If forced to choose, would you give up your car or your computer? (friend, years)
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Ah! One of those "would you rather be deaf or blind?" questions. Broken arm or broken leg?
I live in a rural area. I could not get by without a car.
Computer. A computer won't get me to a friend's house or to a hiking trail.
Same here. Decidedly the computer. I can't hike 20 miles up and down the Ozark hills to get to a grocery store or pharmacy and 23 miles to a doctor and hospital so the car is a necessity.
Depends on where I live. If I still lived in Houston (I truly hope not), I would have to choose the car. Houston is a very car dependent city. Our public transportation system is woefully inadequate. I would love to live in a place where I could walk all over or use public transportation. Being outside is very nice, but Houston is too hot for that much of the year.
Houston is a very car-dependent city but, if given the choice between car or computer, I'd give up my car. I could bike, use public transportation or even Uber/taxis to get around, but I do too much online banking to use a public computer. And I cant imagine my sitting, in the comfort of my nightgown, in a public library, reading C-D early in the AM.
For us, it's no questions that we can live without a car but it would not be a normal life without access to a computer & online pretty much 24/7.
Without a car, we can walk, bike, take a bus or call a cab. We can live without a computer for a short time but not permanently.
My husband is semi-retired. He works part time as a sub teacher (mainly because he enjoys interactions with the kids) and spends most of his day on the PC video editing, exchanging files, collaboration work with his film producer, doing research for his documentary films, reading blogs, news on nature, philosophy and participating in related forums etc. His activities on the PC and book reading (we can walk to our local library) comprises his intellectual life.
For me, I can not do my work without a computer. Emails, video conferences, heavy usage of MS office word, excel, power point, accces and project along with statistical analysis programs are all components of my work. I also use MS office tools for my personal life mainly MS word and excel. I do all my planning and inventory on spreadsheets be it to plan for a trip, to keep track of our investments, softwares, music, tools, hardware inventory, medical or travel records. So when I retire, I will certainly need to continue using those MS tools.
I am also a webmaster and have volunteered to maintain websites for non-profit organizations and for a friend. So access to a PC and internet almost 24/7 is also a must.
I do all my banking, managing my investments, shopping, making appointments online. Grocery shopping is pretty much the only thing that I do in person. It is very tempting to use the grocery online shopping and home delivery. If I don't have a car, this is what I will do. The internet has become my virtual library. I can pretty much find whatever information that I need from fixing a broken dryer, doing compression test/check magneto timing to rowing, cooking, gardening, what to do when my dog ate 2 lbs of chocolates, and currently everything about possible relocation places.
I am not big on facebook but do check facebook pages of my relatives to find out how they are doing. Emails has also been my main way of communications.
We rarely watch TV so I had cancelled our satellite TV. I got my news online and watch some public programs/shows online.
Bottom line is that the PC and internet have integrated into our daily life and it's hard to be fully functional without these tools. So we can live without a car but not a PC.
Houston is a very car-dependent city but, if given the choice between car or computer, I'd give up my car. I could bike, use public transportation or even Uber/taxis to get around, but I do too much online banking to use a public computer. And I cant imagine my sitting, in the comfort of my nightgown, in a public library, reading C-D early in the AM.
Ha....nightgown in the library.
I'd give up the car. Rarely drive anymore, as I've said before on another thread. Live in the city near everything, block away from public transport; other than groceries, order just about everything online, anyway. Never go to malls. That said, although I would surely miss the car, the one or two days I 'need' it for short jaunts, instead I'd be using a taxi service
But the computer??!! Ye gads - like BellaDL has said - although I'm not working - everything is done on it. Banking, news, etc. The computer IS the internet.
Let's take managing investments - this would probably be the worst, for me. Give up my computer, I've got to navigate the #800 hell to do anything. How does one stay current - or do any planning and research without one?? Can't imagine the inconvenience, not to mention being a day late and a dollar short in the information category. My hands would be so completely tied (in my mind). Plus, I get a lot of good ideas and perspectives just from the information-sharing on CD and other investment forums.
Computers - which means access to the internet - are like telephones (which I consider a fundamental/indispensable/must have lifeline) - can't be without one.
Last edited by Ariadne22; 07-19-2015 at 04:01 PM..
In my current situation, the car, but I'd still rather not do either.
I'm in the open deserts of SoCal. I could probably walk an hour to get to work, or bike in half the time, but then I wouldn't be able to do any recreational stuff outside of town since it's a 1.5 to 2.5 hour drive to most places of civilization. At least I'm within walking distance of a supermarket. However, if I had to get couped up in this town ALL THE TIME, I'd probably go crazy
I need access to my work computer, as that's how I do my job. However, being in a small town, unfortunately, I rely on that for entertainment. Alas, I'm not as good as making friends, and being in a small town where there are no Meetup events, and the town folks are already cliquish, it really gets boring. Besides, there are some activities that are blocked by my company firewall, and it's generally slow (for example, getting YouTube to work is hit or miss). For other stuff like software programming my own projects, I really do need my own computer for that.
In general, I use my computer to look for jobs. It's too much work to drive down to the library (which has more limited hours) just to check email once a day. If I were living closer or in a city with mass transit, I could definitely rethink these 2.
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I'm assuming computers extend to smartphones
I'm also assuming we're talking about computers for personal use
Without doubt, the car. Actually I did, though it wasn't for the computer/internet but to own my house. The costs are less on a monthly basis than renting. And my car was dying, not worth hauling halfway across the country.
Thirty years ago it would have been harder. My actual friends lived where we saw them fairly often. It was after that they started moving other places and we kept in touch if we did over email. I was involved in writing too, and my writing friends were all over the world. The thing which computers and the net have done is given those who's interests are not everyday a way to find out own sort even if they are in a different city, state or country. Its been wonderful for a lot of us and a reason why we'd not lose our computers and net access. Our 'community' has widely flung boundries.
At one point, we had four of us working in a story. One in California, One in Canada, One in England and one studying in Scotland. All done by email. A car won't let you do that.
My bet is that the people who are extroverts, who like the physical presense of people and who don't do so well with solitude, who would rather have the other half of the converstaion present over on the phone, will want to keep the car. The introverts among us are perfectly happy to see our friends over the phone or keyboard or maybe taking thru the computer.
I would LIKE a car, not one to drive to OKC (Oklahoma City) but around this town and maybe to the next bigger one once in a great while. I don't need one for a lot of the shopping since as much as I can is done online. I miss not going to the store when I want to, or just taking a night drive, and it worries me if one of my pets gets sick I have to hope I can get a ride to the vet. That's my goal, though I'm not sure how I accomplish it. It just has to run good enough for local and a bit.
With the advent of home computers and mobile phones which are also computers, we've made ways we can meet people from much further than we live and keep in touch, and widened our view of the immediate world, and we'll never see it like we did before as its become an important part of our lives.
Last edited by nightbird47; 07-19-2015 at 04:04 PM..
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