I depend on the internet for

coursework(20%) rest is from books

shopping (60%) of the time, i had to buy an external car mirror and it was much easier over internet then going to a garage

email (10%)

blacknet(10%)

If i lose the internet, i would be a little lost, but it iwll not be the be all and end all for me.

Yeah, sure I could continue without it.

I would spend more time playing my music and writing letters and doing stuff. It wouldn't change my life that much.

Its more of a distraction than anything else, like the tv - stops me from getting on.

If it's there I'll use it, if not - no sweat.

Well I've been on since around 94/95 and back then it was a sight to see a page with a picture in those days. So I have pretty much grown up with the internet always being there.

When its not, its a big shock. At the moment if I need to look a word up in a dictionary I go dictionary.com, tv schedules I go to a tv listing site. Faster and simplier than hunting around for a book of magazine. So if I am away from it for a couple of days I miss it.

However I find when I go away camping, for the first couple of days I am always thinking....hmmm I wonder if anybody has emailed me. But by the end of a week I have been detached from society for so long that I couldn't really give a damn who's emailed me.

So I think it is all relative to the enviroment you are in. Like a mobile phone, I would say I can't live without it, because a lot of my friends live quite far from me. But then if say 3 or 4 of my best friends lived with me in a house together, then I bet my usage would drop 90 odd perecnet.

I'm half and half on this one. It is important if I need to do research or if I need to buy something that is hard to get in shops. I was like Nick, towards the end of my holiday I was trying to predict how many emails I would have to read through when I got back, and I was missing the people I talk to on a daily basis on MSN Messenger. But if I had everyone's telephone number and address then I can safely say my life will go on without the internet.

I will comment on my personal views later,but as a Culture I think that the Internet will prove to be the biggest thing for us since they invented the book.. We were discussing this very point the other day in the studio, and I believe that the Internet will be the greatest leveler for Black people since Garvey walked the Earth.. Not only can we share knowledge, history and information.. We can talk almost instantly between different cultures on different parts of the globe at the same time.. we don't have the overt controls seen on TV, Radio or for that matter the limitations or expense of the Telephone when phoning abroad.. and more importantly we can now converse to total strangers and not be limited to just peopple within our frame of reference..

The one thing that has separated us and kept us down and Kept us ignorant is the fact that not since Garvey or back in Africa Prime, have we had a proper consistent vehicle for passing on our thoughts, feelings and views to each at this level or in such an independant way without direct interference i mentioned above.. so as an African I personally think who ever invented the internet will definately rue the day they made it available to Africans and put it in our hands Period...

Here's an article I came across that might be of some relevance to this discussion.

Sweden, Ireland and Britain Leaders in IT

By MATT MOORE, AP Business Writer
STOCKHOLM, Sweden - Businesses in Sweden, Ireland and Britain top the list when it comes to the use of information technology to improve their operations, according to a country-by-country survey. The United States, which was in the top three last year, slipped four places.

The study by U.S. consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, uses its own "Sophistication Index" to determine how eagerly, and capably, countries have embraced information technology, including wireless access and Internet access.

Commissioned by Britain's Department of Trade and Industry, the survey by the New York-based consulting firm was based on telephone interviews from April-July of nearly 8,000 businesses in Britain, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Ireland, South Korea (]http://news.search.yahoo.com/search/news?fr=news-storylinks&p=%22South%20Korea%22&c=&n= 20&yn=c&c=news&cs=nw]news[/url] - ]http://search.yahoo.com/search?fr=web-storylinks&p=South%20Korea]web sites[/url]), Sweden and the United States.

Sweden rose from fifth place to first from 2003 to 2004 because of the Scandinavian country's use of technology by businesses, large and small. Ireland was ranked second because of the knowledge workers there have in using information technology, while Britain finished third, four spots higher than in 2003.

British businesses were quick to adopt new technologies early, including voice over IP, or VoIP calling, which replaces a telephone line by making calls through the Internet, as well as desktop video conferencing, the report found.

Germany was ranked fourth, followed by South Korea, Canada, the United States and Australia. Italy, Japan and France rounded out the survey, which covered companies in sectors including manufacturing, construction, retail and wholesale, transport, communications, finance and services, and government agencies.

On a global basis, the survey — released last week — found that more businesses are measuring the benefits of technology instead of its costs on the bottom-line. It also found that instead of touting their ability to provide access to the Internet, companies are using the speed and reliability as benchmarks of success.

"Overall, businesses are taking a more thoughtful and selective approach to deploying technology," said Frederick Knops, vice president of Booz Allen Hamilton. "We see a tighter focus on value-added applications, and greater emphasis on measurement to assess the benefits of new technology."

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On the Net: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp..._te/it_prowess

http://www.dti.gov.uk/bestpractice/assets/ibs2004.pdf