How the Web Changed my Life

The internets have had a huge impact on how I do things. The biggest impacts are in communication, entertainment, and work.

I used to have to call someone if I wanted to convey information to them, but now I mostly use email or text messaging. There are some advantages to calling, but for most cases, a text-based message works better. An email can't convey the same emotions as a human voice yet, but it might be able to in the future.

I used to sit on the couch after school and watch some TV. I only liked a few channels, so I was severely limited in what I could watch at any given time. If I wanted to watch a movie, I either had to go to Blockbuster or schedule ahead of time for HBO. Then, my family got a DVR. I now could record shows and watch them later. This was good, but I still had to decide ahead of time which shows I would want to watch. Now I watch most of my movies and TV online, through sites like Hulu, Justin.tv, and some sites of questionable legality. Now I have a virtually unlimited pool of entertainment options to choose from.

The only physical job I ever had was as a tennis instructor. I would drive to work at a set time and work for a set period. Now, I mostly work as a web designer from my home computer. I can work at 2 in the morning if I want, as long as I meet deadlines. While the vast majority of people go to a physical job, the number of people who can work from home, like me, is increasing at a very fast pace, mostly due to the internet.

I can't imagine life now without the web. I can't help but wonder what I won't be able to live without 10 years from now.