How much has the internet changed your day? Your Job?

I no longer have to sit pondering a question that comes to my mind or have to go to the library to research any medical questions. I can simply sit at my computer and research it on line.

Totally changed me. I wouldn’t have the job I have now if it weren’t for the internet. All of the students work from an on-line program. I’m getting my teaching re-certification via an online course at our community college.
I don’t send, or receive, letters any more. : (
BUT….the horizons that are open to me now that I didn’t have ten years ago, like YOU guys!!

I no longer need to use pigeons to send my mail overseas. What a novelty!

It’s been a boon to my freelance design work. I spent years pursuing freelance illustration work with little success. Then I switched to freelance event design and while I got lots of work, it’s exhausting.

Then I taught myself web design and it’s easy enough to get gigs and I’m not killing myself doing it.

Thank you interwebs. :^)

at work, I am totally distracted by email from friends and from internet.

at home, if i am curious about something i just research it. that used to involve the reference department at the library. Last week I saw The King’s Speech, it made me curious about the Royal Family and then I came home and and looked it all up.

i have, from when I was little (1970’s) letters that my family and friends sent. That type of correspondence is history (literally and figuratively). The sad thing is that written letters can be used by future generations for family history, and few people will have those written records in the years to come.

Facebook has enabled me to get in touch with my friends, coworkers, classmates from the past. I am on telephone very little now, most communication is PMs or email, which I prefer because I can write and respond at my convenience, not in big chunks of time. What has happened with some people I found from the past is that we talked about getting together when we first got back in touch, and then that turned into nothing. I think there’s this complacency that we are in touch thru FB and we know there’s no urgency to meet, it can be in 2 years or 4 years. I think people growing up today keep keeping in touch thru social networks for granted, but when I was little, when a friend moved away, we would write letters but then lose touch. There was no telephoning anywhere in the country for one monthly price, like now, so when someone moved, you would not call them, and eventually everyone got lost. People now take that for granted, that you can friend someone and be in touch till the day you die.

A friend called me the other day, and it’s someone I speak to infrequently, and I was thinking “why is she calling me? Why didn’t she just PM me?”

A lot! I can now pay most of my bills online, shop online rather than take time out of my few days off, keep an excelllent budget, calender, appt. scheduler, do my taxes, research, watch movies on my own schedule, talk to several friends at once when it’s convenient for all of us. So many things that help me make a 70+hr work week tolerable.

its a great relief from boredom, means i can get homwwork help without leaving my room and helps me stay in touch with cousins hundreds of miles away in california.
all good.

Isn’t change wonderful!

I still talk with all my friends at least several times a week and see them in person at least several times a month, if not more often.

I live in a rural area and do use the internet for a good portion of my
entertainment’, enter Fluther.

I am also an avid reader and can get lost for hours reading/researching online. Like the other night I spent 4 hours reading about the Tang & Ming dynasties of ancient China and downloading artwork from those periods.

The biggest impact for me as an aspiring writer is that I end up babbling away on here more than I am devoting time to my real writing. lol

I currently have about 5 outlines for some writing projects that are mouldering away in saved document land.

Oh well. ;-)

@Coloma – me too. Aspiring writer also, but have recently managed to limit Fluthering, as a kind of ‘reward’ for doing more focused work…!

In 1998 I put together a proposal for a computer system, to a charity (here in the UK). I have MS and knew the possibility of becoming isolated would see me off, very fortunately, I got my pooter. During last summer, I asked for my third upgrade (Yay – my first mac!) and now lurve it. My cats lick it and try to catch the cursor as it moves on the (oh, dribble, magnificent) screen.

As an artist, and wannabe writer, the computer has been a total lifesaver. I applied to another small charity to get myself onto the internet and succeeded, never have looked back. Lonely nights up until 3am in chatrooms; being asked to build my first website; finding occupation, support, new friends and ideas over the years, the internet became my buddy. I am building my own first website now, to peddle my creative wares. I found Fluther last autumn and wonder how I ever managed without it.

I work from home now. I do things in real-time for the better part and for those in a different time zone, it’s ready when they wake. It’s great. I’m home, I get to be mom and I’m still bringing in the bacon! I can’t fry it up in the pan, too!

I work from home or wherever I choose to be, for clients who live in other states. In other projects, I’m designing games for the Internet.

I now work from home and communicate with colleagues mostly by email. My work is entirely Internet based. Much of my leisure time is also spent online in one way or another. However you can’t beat seeing people face to face and I like to escape to the mountains from time to time.

…but further to the above, I have to say that @jca‘s words left me thinking. I keep letters and have some that go back quite a way, including some from my Dad to me when I was younger and he was still alive*. I keep interesting and beautiful Christmas cards too and always hand-make my own.

The internet is a wilde beeste, with energy and hubris to match, hugely enticing, a window on the world for the lonely, disenfranchised or just plain bored. But, the hand of the maker it does not show. A thumbprint in ink, or on a clay pot; a handwritten signature instead of a digital one… No one can actually fake these and there is an ‘aura’ that is carried in the impressions of our lives. Not so t’internet; flick the switch and all is gone.

*I also have his false teeth, but that’s another story

@jca I get what you are saying and amazed how people seem annoyed I called instead of texting!! “WTH Cruiser!! Next time just text me!!”

@cak: …‘cuz I’m a gi-raffe!