The Internet

Evening everyone! I am currently working, but I have some down time so I figured I would talk to my favorite place: The internet. Actually, that's a good topic for tonight. The internet.

When I was younger, internet was not nearly as big as it was today. I don't even think I went on the computer for anything except Microsoft Word, because all I ever wanted to do was write and then print out my little stories. At my grandparents house we used internet to play a Barbie game, but they still had dial-up, so I didn't even recognize it as internet.

I found out recently that I am older than Google. To me, that's shocking. Every since I've known internet, I've known Google. I mean, Bing was a thing for a little while, but let's be honest, no one really uses Bing unless you're fact checking Google. My first brush with the internet outside of school  was when my mom got her very first iPod, and she would upload songs to her iPod from the internet, and that was a big deal for us. Honestly, from there internet just seemed to take over my life. Any information you needed could be found with a tap of a button. Phones with internet became a thing, people no longer used ChaCha to get all their information on their phones, and even my school got iPads.

Is this all good? I have social anxiety, and I feel like sometimes it has been exasperated by being able to rely on the internet so much. On the other hand, it's a really good tool. If it wasn't for the internet, I wouldn't have been able to find a doctor that took my insurance, because my insurance takes forever to answer the phone. The internet helped me in school, and it is pretty much the center of my job.

So here's my thoughts. Is the internet a good thing, or a bad thing? Is making everything "smart" benefiting everyone, or is it contributing to anxiety, depression, anti-social-ness...? I feel like I'm stuck on this. Sometimes I hear of people talking about how they restrict internet/screen times for their kids, and I wonder if adults need that too. If we aren't able to be without our phones for more than just while we're at work, how is it effecting our continued social skills?

I wish I was more social, but at the same time I love curling up with a movie on Hulu and just relaxing. Sometimes I wonder if some people are actually introverted, or if they are just more susceptible to technology. My husband always teases me because I tend to fall asleep best when I can surf Facebook as I drift to sleep. I'm wondering what other generations think about this. 18 year olds definitely grew up in a different world than I did, whereas the baby boomers grew up completely different world than the 18 year olds or I. I'd love to hear opinions or thoughts on the internet, because I honestly think it's great but yet scary to think of a world of everything being electronic.

Night everyone!

~Susan~