Comments on: OneWebDay

By: Eszter

Eszter — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 04:44:39 +0000

Gosh, so many ways, it’s hard to say. I think you captured some of the really important aspects, like the ability to keep in touch with family and friends much more easily, and following distant cultures at a much lower cost.

Like another commenter, I really appreciate being able to get answers to various random question quickly. I also rely on the Web for mundane everyday life things such as checking the weather, figuring out how to get to my next destination (and when taking public transportation, when to get to the station), listening to music, exploring distant lands through people’s photographs, and so on.

And, like you Maria, my professional life centers around the Internet so one big question for me could be: What would I be doing if we didn’t have all this?

By: nick s

nick s — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 08:45:01 +0000

I remember seeing Mosaic fire up on an NCD X-terminal in January 1994, and knew the web, even then, was going to change things in a big way. Yes, it means that I no longer spend as many afternoons in a reference library, and I probably read fewer dead-tree books than I would otherwise, and my handwriting has gone to pot, but these are small things.

The expat thing is huge: it’s 4.30am and I’m listening to audio commentary from the Ryder Cup, because the American broadcasters tape-delay the morning matches. I don’t necessarily think it reinforces little-Englander tendencies; I do think it’s helped me stay sane.

By: vivian

vivian — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 01:44:16 +0000

It’s changed my life in so many ways, all of them deadly dull to describe. I’ve run a family mailing list for years. In the course of which I’ve met many aging relatives who were only names and anecdotes to me. Also I’m able to keep in touch with friends who move frequently. Oddly, people from my past keep turning up commenting in CT. See what I mean – dull.

By: Andy

Andy — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 01:07:16 +0000

Yes there’s a side of the web that isn’t wonderful but I certainly owe it a lot. The only way I could do my current job (network administration) is due to the availability of information on the web. I’m a bit of an expat too and keeping track of Arsenal is far easier now. I even met my wife online. I understand that it’s possible to quibble about what’s web-ish versus net-ish but the rise of the web has catalyzed a lot of services that wouldn’t be here without good old HTTP.

By: Megan

Megan — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 19:15:02 +0000

Because of the internets, I never wonder things anymore. Seriously, a thought crosses my mind and just as easily I can find out the answer. I used to puzzle over things forever until I got an answer, and now, most of the time, I can get a plausible answer the next time I’m at a computer. It is nice.

(I don’t mean that I don’t have curiosity anymore. I just mean that it is satisfied.)

By: moriarty

moriarty — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 18:01:57 +0000

The Web is very insecure and thus needs to be told how wonderful it is.

By: jayann

jayann — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 17:38:41 +0000

But you asked how it changed our lives. I’d say the Net changed my life more than the Web has—I use niche software, some of it assistive tech., and the email lists for that, now mainly replaced by web forums, were invaluable. Otoh a paraplegic using the same software would probably place more emphasis on the web; one called it “my window on the world”.

Re my snapping at comments about “grannies”, see the Guardian letters’ page after their Silver Surfers’ Day piece.

By: Helena

Helena — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 15:32:47 +0000

I’ve designed 3 websites for free (one for a charity, two for trad. music CD shops), 6 internal sites and 2 commercial sites since I started with it 1995. I would never have managed to finish my business diploma without online resources. The OneWebDay is a good excuse to go out for a drink!

By: astrongmaybe

astrongmaybe — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 14:45:27 +0000

The real way the Internet changed my life, though, is by making expat life a bit less like living with a running sore… Of course, nothing is the same as living in your own country, speaking in your own accent, sitting in your best friend’s kitchen talking rubbish over a bottle of wine…

The problem with the Internet is that it makes it so much harder to leave all that shit behind. You can still run away, but now it runs after you..;o) YMMV.

By: Maria

Maria — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 13:34:41 +0000

I thought of a few items for this category:

“mad things the web lets us do that we’d never thought of before and now can’t live without.”

Thing is, they’re all bad for you.

e.g.:

– finding cheap, unethical or inadvisable health services online. Like buying kidneys from Indian peasants, getting dodgy lipo in developing countries, or other things I read about in Marie Claire that were just too hard to do before the web.

– googling ex-boyfriends.

– googling prospective boyfriends.

– googling self.

– getting expensive instant gratification on momentary obsessions and finding the need has passed once the book/DVD/small child has arrived.

– oh, and of course, blogging.

By: Ted

Ted — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 13:27:13 +0000

I met my wife via the internet. Anything else it does for me is gravy.

Oh, and I found a really good recipe for gravy.

By: John Emerson

John Emerson — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 12:17:21 +0000

“The Web brought me to Jesus—but first, it ruined my life!”

By: jayann

jayann — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 12:10:48 +0000

getting grannies online

to join all the grandads?

By: otto

otto — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 11:34:07 +0000

The interweb does really change things for expats.

By: kid bitzer

kid bitzer — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 10:22:37 +0000

it has reduced my productivity by roughly 80%.

lotta time wasted.

Thanks, WWW!