I Don’t Need the Web
Whenever you start a business the logical thing is to start with an idea that everyone needs. Everyone needs to eat so grocery stores and restaraunts exist and will probably always exist. Gas stations exist because we need gas. Simple ideas that fulfill our needs and do a good amount of business. All very common sense right?
Well, it seems we tend to avoid common sense on the web and this really hit home over the past couple of weeks. I moved to a new place last week and won’t get Internet setup until next week at my place, so during that time I have been setting up a mobile office at Barnes & Noble. Now I only sit at B&N for a couple hours max to get a couple of things done, while my partners have graciously held down the fort so the walls don’t collapse on us, but without them I wondered how much of what I do would really fall apart if I wasn’t around?
Were there any sites online that I needed to access daily? Were there any web apps that helped me get by on my day-to-day activities? There weren’t. You might think email is necessity and if you truly need to be around it 24/7 you can find a way to do that, but I have been doing just fine without it. Blogging? Not really necessary, but it will be nice to get back into a groove with it.
My point is Web 2.0 is only great for the people who create it. Living without cable and web can be a tiny bit frustrating at times, but it can also be very soothing. Where are the Web 2.0 apps that I need to access? Maybe it’s good that I really don’t need the web to survive because what if the web ceased to exist?
If you are on the web though there are some basic functions that you need.
- Web browser
- Search engine if you wish to explore
But really that’s it. We haven’t created a better place than the one that existed 10 years ago, but we have created a more feature rich place. I’m not dissing the many great apps and sites that exist today, but my brain won’t stop moving it seems until it finds that happy median between offline and online. The more connected I become, the less connected I want to be.
Amen. I have a love/hate relationship with the web. I make my living making web sites and before that I did it as a hobby. But a lot of times I feel as if I spend way too much time on the web or thinking about the web. Sometimes I wonder whether my life would be better or worse if the web never existed.
For many years too, I’ve wondered what the future of the web would be - if it would even exist at all in the form that we know it today. And, as you said, very little has changed in 10 years. We have a lot more features now, but the fundamentals are still the same.
By Mike Aparicio on September 5, 2006 2:57 pm
Is there an app that will block my wife’s viewing of this post? I mean, she needs to keep understanding that when I’m surfing endlessly for junk online, it really is work. I mean, I would have to interact and stuff, and that is not cool :-) jk
By Steve on September 5, 2006 4:01 pm
I got away myself this weekend and was convinced would need to log on so took my powerbook. When we got there they were only on dial up so that didn’t happen as hadn’t brought a modem lead with me. My difference was that I did have my blackberry which meant email was a do able thing. If I had wanted yes it would have been browser too but this was my old blackberry and viewing isn’t so great using the older browser. I just didn’t feel the need and it really felt good. I am now wandering how I can optimise the time I do things online to get a bit more of a balance back as it’s proved to me how much I don’t need to be doing. Time to clear out the daily list of site / feed checking and get some balance back I think.
By karmatosed on September 5, 2006 5:59 pm
Couldn’t agree more. Seems to me that the so called web 2.0 phenomenon is really a self-feeding monster where 20% of the users submit 80% of the content. The rest of the internet population has little knowledge of all this coolness, and couldn’t care less about it, because they’re too busy living their lives out there in the real world.
Don’t get me wrong, as a techie, I like all this technology goodness (I make a living from it), but I try to strike a balance with real life… having young children definitely helps in that respect ;)
By Jean-Francois Arseneault on September 5, 2006 8:12 pm
“We haven’t created a better place than the one that existed 10 years ago, but we have created a more feature rich place.”
Depends on your definition of better, I guess. We now have online banking (including bill payment), Wikipedia, maps, complete and up-to-the-minute news, cheap and simple shopping, product information and reviews. Sure, in the most fundamental sense we don’t _need_ these. But given that nearly all of us benefit quite directly from having these (in time and cost savings alone) I strongly disagree that the web hasn’t substantively improved over the last decade.
The point you claim, that “Web 2.0 is only great for the people who create it.” is on the money however. There is a vast oversupply of “web 2.0″ RSS readers, office applications and social bookmarking / shopping / news concepts.
By Anson on September 5, 2006 8:22 pm
There’s a difference between needing something, and having something that makes your life a whole lot easier and better. Sure, you don’t need the internet. You also don’t need a belt to hold up your pants, but walking around pulling your pants up all the time is uncomfortable and annoying. Why do that when you have access to a tool that can do it for you?
The fact is, the web has opened up new doors for communication that weren’t there not all that long ago, and it’s revolutionized our society. The principle of immediate access to information from almost anywhere at any time is an incredible principle, and it’s made possible through the internet.
