A really interesting observation that I've never addressed directly, but have felt for years. I think of 'marking time' in terms BI (before internet) DI (during internet) ages. I've participates in many forums over the years, 'the internet world of the pipe' being a fairly recent one. I joined the 'computer revolution' in the middle ages during the Windows 3.11 - Windows 95 days and discovered forums, newsgroups, user groups fairly early on. At first it was a desire to keep up with the 'bleeding edge' and rapid development of 'support knowledge' surrounding the computer hardware/software communities and then the 'web design' communities. About the time of the .Bomb I found pipe communities and joined in.
I know that those of us who are older (30 and above) remember that we lived 'full lives' before computers and 'the internet'. but I barely remember 'how' we did this. I remember the first few weeks, months after my wife and I first 'got online' and were staying up 36 hours each day (yeah I know that a day is only 24 hours long) fascinated by 'the information super highway' on our 28.8 external modem. I remember how fascinating chatting in real time was for me, the idea that I was chatting with people from all over the globe in real time was (and still is) incredible to me.
I've had a few times in my life during moves and re-locations where I was 'deprived' internet for several weeks at a time. I was out of touch, I felt as though I'd time traveled back to the dark ages, ok that's a stretch, but I did feel very out of sorts.
I think the computer and the internet have so revolutionized the way we as humans communicate, obtain information and look for anything that we are altered as a species, and may have 'evolved' (a poetic usage not a scientific one) and changed psychologically to meet/deal with these changes. My gut reaction is, if we all share this feeling of needing to connect (how often reflected by our degree of 'buying into the internet identity') what happens if the internet suddenly WASN'T THERE? :affraid:
No Bub, I suspect you are not alone, I think humankind has changed (evolved) with the advent of the 'information age' that our methods of being have been influenced, maybe permanently.
