Tag Archives: art

I didn’t grow up on the internet. I was not on Facebook in high school or college. I did have a dial-up modem and an AOL screen name by the time I was in middle school (Kitty0000000), but was not online even a fraction of the time I spend on here today. Although I didn’t grow up here, I am now a grown-up here. What did I do before? Talk on the phone??! Use the Encyclopedia? Develop film instead of uploads?!? Yipes.

Most of my waking hours are spent on the computer. I am not proud of this, but it is how my life is set up right now. Sometimes I envy those who have jobs where they are not sitting at the machine all day long. My friend’s mom is a florist, and barely uses email. CRAZY—or crazy good? I just can’t fathom checking my email only once every couple days. Sometimes I will send one to someone that doesn’t live on their computer. Often, these people won’t respond for a few days. WHAT? Why aren’t they checking it? Immediately?!? Why isn’t Gmail open in one of the tabs of their browser at all times? Then I remember that some people are still normal humans that can survive more than 24 hours without the internet. Astounding.

I grew up before the birth of the internet– or at least the explosion of the online world that I know and love today. What did I do for fun? Built rock houses….as in multilevel shoebox condos with handmade furniture–for rocks. Went boating…in a laundry basket on my parent’s water bed. Puppet shows and puppet dentist (yep). Had clubhouses and tree houses that were totally awesome. Built full stores with drive-thru windows out of ever-present moving boxes in the basement. Popped tar bubbles in the road (the best)! Rode the unicycle…um yes. Captured the flag. Built forts. Played in the creek. I am sure my brother could add some classics to this list as well. When we were little ones, we played everywhere except the internet.

My friends and I grew up imagining up our own fun, rather than having it served up instantly online. My family did eventually get a Commodore 64 that had some pretty sweet games. We even had a sweet joystick controller! I can’t honestly claim that I never sat at a machine during my entire childhood, but the majority was spent away from it. Are young kids totally glued to it these days? I don’t really know a ton of kids I guess, but I feel like they are more plugged in than ever. That is a generalization of the modern child I suppose, but what do I know? Will I let my own kids hang out on the computer for hours? I may be guilty of romanticizing my own internet-free childhood to an extent, but sometimes I wonder if I would have grown into the creative person that I am today if I had been online instead of outside. Maybe I would have be more exposed to new ideas online and thus more creative? Hmmmm…

Being an adult that hangs out online all day, I just can’t see living without it at this point. It broadens my little world and I adore it. It also brings my favorite people within close reach and I can talk (type) to them at a moment’s notice. Even if they are “Away,” they still seem close by. I am not a crier—maybe once a year if that—but when a computer crashes and dies I will get all snot faced and emotional about it. (I just realized how pathetic last sentence is…insert *sad crying emoticon*) And nothing frustrates me more than a loss of an internet connection. I would certainly like to be on the computer less than I am now, but that probably won’t happen for me for awhile considering what I do for a living.

Tonight, I just started using Google Reader (late bloomer), which is a whole new addiction that I am enjoying. Why didn’t I use it before? I ask myself this every time new technology comes into my life. When I get my iPhone someday I will probably kick myself for a full month for waiting so long. Then inevitably break it and probably cry in public.

DPH’s:

I <3 the internet for helping me find things like this: "Artist Meschac Gaba imagined a city of sugar, and then built it. He filled it with instantly recognizable landmarks from around the world, such as the Taj Mahal, the Eiffel Tower, the Sydney Opera House, the London Eye, Petronas Towers, the Reichstag, the Empire State Building, and more..."

I also <3 not being online. I have yet to meet a computer than can produce sunshine, food, or tulips. Until that day, I still pick actually living over being plugged in.