I was in the shower this evening and started thinking about Sky, you know, the satellite TV provider… It’s a random thing to be thinking of in the shower and to be honest; I really couldn’t give you an answer as to why I was thinking about Sky.
Nonetheless, it occurred to me that I’ve been through the majority of my life without Sky. In fact, up until the age of nineteen, I survived on four channels (channel five was a pain in the arse where I lived). Then one day, my mother decided to buy me a Freeview box as a Christmas present and suddenly I had about thirty or so channels (if the weather was good, not often in the UK). The first four channels had good quality pictures and I wondered why I never thought about getting a Freeview box earlier. Then I met up with Paul at nineteen and when we moved in together, I finally upgraded and got television through my internet connection (Homechoice – it’s a lot better than it sounds) – which I loved for their BBC 7 day memory thingy.
Anyway, eventually Homechoice were taken over by Tiscali and we soon left. When we moved into our new flat, we made the decision to get Sky. I was twenty at this time and suddenly I had a hundreds of channels to look through and watch. If I’m honest, most of the channels are utter crap, there are a few I watch regularly enough to justify having Sky so that’s why we still have it. But I remember going to my friend’s house when I was little and always being a little jealous that they had Sky or cable, and all I had were four regular channels. Now that I’m older and actually pay for bills etc, I’ve come to realise my mum was smart not crack under the pressure and buy Sky for us. Not only would I have probably spent more time watching cartoons as a kid, I probably wouldn’t have gone out as much.
Which now brings me to my next peice of technology, the computer. When I was younger, my two older brothers had a Sega Megadrive and a NES. When they weren’t looking, I would sneak a go on their computers. I remember once my mum bought us a second hand Commodore 64 and the hours spent waiting for a game to load, let me tell you, I’m glad technology has moved on. I remember, I was about seven and I had found the manual for the 64 and learnt how to “program”, simple things like calculating numbers and stuff. Apart from that, that was my only interaction with computers until I reached eleven. I’m not going to count the old Macintosh Classics computers at school – where the only highlight of the lesson was if you were lucky enough to sit in front of a colour one!
When I went to America to visit my dad, I got my first taste of a proper computer and the internet. In fact, until I went to America, I had never been on the internet at all. I remember picking up things so fast, that my dad bought me a Satellite Pro laptop for me to take back to the UK so I could keep in contact with him. Which I did. Over the years, I’ve had several computers, no more than five I think and I’ve utilised the internet in a way that a) wastes my time b) learnt new skills and c) helped me in my current job.
When I really think about it, the internet has practically shaped my life. If I never went online, if I never had a computer, if I never met my dad… I wouldn’t be where I am now. Yes really. It sounds scary when I think about things like that, but it’s true. If I never used the internet, I wouldn’t have met Craig, I wouldn’t have moved to Cambridge for a few years, I wouldn’t have gone to college, in fact I probably wouldn’t even have a home. If I didn’t have the internet, I wouldn’t have spoken to Paul, whom I wouldn’t have met up with nearly five years after first speaking and I wouldn’t be in the job I’m in now. If I didn’t have the internet, I might have gone out more, but honestly, with the way my family situation was going at the time, I probably wouldn’t have lived past the age of fifteen. Yes really. When I think about what the internet has done for me, how I’ve used it, how I’ve loved it and hated it all at once, it scares the fucking shit out of me because I hate relying on things. The internet can be such a useful tool, both for educational and personal reasons, but on the flipside, it can ultimately take over your life and shape it into something completely different.
If I didn’t have the internet… who knows? How has the internet affected your life?