Is this necessary?

[Phil]

It was brought up the other day if discussion forums are necessary. I think anything you enjoy that is harmless is necessary in 1 way or another.

I will be 38 in just over 2 weeks. In some ways I have done a lot for my age but not so much in other ways. So what?

Well I never had a cell phone until I was 25 years old. I don't know how I would manage without it now, in fact I have 2 of them. The 1 is my work and personal phone the other is an emergency backup phone and I keep it with me just in case.

For the 1st 25 years of my life if I needed to make a call I always found a store, restaurant or plaza that had a payphone and made my call. Sometimes looking under the seat of my car for a quarter though. Maybe having to get change somewhere but I always made it work.

My wife and I were married about 4 years when she said that at work the internet has been such a big part of her day for convenience and sometimes just to find things out.

I said something like 'yeah they use it in our work offices too.' Being a field worker I never used it though.

Finally after about a year of talking about this, for Christmas of 2001 I bought her the 1st desktop in the Ostrotkiewicz home. It's a Gateway and we still have it.

Because I'm at that time totally green about this I went the least expensive way and added a phone line to the house so it didn't interfere with the phone and used a dial up.

So I was 30 before I was even internet literate at all. Some question if I even am now. lol

I met most of all of the people who I share discussion with through discussion forums. Not news sites, not business sites, more or less social sites even if we discuss important world affairs its the same thing we could do in a local diner over a cup of coffee and French fries. Only you don't have to be there. You can read this and reply in several hours or several days or whenever you want.

When I met most of the forum members I was 31 years old we had Jason but neither of the other 2 children at that time. Jason was a mere kindergartener then.

When I discovered YouTube and thought I might want to make videos it would take too long to upload and the slightest error could stop the process. So I got powerlink. And another computer. Somewhere along the way I got a laptop to keep in my truck. It attaches through a plug in cell chip. That means I have 3 cell phones really.

Is YouTube necessary? Not really. I was 36 when I discovered it.

My home as a child never had cable tv until my junior year of high school. My mother didn't think it was necessary. There goes that word again.

After all I still think if you're enjoying something it's necessary enough. Just because it's not life and death that you have it doesn't mean its unnecessary.

[Demona]

I'm 23 and backwards! We didn't own a DVD player until 2004, when I payed for it with my graduation money. I didn't have a cell phone until the same year either, and it was the old kind with just a green screen. I'm on my third phone now and it's finally a flip design and user friendly. My PS2 was bought in 2006 from a friend who sold it to me for $80. My new computer was bought in Februrary and Windows Vista is way different than Windows 98 on the old one we had. Also, my mp3 player was bought in the spring and isn't an anything fancy.

Since we first owned a computer I've been a member of various forums. I remember when they weren't organized and didn't have user pictures and you could change your name just by typing it in a space at the top, you didn't have to sign in. Youtube didn't exist and it was a Hillary Clinton to be able to see music videos of bands I listened to because many only used Real Player.

You can't say anything new is necessary, but it makes things better. I like forums for the reasons above, it's just like going to a local diner for coffee, only with people around the world or out of state and you don't have to be there. Also, you don't have to let yourself be known other than a screen name. Still, the internet should never replace what you do in real life, because that would be a boring existence.

[Mahnarch]

I didn't get a cell phone until I started driving for InOnTime and they gave me one. Before that, I didn't see the benefit.

I still don't own my own cell but, I can use this one however I want and now, I don't leave home without it.

I was geeked as all hell when I upgraded to DSL and won't look back (still can't get cable out here....).

I still use rabbit ears.
I own no vehicle newer than 1995.
I prefer the older semis and straight trucks to the newer - girlie looking - ones.


I wouldn't say these things are nessesary but, it speeds life up (good or bad).
So, I say, let me eat cake!
(I have no idea if that reference works...... it's just.... cake sounds good right about now.. )

[Blastgirl]

Cake does sound good. It does make sense. I like technology and I think Phil is right most of us don't need what we use everyday to survive. America and the World had a pretty strong Civilization in the 1800s without electric light bulbs but we have the ability to use those things who wants to give them up?

Are Movies and TV shows (even ones based on true stories) really important for everybody to know or do we just enjoy the entertainment? I would say the Entertainment. I'm sure in a remote way we all learn from Movies and TV.

[Phil]

For that matter, Classic being a ballplayer is an entertainer. It's a business that a lot of people make a living doing, but it's entertainment. Not unlike movies and plays. Athletes are also performing for an audience.

[Demona]

May 28, 2009 21:56:17 GMT -5 Mahnarch said:

I didn't get a cell phone until I started driving for InOnTime and they gave me one. Before that, I didn't see the benefit.

I still don't own my own cell but, I can use this one however I want and now, I don't leave home without it.

I was geeked as all hell when I upgraded to DSL and won't look back (still can't get cable out here....).

