Yes, ChayChay, they say you don't miss the water until the well runs dry. I first got on the internet in the early 1990s with text only and very slow! We thought it was wonderful. Then we got another computer that I thought was so powerful and fast that I almost felt guilty for having it, and you cannot believe how fast that computer became outdated. I got into MIRC or maybe IRC chatting. I think someone got mad at me for some reason and sent me a virus which caused me a lot of trouble. That cured me of chatting; I didn't do it anymore. We used the computer and internet to catch up with some long lost relatives which was fun.
Then we moved to the Stehekin Valley, and for a few years no one had the internet there until the technology came about for satellite internet. We had not phone access except for one community phone supplied by the National Park Service, so no internet from that. Then we got satellite internet, and we thought we had died and gone to heaven, except when it was time to pay the internet bill! I justified it be thinking of it as our communication with the outside world, and before we moved our phone bills cost as much or more than the internet, and we no longer had long distance telephone bills. We still have that same satellite system and still using it. The cost has come down a little, and we still don't have a land line telephone. We use a cell phone, and our kids have a land line telephone when its use is advantageous.
We were happy without the internet, but we were happy to get it also. We did a lot of shopping online, and even ordered our groceries using the internet. It is like the water; we don't even imagine not having it. And then yes, when I saw you write that about the internet, it made me think, yes there are people who have to go to the internet cafe' and spend money that they don't have very much of to be on the internet.
Our daughter says that when you write an e-mail the recipient can't see your face, and can't hear the inflections in your voice, so I might write something that I think is cute or humorous, and it might hurt the person on the other end of the communication because they might not know that I was joking when I said it. That is when you have to work harder at communication, and then knowing the person's heart helps to, because if you know your loved one has a good heart then you know that person is not going to hurt you on purpose. Then feedback is good too, by asking when you said so and so, what did you mean by that. Then I will say this is what I meant, or maybe I will say I didn't mean that at all; I was merely joking. I have seen people get their feathers ruffled on here when I know it was a lack of understanding what the other person had in mind when something was said. Then I have seen someone else get on and say this is what I think they meant when they said that, and that helps.
