I've been thinking about this lately. The internet is a great tool that has changed the world so much.

My question is... if you could go back 20-25 years or so in time, before everyone had it would you do it?

There are so many pros, like having information at your fingertips, being able to connect with people all over the globe, email, etc.

I can think of some cons also though, it has ruined many relationships, made people hyper - partisan, everyone posting something to social media every ten seconds, walking around with your head down.

If you could go back to say, 1995 with the technology the way it was then... would you?

I'll be interested in the responses.

I am happy to have the internet, but they can take Twitter and other instant social media sites away and it would be fine with me. Twitter, in particular, is used for at least as much damage as it for good.

I ain't old but I ain't young either. With that said, I remember no internet and life was fine. I was one of those people who faught and faught against having a smartphone but finally got one because the flip phones weren't sold anymore. I'm pretty sure I was one of the last of my generation to do that. I don't do most of the social sites but it is nice to have the internet for stuff. Then again, had I not gotten it back in the late 90's/early 2000's I would probably be just fine.

I survived 35/36 yrs with no internet and no cell phone. Made out just fine.

email and information...like How-to's and manuals. The rest you can take back, especially social media.

I've lived most of my life w/o the internet. That having been said, I would not go back. Can't stop progress. My only regret is watching people that don't read books, whatever and dumbed down because of time spent on electronic media. Agree w/ the above post re: twitter, facebook, overall social media. I don't have a facebook account. My sister and kids have them. They are all the time showing me stuff from people I grew up with, etc. They usually make fools of themselves on facebook and social media. I don't need it.

But overall, the internet in and of itself is a great, great resource and I wouldn't go back for anything.

Search function for the UP Patent Office made life easier than the stacks at DH Hill. The eye candy sucks in comparison to being on campus, however.

We are now also pitching lots of product binders we no longer need since that's all on the web.

Most of social media can suck me. Waste of bandwidth and electrons to me.

I grew up following sports scores by watching the headline news update 20 and 50 minutes past the hour, and the ESPN :28/:58, which was the scroll they have at the bottom of the screen, but you only got it twice an hour. It's no fun to follow a game only seeing a text score every 30 minutes.

Trying to figure out how NC State baseball did in a regional might not even get the every 30 minutes treatment.

As a lover a sports, the internet has allowed me to follow countless sports and games in real time, or even watch them with things like WatchESPN that were never possible 20 years ago.

I wouldn't give that up to avoid some of the pitfalls of the internet. Too much good in the internet that I can live with the bad.

The time it saves in business... no way I would go back given the choice.

I would have liked to live before electricity came about. That is my answer.