I still use rabbit ears.
I own no vehicle newer than 1995.
I prefer the older semis and straight trucks to the newer - girlie looking - ones.


I wouldn't say these things are nessesary but, it speeds life up (good or bad).
So, I say, let me eat cake!
(I have no idea if that reference works...... it's just.... cake sounds good right about now.. )

No cable so close to a city like that?

[Kimm]

Its what separates humans from animals is that we can be social and productive. Otherwise you eat, reproduce and seek or make shelter and that would be it.

So we do a lot of things that could be deemed unnecessary but something necessary comes out of it. The internet can be used for entertainment but it can also be used for learning and notifications. Is discussion necessary? I could go against the flow here and say it is. It helps us see prospective ours and other peoples and sometimes we change our minds when we have different information. Sometimes we dont change our mind but at least we understand why others feel the way they do.

That might come from an unnecessary discussion board.

[dannyboy]

Whatever is worth your time in your own estimation is necessary. So if there's 40 people that sometimes post at lewasite then 40 people think it's necessary. If there's 15 that post once a week or more it's more necessary to those people. I have to say I've learned things that I did not know previously by reading info posted by members of this board. That alone has made it necessary.

[Beangirl]

When I was a small kid in the sixties . There were no cell phones ,CD/DVD players, microwaves or digital anything. We got our first color T.V. in 1967. I could go on & on .... I always thought my mom was so "unfortunate"because there was no T.V. in the thirties or forties. No fast food joints or nice small cars. She wasn't though .She was happy with her Philco radio and my Grandma's cooking.

[Blastgirl]

We're all pretty spoiled as a World now. I doubt we could ever revert back to the ways of old.

I could never cook the variety my Mom does and I'm doubtful she could cook as well as her Mom.

I'm not a sewer at all my Mom is only a little bit and my Grandmothers both made clothes all the time.

[fartinggurl]

I definately could not live like people lived back then. I use the computer and Internet every day. I have a TV, VCR, and DVD player in my bedroom. I have an MP3 player, and I also have a cell phone. Yes society is spoiled today, and what's interesting is that technology is changing every day. Who knows what will be around in 5 years.

[Blastgirl]

That's exactly what I think.

[thunderbird]

Ok I know that bumping old posts is frowned upon but if the site admin scolds me for this I will come down to your town unannounced and wait until you go out for dinner or go to a store somewhere and pants you in the most crowded place I catch up with you.

See, I'm pretty old in my thinking too. Since I remember the birth of the site admin I'm going to take a liberty and bump this.

I still use blocks to make models of what I plan to construct. I still use a ruler scale where a quarter inch equals a foot to draw a blue print, and I still call it a blueprint.

I measure important things but the methods my dad taught me was to use about this much and go about that far. It's worked for two generations of running the business.

My dad never had a computer at all. I do use computers but more to order supplies than any other reason. Or check status of an order.

I can't operate without a cell phone and I can use it to rush people back from lunch when they're wasting time.

I'm a little older than Classic, Phil, Mahnarch and most of the other members.

I'm pretty sure I was 28 when I got my first cell phone but I don't remember exactly. I was definitely 28 when we put the computer system in the offices. I got my first laptop a year ago and hardly use it.

I still don't play on the internet. Meaning games or use it socially except for this site every few weeks. I dont' use it for facebook or myspace or any games.

I don't yet even have a website for my business but my brother. Not classic we have another brother in between us, he is going to start a website just because we do some work in four states and that would make contact easier. But we've done interstate work for about 25 years and we have done it successfully without a web site so far.

[Mahnarch]

After several people I know in real life begged me, I finally got a Facebook account.

I still don't see the point of it, though.
Sure, I've "friended" people I haven't seen in years but.... so what?


I did finally tell my highschool secret crush that she was my secret crush.

....she hasn't signed in, since.


I also have a buddy who wants me to join him in riding motorcycles up to the Mackinac Bridge over Memorial Weekend.
Pending my health and the health of my 33 year old bike, I may attempt it.

We'll see.

[Phil]

I have a facebook account and most of the facebook friends are people I have never actually met.

I don't use it a lot. But like Mahnarch said the people that ask to add you are often people you didn't care for. I find myself saying that too. 'I didn't like that idiot 20 years ago why do I want to get back in touch?'

I don't use it that much but I have facebook and myspace just to say I have it I guess.

[Blastgirl]

May 28, 2009 13:31:48 GMT -5 Phil said:

It was brought up the other day if discussion forums are necessary. I think anything you enjoy that is harmless is necessary in 1 way or another.

I think you actually answered your own question in the first paragraph. You elaborated on it very well and created discussion and more people mentioned things they use and enjoy that doesn't mean they can't survive without those things. I think this is a good topic to discuss and you're right if you're enjoying it and its harmless it's necessary in a way.

[Classicblast]

I think it's necessary.