Manas Garg Speaks

Around 1.5 years back, I wrote this post titled Another Addict where I described how I enjoyed being online. I was in IIT Kanpur, and the connectivity there was much better than in NIT Trichy.

Long back, when all I had was a dial-up at home, internet access was quite expensive (See here). Being online meant doing nothing but looking for information you needed and disconnecting as soon as possible. I used to think that in the US, computers are always on, and always online - It must be so wonderful to just minimize Internet Explorer and continue with other things!

Well, now I’m out of college. I have corporate internet in office, broadband at home and EGPRS on my phone. I do not shut down my office computers - ever - ‘coz that way I can access them from whereever I am, whenever I want to. Always on, always online.

Basically, it has come to a stage where the only time I’m not online is when I’m sleeping. I’m obviously online when I’m in office, I’m online at home and I’m online while on the move.

Do I need to sleep more?

I have been addicted to the internet for only about a month. Though I have always been a regular, i was never an addict. The simple reason for this change is internet connectivity in this campus which is much better than where I spend the greater part of my year.

Anyways, I am not writing this to talk about connectivity issues but instead to share this feeling of completeness.

Being connected to the net has helped me do things I have always wanted to do. Writing - in the form of this blog, and exploring the world - in the form of browsing. I suddenly have so many more things to learn and to find out about. I feel more satisfied in my bed at night when I think about all that I did during the day. The satisfaction of having learnt and explored is immense. And so is the satisfaction of having written.

Internet is helping me realize the kind of person I want to be and is also helping me be it - bringing to me this euphoric feeling of completeness .

I’m addicted. For life.