Sick of getting dressed in the morning and fighting traffic on your way to the office? Tired of fighting crowds of people for bargains at the grocery store? Weary of the trendy singles nightlife and dating scene? Dread packing up your belongings and heading off to college in another town? Don’t feel like venturing into the neighborhood church on Sunday mornings?
Well, why bother?
With the Web, all things are possible.
From birth to death, the Internet is becoming a universal neighborhood where people live, work and play.
Children of Boomers and GenXers are primed for the Internet. They have been introduced to it from very young ages and will grow up in a world where technology is king.
So how much of one’s life can be lived on the Web?
From your first breath, this is your life on the Web:
Your parents, being quite tech savvy themselves, wanted family and friends all over the world to share in the joy of your birth. They weren’t satisfied to just send out announcements; they decided to webcast the memorable event live.
And at the family Web site, they frequently posted photos and videos of you growing up.
When it came time to go to school, your parents sought untraditional means of educating you. From kindergarten to high school you were educated in your home. With the help of computer programs and online schooling groups, you even managed to graduate from high school early.
High school wasn’t enough; you wanted to continue your education. With a myriad of choices for online degree programs, you made your choice and received your bachelor’s degree all from the comfort of your own bedroom.
With a degree to show for your hard work, you set out to find a job. But, you never put on a tie or carried a portfolio to an interview. You applied, sent references and interviewed for your new post all over the Internet. So you never saw colleagues at the water cooler, you made good money working from home on your computer, and every day was casual day.
For fun, you played online video games with some of your old cyber-pals from college. You also read books online and listened to the most recent musical hits. You kept in touch with family and friends via e-mail and Web cameras.
You never were into the dating scene, but wanted to have a family of your own. So you logged on and found your dream girl through an Internet dating service. You got to know each other through e-mail, telephone and Web videos. The first time you met in person was on your wedding day, which, of course, was webcast live.
Life was good. You and your new wife snuggled together and watched videos on your computer. You bought all your gifts for one another through online shopping networks, and you even did the grocery shopping online. And with her telecommuting to her job and working from her own computer at home, you rarely spent a moment apart.
You were never very religious, but sought spiritual direction from the myriad of religious Web sites.
You never had children and grew to the ripe old age of 112. And when your wife was looking for the best way to memorialize you, she decided the funeral and wake would be webcast live. After that she set up a Web site for you with this epilogue:
“From birth to death and everything in between, this man lived his life to the fullest in this universal Web world. Here he shall rest in peace!”
Jodi Mathews is communications director for EthicsDaily.com.