So, no, you don’t need it. But it’s an awfully great tool to have, and it’s in the process of changing the way we think and work and interact.
By Ben on September 5, 2006 8:23 pm
Actually, maybe you *do* need the web. The expression is “happy medium,” not “happy median.” The web can tell you this:
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=happy%20medium
By Andy on September 5, 2006 9:56 pm
I can totally relate to this… the need and/or desire, that is, of escaping from such an overwhelming sense of connected-ness. However, your post almost seems to imply that “web” equals “web 2.0″; or, in other words, the reason we would want to go to the web in the first place would be to get to some cool web 2.0 apps. For me, web 2.0 apps get a very small percentage of my total time spent on the web. I could live easily for a few days without the cool web 2.0 stuff, although it would be far more difficult for me to live without the web completely. I need and want access to the content, the community of it all. More importantly, there is a huge difference between getting by for a few days with the inconvenience, and having to do without entirely for an extended period. Good or bad, doing without the internet for a month (even just outside of my work-related activities) would be more than just an inconvenience for me, and any novelty of such circumstances would wear off rather soon, I’m afraid.
Enjoyed your post very much… very provocative, and a great fresh perspective.
By Mark on September 5, 2006 10:52 pm
Said like a true junkie. A massive love affair with the internet that lasts or years on end, then sudden realisation that it is not the be all end all. Its so easy to get caught up in the craze, your ‘virtual life’ (please kill me if I ever get a profile on one of those actual virtual life web game things that everyone is going ga ga about). The internet is a tool. Just one tool. Yes it is incredible, amazing, wonderous, but, so is your back yard…
Nice post, I’m sure a lot of people had cause to think :)
By Natalie Ferguson on September 6, 2006 1:39 am
So true. Another thing is that you don’t need a cellphone that much either, and don’t get me started on all that mobile-gadgets sh stuff. I never had a cellphone myself and never regretted it, however I did borrow one when I went mountain climbing for two weeks, just in case I’d need an emergency call.
By Sergey on September 6, 2006 11:01 am
Agreed, that in lots of ways it has made our lives better, but in the same sense it has made our lives even more complicated. Did you need Wikipedia to look up a definition before? No, but no you just don’t have to go to the library. However, then you might not have the chance to see a new book you can sit down and read because you are too busy catching up on Fark.
With any enhancement, there is a positive and negative. Everything balances everything.
By Scrivs on September 6, 2006 12:24 pm
I went all summer in Germany without a cellphone, and I went a week in Nicaragua without any computers at all. I can definitely say that no one needs these things; we just create needs by making these things a part of our lives. I will always have a love-hate relationship with technology… in the end, it just puts bread on the table. And hopefully good bread at that.
By Montoya on September 6, 2006 2:02 pm
Guess that depends if the bakery has a website and offers delivery.
By Scrivs on September 6, 2006 2:33 pm
[…] from I Don’t Need the Web […]
By A song for the lovers » Blog Archive » Practical common sense on September 6, 2006 5:53 pm
The post reminds me of an alcoholic in denial.
By Andy H on September 7, 2006 9:51 am
[…] Scrivs nails it once again: “Web 2.0 is only great for people who create it…We haven’t created a better place than the one that existed 10 years ago, but we have created a more feature rich place.” […]
By adaptive path » blog » blog archive » Signposts for the Week ending September 8, 2006 on September 8, 2006 6:46 pm
[…] Tech With A Personal Flare A tech blog can be an extension of this approach however. Take this for example… TechCrunch reports on Blah ( A new and exiting Web 2.0 all application that we all need to survive). Well have you used Blah, if not how could it relate to you and what you are doing? Would it make your life, business and entertainment better? If so or even if not, report on what it has done for you and how you have incorporated into your daily routine. Don’t just tell us what we already knew from reading it somewhere else. […]
By Blogs Are Like Caves on September 8, 2006 7:02 pm
[…] It’s funny because as I was sitting and thinking about this I was also debating going through my RSS feeds. I figured, the world has survived this long without me reading them, I’m still human without going through them, why bother? To illustrate my lack of control, yes, I did read them. I also happened upon a friend of mine who shares my thoughts. Scrivs says “I don’t need the web”. […]
By Devin Reams | Welcome to the Devolution | Internet Realism at devinreams.com on September 11, 2006 3:53 pm
Yeah, I have a friend that I am trying to make a girlfriend, a business, a college degree in sight and my own immigration details to focus on. Oh, and I like to hike up Nosehill every so often.
By Kyle Korleski on September 18, 2006 6:01 pm
[…] I Don’t Need the Web By Scrivs on Web++ […]
By the blue sky collection on December 10, 2006 10:27 pm