Life Without a Computer?

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It’s been at least two months since I’ve done one of Jetpack’s writing prompts. Largely, because, I ditched Wordpress and decided to build something from scratch. It seems, in light of the Wordpress CEO’s recent blunders, it was probably a good idea to abandon Wordpress. But I really only did it because I enjoy writing everything in VS Code, rather than a glitchy editor. Nevertheless, I still have Automattic’s “jetpack” app installed on my phone, and it serves me interesting writing prompts every once in a while, and because I don’t enjoy writing about a crisis every single time I fire up the VSC, I think I’ll snag this one.

So, full-stop, I had access to a computer in about 1992, I believe. I think I spoke about this before, but it was something my Dad was provided by his job, and it wasn’t exactly up-to-date with current versions of Windows. It was more like a mid-80s machine with extremely early versions of DOS, and bulletin boards. The menu was built into a permanent console, like something you write through via Linux (for the zoomies who don’t know what the hell DOS is), and it was … pretty basic.

I think that thing is still sitting around, somewhere out there.

As time marched forward, we got another PC, and another PC, and then a Gateway 486, and then that was largely what I used, until I was given another “hand-me-down”-ish PC when I was around 15 or 16. About the time I discovered anime forums, and started e-dating as many girls as I could … with video chat over aol instant messenger, and … a whole lot of embarrassing things I probably shouldn’t have been sharing with girls I, ultimately, didn’t really know, at all.

Then, when I graduated, I was gifted another PC, which is when I really started gaming. And then years later I built one myself, and then I upgraded it, and then I bought another PC. And then I ditched that one, and bought one in 2018, and then I ditched that one, too, and bought the powerhouse Linux PC I’m currently using today (alongside the Windows Dell, and Macbook I have as side machines).

What would life be like, had none of this ever happened?

I guess I’d probably watch paint dry? Or, am I still allowed to have my iPhone? Cause, if that’s the case, I guess the only thing that’d be different is I’d probably be some kind of prolific mobile gamer, who never got into web development. Maybe I’d be streaming to Twitch via my phone as I bumble around Genshin Impact. Who knows!

But, let’s say the phone is also a computer.

This question is far too open-ended for the 2020s, don’t you think?

So, no PC, no laptops, no phone, no toasters with touch-screens, and we’ll just assume, in this version of the universe, my job also hasn’t given me a phone to work with.

Alright.

Since television is mainly on streaming now, and basic “appointment TV” doesn’t really exist anymore (and by that, I mean, episodic television that isn’t dumped all at once), I guess I’d probably have a Smart TV, and I’d probably spend a lot of my time watching shows. Maybe I’d also read a lot more. I don’t know if I’d be writing, because … I guess I’d have to do that by hand? Like a baby. But, that’s the thing, a smart TV is also a computer! We’ll, for the sake of this post, just pretend that it isn’t, though.

I don’t know if I’d have a richer social life, because I think factors that made it harder for me to connect with people in the 2020s, aren’t really related to having access to a PC, but more that people in-general are, or have, isolated themselves in their own little bubbles of media that they themselves dictate. Which, in-turn, makes casual conversation impossible.

But … without access to all of the world’s knowledge and information, I guess I’d probably be a lot more uninformed. I’d probably be much more susceptible to just believing anything anyone tells me. I’d probably question things less. I wouldn’t have random college credits sitting on my name, and I guess I wouldn’t have a resume, either?

Jesus.

Uh, I think we’ll skip this universe.

I think it’s pretty important to have access to technology, and the internet. Because, just sitting here thinking about what life would be like without all this stuff, sounds … horrifying. And, maybe that’s nerdy. But damn, dude, no. No I don’t think I’d want to live a life of watching TV and sleeping.