about your experiences and how your lifestyle changed.
And yes, this is an actual writing assignment. I’ll be back in a week, so expect me to check up on you!
Cheers,
Hans
P.S.: If you want to do it but feel like you don’t have the willpower, I can come over and modify your internet settings so that you won’t be able to access time-wasting sites. With your parent’s permission of course =)
P.S.S.: It’s only 7 days. Piece of cake, right?
P.S.S.S.: To Andy’s parents: I feel like this would be a really good experience for Andy. I know full well the perils of too much technological addiction. For example, I’m in the library during Final’s week right now, and the girl next to me checks facebook on average once every 131 seconds (I timed it). Getting rid of the internet entirely isn’t the way to go, but it’s good for a person to learn to live without it.
For reference, see: http://tinyurl.com/2fgbkzz
and also: http://tinyurl.com/y995nlf