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Old 14-05-2016, 00:57   #1
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Life before Internet?

Do you remember life before the internet? Have you noticed just how much time it takes from your day, or is it - for you - a time saver? Sure... GRIB files are fantastic, but a 301 page thread on "Why Climate Change Won't Matter in 20 Years" makes me wonder: WHY am I reading that? Ironically, I'm posting this rather than sitting in the cockpit watching the moon rise over Rainmaker Mountain. (sigh) I'm going to hit the sack now, but I'll be curious if others pick up on this and discuss. Not me, you idjiots! Discuss how the net relates to YOUR life!

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Old 14-05-2016, 02:14   #2
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Re: Life before Internet?

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Originally Posted by svmariane View Post
Do you remember life before the internet?
I do. It's a long time ago though. I got my first email address in 1993, and my first broadband internet connection in 94 (for 90ies values of "broadband").

The internet is not really a time waster. Most of the stuff people "waste" time on, is interacting with other people. We have a need for that, and the internet is just another means for fulfilling that..

The internet means that I can keep in touch with my relatives all over the globe, can work for a US company in Switzerland, in a team that does not have two persons living in the same metropolitan area...
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Old 14-05-2016, 17:59   #3
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Re: Life before Internet?

Waste time? Seriously? I just ordered three things on Amazon that will be here Monday. No driving around, no phone calls, no "allow six weeks for delivery."

Last week I was contorted in some almost-inaccessible part of the boat and used up the last of some small fittings I like to keep on hand. I scanned the package with an app on my phone, and clicked a button that took me to a site where I could order another package. Didn't even have to crawl out to jot down a note to myself!

Haven't had to check out, and remember to return, a library book or movie in years.

I give friends and family a web address and they can track my location, and even send me a text, or receive one, no matter where on the planet I am.

When I needed to know which wire to clip on my last new car to disable those stupid automatic-on headlights. a quick search got me the answer in seconds; no guessing, no clipping wires and hoping.

That goes for just about any job I've never done before. No matter how trivial, someone has posted a YouTube video showing me exactly how to do it. That alone has saved countless hours, not to mention the damage I would have done trying to figure out on my own how to take things apart.

Even when I "waste" time on this forum (like now), it's more productive than watching some sitcom on TV. Usually I learn something, sometimes I just get a good laugh.

That said, I'm probably not typical. (1) I'm not on Facebook, and (2) I skip over long threads about global warming, or any threads that have descended into pointless bickering.
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Old 14-05-2016, 19:25   #4
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Re: Life before Internet?

If not for the Internet I would likely never have seen 'Human' - a movie by Yann Arthus-Bertrand.

We cannot save our life time for later. We can only use it up, living it.

When books were the new thing and just getting popular, backward thinking people burned (or burnt?) them at the stakes.

Today some people claim the Internet is bad and BOOKS ARE GOOD. Backward thinking never dies. The good news is today, here, we do not have stakes.

Life before the Internet was just that, life. There may also be some kind of life after the Internet. Much as I cannot imagine this.

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Old 14-05-2016, 19:51   #5
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Re: Life before Internet?

The Internet is like all other developments; it is a double-edged sword with both positive and negative aspects. All new technologies, and indeed all social, political or cultural changes, come with the same tension. It's hard (perhaps impossible) for those of us who are living the change to take the full measure of where the balance will measure out.

"We cannot save our life time for later. We can only use it up, living it."

Nicely put barnakiel. Thanks.
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Old 14-05-2016, 20:25   #6
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Re: Life before Internet?

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Originally Posted by CaptTom View Post
................................

Even when I "waste" time on this forum (like now), it's more productive than watching some sitcom on TV. Usually I learn something, sometimes I just get a good laugh.

That said, I'm probably not typical. (1) I'm not on Facebook, and (2) I skip over long threads about global warming, or any threads that have descended into pointless bickering.
Me, too.

And like many others we spend time sharing information with others.
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Old 14-05-2016, 21:39   #7
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Re: Life before Internet?

Before Internet, I made decisions with much less data. Now I have data overload, and I am not sure my decisions are any better.

The how to videos on U tube are awesome, and they give me more confidence when I attempt some repair for the first time.

It's great to have worldwide communications in an emergency, nevertheless I function quite happily without texting. In fact, I dislike texting.

When we did our circumnavigation, we got a mail drop every two to three months, and that worked good for us. Now it can be all on line which is probably better.

Life before Internet was good.

