For those of us who have been using the internet for years it can seem impossible to imagine what life was like before internet service. Yet those of us over thirty know that there was vibrant life before the internet. On a fundamental level, how important is it? For many who live in remote parts of the earth, internet access is about as important and sensible as buying clothes for a pet dog. Life goes on, regardless of what technology does. For those of us in technologically advanced societies it seems indispensable.

When the internet is one of your means of making income or communicating with others it can seem like an indispensable lifeline and it is, up to a point. However, try turning off your computer(s) and see how much else you can get done; examine what else you might have going on in your life. You'll be amazed at what else is out there that you've neglected. In fact, you may start to see the internet as a tether from the artificial world to the real one.

I decided to turn my computer off for a week. Of course this didn't mean that my internet connection was turned off but my experiment worked just the same; I'd got a lot of work done that I would have normally put off. It was difficult, being the internet junkie that I am, but I had all of my clothes washed and ironed on time, finished a book I had started reading months ago, took another trip to the bookstore, talked on the phone with relatives, cooked some old fashioned healthy meals (and desserts) from scratch, caught up on some movies and TV shows I missed over the previous season and finished some old writing projects. All of that in a one week span! I think that there should be a "turn off the computer" day for everyone. You might be amazed at what you're missing out on in life while you are tied to your computer, surfing the internet.

There are millions of people that do not have access to the internet and probably never will. Someone living on a farm in a remote African village or deep within the Amazon jungle has more important elemental matters to attend to: farming, gathering food, getting water, tribal obligations and caring for family. The internet is a luxury to them. This is not to say that it is wrong to use the internet, but I often wonder what the rest of us would do if the World Society was set back, like a clock, to Genesis. What if a series of catastrophic disasters around the globe destroyed electricity and the infrastructure that allows the internet to exist and we had to live without this modern tool? Would it matter anymore? Would society simply disappear? I don't think so. People would find other things that would take precedence over what used to be. It's hard to imagine such a thing but we would eventually adjust.

I suppose that more of us would have to engage with people face to face, do things with our hands and use our imaginations. The things we take for granted because of the internet, like buying things and communication would no longer be instant. Perhaps that would be a good thing. Working for those same things might make us value them more. We might value our time, the things we purchase, how we communicate with others more than we do now. A whole host of things might be looked at differently. Of all of the minuses we would suffer from not having internet access any longer, the intangible benefits might be worth losing it over. Or at least choosing to stay disconnected from it for a day or two. I think everyone should try it. It might put things in perspective.

Learn more about this author, Victoria Jeffrey.
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