Was life better or worse without the internet?

The Internet is my lifeline and without it I'm sure I'd be huddled in a corner sucking my thumb.

I've had a computer since the 80's and what was later called 'the poor man's Internet' BBS (bulletin board system, which allowed you, via a TCP ( thank you Kahn and Cerf) link and modem, to access content in other people's computers and share.

I've downloaded and uploaded things since those early days (FTP) and 'met' many fascinating people on fora.
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Without access to medical journals, surveys, trials and papers I could never have written my books or the many articles I've completed over 30+ years.

Now, reduced as I am by eyesight failure, I couldn't even do my grocery shopping without it. Packets and tins and all price labels are a blur.

I can still see them online thank goodness, or rather thanks, Tim Berners-Lee.

BBS info for any fellow-geeks reading this.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulletin_board_system

Just different, I think.

It may not be so good for everyone but for our generation it is a godsend. I am on it all the time, shopping, reading, learning, playing games and researching. We were able to give up our car because of on-line shopping. I hate clothes shopping so that too takes the hassle out of my life. I share games with my grandchildren and FaceTime them.

Maybe I am too dependent on it,
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Not better, not worse, just different.

Like everything else depends who uses it and how, we can say that about anything else. It also changed the office world beyond recognition, making it a lot easier. So I'm all in favour and don't know how I managed before!

I think that the internet has not helped our memories!
We’re all getting older and cannot recall stuff like we used to, but it makes us lazy. An example of this. Say we watch a tv programme and there is an actor who we think ‘now what has he been in ?’ Nowadays we just google it and up comes a list of all the things he has appeared in. Whereas before, we would be puzzling over it and trying hard to remember. It felt very satisfying when we came up with a solution, but certainly frustrating if we couldn’t!

Better.