The internet and technology have become part of every single aspect of my life from relationships to communicating with friends and family, to education. It’s safe to say that life will be extremely difficult and tiresome without them.
I see myself privileged to be the generation that always has computers and the internet around. Social media makes up a big part of the internet and as it is now, I let people know what is going on from dawn to dusk. I depend on the internet to communicate more than ever, and it has become an integral part of any means of communication I use. Not being able to communicate with family and friends can lead to various health conditions like stress from curiosity, and anxiety.
Without the internet, I feel cut off from my family, friends, and the rest of the world. A week without the internet and technology in my view appears almost impossible even though I was not raised around technology and the internet, I had to develop and adapt to the new way of life. I can honestly say I will be completely devastated if there isn’t internet and technology for a week.
Growing up, I remember when I was in secondary school (boarding school). I had limited access to the internet and technology because I had no device or phone of my own. Many students from the school were from different parts of the country and the only way to communicate during the holiday was through the internet which made me start using the internet and technology. During breaks, I was not able to communicate with my friends and classmates. I felt distanced during resumptions. I was always silent during important discussions because I didn’t know what happened during the holidays. I was not able to connect with them. Most times, I would ask my friends after resumptions to tell me what happened during the holidays and most of them found it funny or annoying. My life was lonely and sad because I couldn’t communicate with any of them during important discussions and was cut off from the most vital decisions made in my absence. Assignments given to us as a group would always be difficult for me to write because I wasn’t able to reach out to my colleagues during the holidays thereby causing a reduction in my academic performance for that term. After graduation, I was forced to lose communication with them due to a lack of internet and technology of my own, and this affected my ability to communicate with others when I entered university until I bought my own smart device.
Article by Success Ndubuisi
