When I was given my first computer in the Christmas of 1999 the last thing that came to my mind was connecting to the internet. Back then I was more interested in just having access to a word processor for school homework and a place to play my games on. My computer then was a bulky Packard Bell with a 60MHz Pentium processor, 72MB of RAM, a slow 4x CD-ROM drive, a slow and noisy 2GB Western Digital hard drive, integrated graphics with 1MB of memory and one USB 1.1 port – I had to uninstall one game to install another so I had no intention of connecting to the internet. That is until just before I started secondary school in 2001.
It was then, in 2000, that I was introduced to the wonderful world of dial-up internet by a friend. Her dad hooked me up with a lovely and loud 56k modem and helped my parents sign me up to NTL’s offer of free 56k internet access (the one that eventually led to their bankruptcy). When I first heard that sound of the modem dialling up I was so excited. Obviously, I could only access it during certain times of the day because it used the main phone line which the telephone also required. I was happy anyway – I couldn’t believe that I hadn’t connected earlier!
In 2004, my parents gave me the opportunity to purchase a new computer to help me with my continuing studies and also because I wanted to take advantage of the broadband revolution but my Packard Bell PC did not have enough juice for NTL’s liking. Back then I wasn’t tech-savvy enough to know that Dell do suck but I was knowledgeable enough to realise that internet connectivity was going to play a major role in my purchase. The broadband revolution changed the way I looked for a computer.
Yin and Yang
The internet and the world wide web play an enormous part in our lives today whether it’s at home, at work or at school. Work and school tasks would be a lot harder to complete if we didn’t have internet access. Computers and internet access now go together hand in hand – one without the other 
wouldn’t mean anything. There are more internet service providers than you can shake a stick at and some are now taking advantage of the complimentary nature of the computer and the service they offer: internet access. ISPs such as RedTen Internet are now enticing customers with the offer of a free computer with their broadband packages. Now the offer looks genuine but the catch is you have to stay with them for a few years before you can keep the computer.
This move, and I think many more ISPs will also offer this incentive in the near future, shows us just how interconnected a computer and the internet now is. Ten years ago there was very little you could do if you were connected to the internet unless you were part of specific social circles. Now, as Bill Gates puts it, we’re moving more into the digital decade and we’re ever increasingly reliant on internet access to give us our information, to connect and interact with our friends and colleagues and to provide content for other users. Without access to the internet our computers would only be as half as useful. Although we can still edit graphics, edit video, listen to music or even play games, when used correctly the internet and the world wide web can provide some invaluable resources which could not be crammed onto our current home computer hard drives.
Conclusion
This whole post has most likely just been a long winded way to tell you how I think our computer purchases have been influenced by the internet, and access to it. When I bought my first computer seven or eight years ago, I had to intention of connecting to the net but now, when we buy a computer our first thoughts will contain a plan to get internet access.
Sorry it was so long winded (I forgot the direction of the post half way through).
