

Ask HN: How has the Internet changed your life? - rblion

I am just wondering about how the internet has advanced humanity as a whole by knowing about personal, individual experiences.<p>Im only 20, so most of my life has been with the internet, I can't imagine life without it. It is that profound and useful to me. I feel it adds a layer of consciousness to existence if used resourcefully and intelligently.<p>This is an open discussion. Just get involved.
======
gvb
The amount of information at my fingertips (literally) is mind boggling.

I used to read Worldbook encyclopedias when I was a kid (mostly at school). A
set costs hundreds of dollars... and is eclipsed by Wikipedia + google.

I used to collect cast-off databooks (National Instruments, TI, Motorola,
Intel, etc.), now all that information and more is only a google search away.

I used to buy ARRL Handbooks to learn about electronics and circuits. Now I
mostly don't bother (just kidding, I still dabble in electronics, but gave up
my Ham license many years ago - just wasn't interested in talking to random
strangers). Hmmm, now I type text to random strangers and browse random
strangers' blogs.

I used to subscribe to magazines (e.g. Byte, Dr. Dobbs) to learn about
computers and software, now I run, read, and contribute to Open Source
projects.

You know how you always forget the bad stuff and only remember the good stuff?
Looking back, I remember a lot of cool things I did, but I kind of blank out
how much effort it was to find the necessary information.

On the dark side, I waste a _lot_ of time on the internet. One of our kids did
a clay "diorama" of "this is my family." Someone else's kid had their family
around a campfire. My kid had the family in the living room, me with a little
clay laptop on my lap. Oh-oh.

~~~
rblion
We are some lucky apes.

The internet is like buzz lightyear and books are like woody.

This generation needs LEGOs and camping trips.

------
tiffani
I feel smarter and more knowledgeable. I've had access to the web in my house
off and on since I was 11 (25 now) and even when things dragged along via
dial-up, I always felt like I had all kinds of info at my fingertips. I'd go
to class in high school armed with all kinds of facts and background info on
topics that the teachers (especially in history classes, for example) never
would have/could have covered.

My parents were always all for dropping me and my bro off at the library, but
something about finding out about stuff by going from link to link is just
more fluid than walking out with a ton of books (some of which may not even be
all current).

During college, I picked up Rails and all this open source stuff--the
databases, servers, etc.--that I really wouldn't have gotten to in classes
until my senior year. 'twas all made possible by going from link to link, blog
to blog.

Overall, I'm just happy that whatever I want to know is always going to just
be right there as long as I have some kind of internet connection. It's always
been an advantage in my book.

Socially, I'm glad I can stay connected to whomever despite not physically
being within a convenient distance of any of my really good friends. Despite
Facebook and Twitter, iChat and Skype keep me connected and able to _see_
friends from college who are allover the place. Seeing a friend react in real-
time to some new shirt you bought, for example, really beats even just the
telephone. It all makes the world smaller and a lot closer.

Gotta love the internet...!

~~~
rblion
Long live the internet!

We are lucky to have had a taste of life without the internet and to be among
the few who care to influence it's future.

------
private1
Here's my story... Growing up I was always very active. I spent a lot of time
outdoors and really enjoyed it. I was planning on becoming a paramedic. I'd
grown up with computers and our family had the internet from about 1995.

At the age of 17 (I'm 24 now) two things began to happen, I started to play
with design and HTML and I also developed a continuous headache... it started
one day and I haven't had a moment without it since.

So how has the internet changed my life? Since I could no longer be active and
couldn't pursue becoming a paramedic I spent more and more time designing
websites and very quickly friends started paying me to create websites for
them and I realised that I could do it for a living.

Now I've spent over five years working in the industry and have worked with
people all over the world. I have worked for myself and for a number of
creative agencies. I'm currently employed full-time and work in an office, but
I'm not sure how much longer I can do that (bright fluorescent lights and the
routine can be difficult at times) and so I'm either going to start looking
for a startup/work from home job or go back to freelancing. All of this has
been made possible because of the internet and I will continue to be able to
work full-time because of it.

~~~
rblion
Thank you for sharing. The Internet is like our era's 'New World'. So much
opportunity for anyone bold enough to 'figure it out.'

------
brudgers
I write a lot more and I read about more diverse subjects.

