Could You Give Up the Internet for $50 million?

Yesterday @ErikSchenn, @vseanv and @DonVandenheuve1 approached me with the question:

“How much money would it take you to give up the internet forever?”

I answered almost instantly, I couldn’t do it, not for all the money in the world. The internet has become something so ingrained in my life that it feels more than just a mere comparison to a cigarette addiction.

It is pretty amazing to think that if you asked me the question 10 years ago, I might have considered it. With the rapid growing technology of the world around us, you just can’t escape the internet, unless you buy yourself a huge mansion in the forest and cut yourself off from the rest of the world. But then, how would I discover new music? Communicate with people? Sure there are phones, but (aside from the fact I’m in a forest), I actually have friends that won’t answer their phones/texts but will reply almost instantly to a Facebook message or Twitter direct message.

Giving up just the social networks is hard let alone the internet itself. I’ve become attached to my twitter and made some great friends. Some of whom hundreds of miles away but have supported me and helped me obtain opportunities I wouldn’t have otherwise such as concert tickets and press passes. Sure with a billion dollars I could visit these people, but then how would I contact them? Even with all this money to travel the world, what would happen after I’ve been everywhere?

Blogging has been a love for me the past three years. I have 5 of them. The three I publicly claim are, my music blog Ride the Tempo, my comic blog My Life in Drawings and of course this one. There are two that I like to rename anonymous on so those will be a mystery. My music blog is like a child to me and that alone I would not give up for all the money in the world.

I’ve had Facebook since September 2006. Twitter in April of 2009. It’s pretty crazy to think that five years ago, none of these things existed. Now they have been ingrained in me like a smoker’s itch for a cigarette. They have changed how we communicate and how we receive news and learn about something new. Do you know Wikipedia has only been around since 1999-2000ish? and Google only 1996? Along with the effective use of twitter, I have become a little information hungry. I think if I gave up the internet forever, I would feel a bit sheltered and uneducated. Sure you could read books, magazines and newspapers, but by the time they reach print, they’re already outdated. I’m flabbergasted by the fact that none of this seemed to matter in the first half of my life.

In addition, all devices nowadays come with the internet. Even TVs. I don’t even have a smart phone, but even my Sony Ericsson crap phone has unlimited internet and social networking. I also have an iPad.

I think I could write you reasons forever about why I can’t give it up but I want to know what you guys think. Could you give up the internet forever for $50 million? If not, how much would it take? or are you just like me?