MetaChat - Will You Be Online Ten Years from Now?

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18 March 2008

Will You Be Online Ten Years from Now? A piggyback on this question.→[More:]Some people addressed whether they'd be online in ten years or not, and I was curious to hear what everyone thinks. I was online ten years ago, so I don't see why I wouldn't be online ten years from now. It is interesting to see how online use changes over time- reading back entries of my blog, it's amazing how many of the forums or blogs I loved at that time not only do I not read now, but most don't even exist anymore.

post by: ThePinkSuperhero at: 12:40 | 35 comments

unless I can get a chip implant and "online" means something different, I plan to be. I suspect there's going to be much less of an online/offline divide, among people who are already highly networked.

posted by jessamyn 18 March | 12:48

I expect to be 'online', with a chip implanted directly in my cerebral cortex. I will post to metachat without requiring the use of these old fashioned 'computers'.

posted by msali 18 March | 12:48

Oh, Jessamyn, jinx!

posted by msali 18 March | 12:49

"Online" is quite possibly the only way I will exist. Parts wear out.

posted by bmarkey 18 March | 12:50

Probably. I was a PLATO geek before the internet existed, early in college; then discovered Internet Relay Chat on a VAX with an ugly interface. I'll definitely be online 10 years from now...

posted by lleachie 18 March | 12:55

I don't see why not.

posted by box 18 March | 12:56

After peak oil, isn't the internet going to be run by hamsters or something? We'll all have to do our 10 hours a day manual labor to generate enough corn cobs to fill the boiler to get the computer up and running for an hour or two, and there will be a lot of competition for that hour there on the collective farm.

posted by mygothlaundry 18 March | 12:59

I don't see why not. I can't imagine going back to just the phone and mail to keep in touch with people. As a research tool the net will only grow more valuable. I might not hang out in web communities as much, but who knows?

posted by Miko 18 March | 13:13

I cannot imagine being without the internet in 10 years. Even the most remote parts of Alaska will have wifi, I'm sure of it.

Actually, just thinking of that makes me sad.

posted by rhapsodie 18 March | 13:14

My online "footprint" in 10 years will depend on how many of my friends still use it, or if something else bigger and/or better has come along. I was just talking to a dear, close friend of mine who I met on an anime fanfic ML in 1995 and we had just realized that we'd known each other for 13 years now and had only met in person twice--thanks to the Internet.

posted by TrishaLynn 18 March | 13:21

Internet Relay Chat on a VAX with an ugly interface.

Oh god that was horrible. . but I did not know that anything else existed. My VAX screen was magenta and yellow at one point, right after I finally got a color monitor.

Very clunky program but it was good training, I guess.

posted by danf 18 March | 13:28

Why would anyone not be?

I mean, I use the internets on a daily basis for everything from finding the right bus to take to my appointment with my ophthalmologist (and looking up how to spell ophthalmologist) to responding to a friend's wedding invitation, not to mention interacting with y'all.

posted by Specklet 18 March | 13:31

God, I think I started being on the internet a decade ago. That makes me feel sort of old.

I don't see why I wouldn't be, at least for professional reasons.

posted by dismas 18 March | 13:32

I think I will be online in ten years. I could never go without the Internet. It's part of my life.

I hope the internet is not my main source of entertainment in ten years. That is what I meant in the other thread. I can dream, right?

Ten years ago I barely checked my email. Five years ago, I barely checked my email. I really had no interest in the internet or online communities until I found an exercise forum that I kind of found interesting. Then I found AskMe and it was all over. Metachat has the best group of people I've ever encountered. If y'all are still here in ten years, I probably will be too. Something tells me we're not going to be here in ten years, though.

posted by LoriFLA 18 March | 13:33

totally. I mean, I have online friends across the globe with whom I've been in regular contact since 1990, whom I have NEVER met in person.

posted by lonefrontranger 18 March | 13:36

How do you chip implant folk imagine that working? What interface do you envision?

If we get chips that might solve the argument about open devices once and for all. I mean, would people really buy a locked down device for their own brain?

Of course there would be need to be thorough testing for software. And who would beta test it?

posted by By the Grace of God 18 March | 14:06

I've been online for 14 years; I see no reason to believe I'll cease at any point. Aside from that whole death and/or incapacity thing.

posted by mykescipark 18 March | 14:09

I was online 10 years ago (at the precocious age of 14), and I can't see why I would abandon such a life-altering technology in the next 10 years, unless something better comes along.

It would be cool to search google from my own brain. To augment my bad memory with off-site storage. Why should I have to use my clumsy hands and eyes to interface my brain with the real world?

posted by muddgirl 18 March | 14:35

Absolutely

posted by TheDonF 18 March | 14:54

Ye Olde Technology that I still use:

Manual typewriter
Cassette player
Radio
VCR
Rotary telephone

posted by JanetLand 18 March | 14:54

Oh, should the answering machine be on that list too?

posted by JanetLand 18 March | 14:55

Oh, I will certainly be online in 10 years, especially if we move to a new state. All the better to keep in contact with friends/family. Considering I only got online in the last 5 years anyway (I'm a little slow on that), I am still enamoured with it. And I really like keeping up with everyone here. I'd like to hear about mygothlaundry's search for a house; jrossi's son's Little League and daughter's teen years; OrangeSwan's stories; hadjiboy's life in India; heck, just ... everyone.

posted by redvixen 18 March | 15:19

In ten years, online will be more like inline, as in "handheld wireless swiss-army-appliance thingy".

posted by Ardiril 18 March | 15:27

I will probably still be online in 10 years, especially since it's pretty much my lone connection to the outside world.

posted by sperose 18 March | 17:46

i will make a vow to be online in exactly ten years. It's almost March 18, 2018, seven pm already.

posted by ethylene 18 March | 17:58

i plan on excusing myself form something for the event.

posted by ethylene 18 March | 18:01

form=from
i plan on misspelling something if at all possible.

posted by ethylene 18 March | 18:02

Pfft, no, this internet thing is just a fad. Like Hypercolor t-shirts.

posted by mullacc 18 March | 18:25

Yeah, I'll be here. I'm the last guy off any sinking ship. Not to suggest that metachat is a sinking ship, more that I never know when to leave.

posted by richat 18 March | 18:59

As long as there's an internet or whatever the internet is in the future, I'll be there.

posted by deborah 18 March | 21:54

Yes, let's meet here again, ten years from tonight. I will hide away this bottle of wine, and those of us who return will drink it in celebration.

posted by Miko 18 March | 22:00

If I'm not dead, sure. You don't get rid of me that easy.
ethylene, Miko, it's a date. If, of course, I'm not dead.

posted by dg 18 March | 22:21

Yes, let's meet here again, ten years from tonight.

That sounds kinda romantic:)

I'll be sure to be there!

The only reason why I'd asked that question was because a good friend of mine once said that she wouldn't want to be online in 5 years (she was just starting to get her life back together and thought that it was time to leave the board we were on) even though she loved the people who were there, and I was kind of taken aback by what she'd said, as I could never have imagined something like that happening to me. Maybe it was an omen of things to come, because , soon after, people started leaving, and now there's virtually no one there anymore. Real sad, to tell you the truth. I hope nothing like it ever happens over here. okay bunnies?

posted by hadjiboy 18 March | 23:14

I think we should form a bunny Tontine.

posted by arse_hat 19 March | 01:27

I have always wanted to be part of a tontine.

posted by chrismear 19 March | 02:25

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