This Necessary Contraption

I was a part of a conversation the other night when us recruitment kids were discussing this current generation of young adults, and how they depend so heavily on the internet. Now coming from the city I do – Calgary – where WIFI is being installed on all the buses so you no longer have to wait that extra half an hour to check your email, I had discovered I had some thoughts on the subject.

Ever since I can remember I have been around the Internet. Well that is not exactly true, I do remember a time in my young life where I would hover around my fathers old prehistoric black and white Apple with the rest of the children in my Sunday school and play a game know as ‘The Ancient Art of War’ a terrible war simulation game that somehow entertained us for the few minutes after church had ended before we were rushed out of the building. But when I think about it, the Internet has been apart of our lives for just about 10 years. We’ve grown up with it and have watched it evolve from its plain past to the dizzying media display it currently entertains us with. Try and imagine for a moment what your life would be like without the Internet. There would be no more questions answered by a simple Google search. How many time have you wanted the answer to a question that was pecking at your mind, wandered over to your computer and within 10 minutes found relief to that nagging thought? There would be no more instant communication other than that of the telephone or the pen on paper. I’m sure this would be a benefit for some people, even myself in some ways, as the skills of letter writing would once again be widespread. But what you would not have is days spent messaging your friends from all over the globe, electronic mail transferring files and messages at all times in the day. You would not find the interesting images and movies from all over the globe about history, people, current event and the like. No up to date sports or news. But at the same time it would be much more difficult to stumble across the filth that is pornography and all sorts of other evils that plague the Internet.

Think about the places this contraption has taken us in the past and where it is taking us in the future. What would your life be like without the Internet? Would you be reading more books, watching more television, spending more time outside? Would you be the social butterfly you have become, would you have as many surface level friendships and with the same breath would you have as deep friendship so quickly? Would your relationship with that guy or girl be strained because of the difficult communication? We live in a day and age where we cannot help but be affected in some way by this giant that is the Internet. What would your life be like without it? And how can we harness this machine’s potential to develop our world and ourselves? A lot has changed in 10 quick years, imagine what you’ll be surfing in fifty.