h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

lets see. the first computer i got was in 1993, which would make me 12. at first it was just the occasional game of battleship and hangman. but then i got "online." i was sucked in. i spent most of my days on the infernal machine. the internet turned me into a cave-dweller. who needs a social life when its so much easier to just "chat" with people online that know nothing about you?

the internet ruined my adolescent years. whenever a report needs to be researched, just look on the internet. a computer with a phone line is all you need now a days to do pretty much anything. social interaction is down to a binary level, 0 and 1, point and click. and it is not getting better with time.

without the internet, our quality of life would be so much better. people would talk, not chat. the internet is not a godsend. because of it, we are less like men and more like automatons, incessantly typing away, reading ezines, shopping online, "meeting" people that lie about who they really are.

when you're old and gray and lying on your deathbed, you won't be saying "i wish i spent more time on my computer." trust me.

The thing is, it depends on the kind of person you are. When I first started using the Net in 1995 I was initially intruiged at the Web and email, and using Usenet to network with like-minded people worldwide. But I kept a grip - I was still going out and getting vigorously pissed with my friends at university. To me, it was just another tool for communication, to complement the usual means rather than replace them. Even when I really first started chatting on-line (using old Telnet talkers, ahh the good old days.. , it remained a curio.

So if you're the kind of person to get obsessed and spent all your life online, the Internet is really just a channel for your sociopathic tendancies, which would probably manifest themselves somewhere else anyway. More balanced people, like me, can regulate their use and simply see it as another tool, rather than the only tool.

Chat rooms are dull as hell, anyway....