Could You Survive Without The Internet?

Life without the net…you MUST be joking!

The following extract is taken from Could You Survive Abroad Without the Internet? my January column over at Expat Focus

Expat Focus Columnists
Expat Focus Columnists

Could You Survive Abroad Without the Internet?

As more people either work or retire abroad I often wonder how expats managed to survive in a pre-internet world. How did they communicate with family and friends back home, or research different aspects of life in their new country?

I can’t even begin to imagine life abroad without the internet. Can you imagine being totally reliant on the long drawn out process of sending letters by snail-mail when you can now send emails in seconds? Or the cost of using a standard telephone when you can use VoIP (Skype) or even better two-way interactive video calls for free?

How did expats research different countries, the culture and the lifestyle? How did they interact with other expats prior to their move? Just asking myself these couple of simple questions made me realize the massive impact the internet has had on our daily lives. I know it makes me feel less isolated.

When you take a few moments to reflect how communicating via the internet has evolved over the last few years, the options are amazing!…

Article continues over at Expat Focus

Could you live without the internet?

24 thoughts on “Could You Survive Without The Internet?”

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  5. The world has changed so much that it would be difficult to function without the Internet. More and more businesses are requiring “paperless” payment via electronic automatic payment and only provide electronic statements. Here in the States if we want health insurance we have to apply for it online ourselves. We don’t get telephone directories anymore so have to find telephone numbers for businesses online. Personally, I could live without the Internet, but to function in this modern world, it’s getting harder and harder to do so. I guess, truly, I can’t live without it – though not so much by choice as by necessity. And I guess I still get thrilled when I receive a card or letter via snail-mail. It’s something tangible I can hold on to and cherish forever. Great thought-provoking post. Thanks.

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  6. I couldn’t. I use it for everything. From keeping in touch to working out directions to looking up recipes to helping with homework to looking up translations to looking up the bus timetable to checking the weather to buying presents/British food/English books to reading the news to… to… to…

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  9. If you’d asked me 5 years ago, I’d have said “Yes, of course”. Last year my laptop broke down and I survived while it was being fixed, but I definitely missed the internet. Now my answer is no! Without it I would never have met you at that first coffee morning!

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  11. Hiya,

    I hope you got my tweet and message on here. I stupidly thought as I wasn’t getting email notification of your posts that you weren’t posting. I then found that I had notifications turned off for several Blogs I was following.So so sorry.

    No, no, is the answer. I couldn’t live without the internet. I don’t own a TV and we spend nearly all evening doing stuff online.I spend evenings promoting my books, researching for the novels, emailing, social networking. Oh Lord, I would just wither up and die.How awful is that?

    xx

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  14. My work is on line, my communications are on line – without the internet I would be stuck. There is no mail here so there would be no way of communicating. I couldn’t do research, and I now find I can only write by typing, no idea any more what to do with paper and pen – which is very sad! I live in constant fear of my lap top dying on me!

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  16. I ‘discovered’ the internet two years ago. Up until then I was adamant I did not need it. But now I cannot imagine life without it. I look up recipes, go shopping and research anything & everything on line. How could we do without your wonderful blog.

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  17. We used encyclopedias, talked more to others to find out things, read more….but still, I cannot imagine living without internet anymore. The only problem is there is so much information that I sometimes get lost, while looking for something, it leads me to something else, and then something else… but it’s the most wonderful invention!

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  20. We live in an instant world no matter where we are these days. When my grandmother and aunt went to live in America just after my mum got married in 1950, they communicated by weekly letters which Mum still has. They didnt know anything different. It must have been amazing to wait for that weekly letter and opening it to read the news. I think if push came to shove I would manage, but then I am a different generation and can remember times we didnt have the internet.

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  21. “How did expats research different countries, the culture and the lifestyle? How did they interact with other expats prior to their move?”

    I’m guessing people researched the old fashioned way, with books. And as for finding out about things, I guess they took the plunge and found out on their own, without Yelp reviews to help them out.

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  23. It is amazing how we have embrassed the internet to the point that we are communicating daily with people we have never met. We are commenting on facebook and interacting with friends we have not seen in a long time. I know I could live without it, since I managed for most of my life using the phone and snail-mail, but I think I would be missing something I value. The world is closer to me. My parents immigrated to Canada with very little knowledge of what the country was like, the only connection, a cousin. I wonder where they would have went, if they could do research via the internet?

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