If the web didn’t exist
Posted July 9th, 2006 in Personal
Recently a few of us had a conversation around the deeply philosophical question of ‘What occupation would you have, if the web didn’t exist?’
Now, I have the advantage here – I was in my early twenties before discovering the magical internet world in 1994. Therefore, I already had a number of career paths open to me, and had already held a number of jobs, everything from nightclub DJ to print designer to retail manager. Not that I really knew what I wanted to do!
At the time of my discovery of the internet, Netscape 1.0 hadn’t been released, and so I was using dialup (ooh, 2400 baud) and connecting to a Unix shell. I kept myself entertained for hours a day using email, gopher and IRC. A few months later, the World Wide Web took off, I started connecting using PPP and I was hooked – a mixture of wanting to understand code, along with my design background and education determined what would become my career.
In the last few months, I have met a number of people who have been using the internet since their early teens. To me, that’s just amazing (and then depressing when it reaffirms that I am getting older). My kids are both much younger than the internet, so I guess they’ll grow up to take it for granted, and they won’t have known life before the web.
Now, if you work in the web industry now, and the web had never happened, what would your occupation be?
Image: Footpath puddle, Melbourne.
July 9th, 2006 at 10:59 pm
I find it fascinating reading about people having been on the web for so long! Because we didn’t get our first computer till 1995(I think it was a pentium something, and bought in Bunbury! We played Need for Speed 1), and we didn’t get internet until about 1997 or maybe 99. And then I didn’t discover blogs till last year!!(and was very upset it took me that long, I’ve been on forums for years!!)
Mmm, though I do remember around 1996 that neighbours of ours in Bridgetown had internet, and they had the computer on all day and night, my parents found that strange.
Anyway, I don’t work in the web industry(it’s just a hobby really at this stage), so I can’t answer your question! :D
Btw, glad to hear the Melbourne Port 80 meeting went well!
July 10th, 2006 at 9:17 am
My father was really into keeping up with technology while I was growing up, so we always had the newest computer and got the internet fairly early in the game.I can sort of remember what it was like without it, but its become such a huge part of my life now that I can’t imagine being without it.
I’m not sure what I’d be doing if it wasn’t in web… print design perhaps, although if it weren’t for the internet I probably would never have thought of graphic design at all and would still be studying engineering now!
July 10th, 2006 at 1:38 pm
I work as a part time web developer. I reckon I would be a radio station DJ if I wasn’t doing this.
July 12th, 2006 at 11:10 am
I sometimes wish the Internet had never existed for this reason; when I was a print designer, there was a set of skills to know about the process that hadn’t changed since the time of Gutenberg (apart from pushing buttons rather than paintbrushes). I learnt them, knew them and that was it.
In web development, the entire field changes every two years. As a designer and not a code monkey I take longer than everyone else to learn the new standards, and when I complete a website that has all the bells and whistles, some geek says to me ‘why don’t you do it using method x, nobody uses method y anymore’ and crushes me all over again.
If the Internet didn’t exist I’d at least know what I was doing again.