The main downside of internet is that as the global web gets tighter, cruisers will be under greater surveillance, and governments will take a closer interest in everything that we do.
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Old 15-05-2016, 00:18   #8
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Re: Life before Internet?

I am old enough to remember when we had to write letters by hand then put them in the post and wait for a reply. Take my word for it, the internet is better.
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Old 15-05-2016, 00:57   #9
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Re: Life before Internet?

While there are some minor downsides, you would be hard pressed to come up with an overall negative view of the internet's effect on cruisers.

We for example would most likely be sitting in cubicles dreaming of escape. Instead I can run multiple projects, literally on opposite sides of the world while sitting on the back deck watching the fishing fleet go out...I'll take the evils of the internet, thank you very much.
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Old 15-05-2016, 01:37   #10
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Re: Life before Internet?

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Originally Posted by svmariane View Post
... but a 301 page thread on "Why Climate Change Won't Matter in 20 Years" makes me wonder: WHY am I reading that?...
Damn you svmraine, because of you I'm now engaged in this BS thread and I am procrastinating like there is no tomorrow.

Before the internet in the 80's I was procrastinating by playing guitar or reading a book, writing a letter, but mostly ... with my girlfriend.

Now I'm still procrastinating by playing guitar or reading a book on my kindle, writing an email, but mostly ... with my wife.

So what has changed? Nothing really only that I'm married now since 32 years...

Giving up the internet? Yeah, right. Get out of here
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Old 15-05-2016, 03:40   #11
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Re: Life before Internet?

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Originally Posted by svmariane View Post
Do you remember life before the internet?[/url]
Yup, agree with Capt Tom. Ordering some special took few days of telephoning, waiting for replays never came, tracking goods a PITA. Here even more difficult becouse the closest proper marine store is 1300km away..
Now it takes few minutes buy, tracking and duty done online as well. With the time spared can laugh at BS as enjoy tips of the old salties

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Old 15-05-2016, 05:09   #12
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Re: Life before Internet?

In the early 80's I would contact a broker from an ad in one of the sailing magazines, long distance call. A week or so later I would receive a stack of boat listings copied so many times they were barely readable.


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Old 15-05-2016, 06:42   #13
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Re: Life before Internet?

Anything can be a waste of time if you let it....but to me the internet has enabled my way of life with direct to customer sales, skip the dealer. I could have never started up a water maker company the old fashined way of a dealer network with brick and mortar stores. I literally started the business from an anchorage in Mexico and got my website built from an internet cafe in Bahia de los Angeles in the Northern sea of cortez. Nothing like that was even remotely possible in Human History. Now I float around "working" for weeks at a time with a composition book and smart phone.

While on a trip to Italy, I actually sat down on the Roman Colosseum steps and took an order over the phone, laughing with the client about the irony of Old meets new technology.

I love the internet and I thank Al Gore all the time because his invention saved me from the corporate world and I haven't worn anything but Croc shoes since...ha ha ha
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Old 15-05-2016, 06:51   #14
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Re: Life before Internet?

Plenty of downsides to the Internet, or rather network technology combined with global reach and interconnected databases. Social myopia, loss of privacy, geography disconnected from community (CF ), rise of the surveillance society that puts 1984 to shame ... sure, there are plenty of what I would call negatives.

But on balance, I likes it .
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Old 15-05-2016, 15:43   #15
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Re: Life before Internet?

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Originally Posted by adoxograph View Post
Damn you svmraine, because of you I'm now engaged in this BS thread and I am procrastinating like there is no tomorrow.

Before the internet in the 80's I was procrastinating by playing guitar or reading a book, writing a letter, but mostly ... with my girlfriend.

Now I'm still procrastinating by playing guitar or reading a book on my kindle, writing an email, but mostly ... with my wife.

So what has changed? Nothing really only that I'm married now since 32 years...

Giving up the internet? Yeah, right. Get out of here
Suck it up, pal...... And then get back to that Climate Change thread! Your team has the ball right now but the other side is building a defense! And the name is svmariane... Spell it right or we gonna fight!

{Just joking.... }

Anywho..... I retired from the company at age 54, able to do so because the internet allows me to occasionally replenish the cruising kitty with on-line connections. Absolutely the best thing since sliced bread! {BTW: What was the best thing before sliced bread? Sorry - that belongs in the joke thread.}

I'm firmly in the camp that this is a tool - sort of like a Swiss Army knife with multiple purposes/utility that can be used for good or evil depending on personality. Or to listen to something like this:


Yeah, I wouldn't go back to the pre-net days even for 23 million British Pounds.



Oh, wait.... Belay my last. 'Course I would.
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