As I was driving to work today I heard a rather interesting statistic – Australia is one of the top countries for dodgy downloading on the internet. I’m not surprised, because if I mention Torrents or downloading, most people I know have either tried it, do it or know about it.
That is pretty impressive. I had thought with new programs such as iPlayer or iTunes, the need for these kinds of behaviors might have dwindled. Apple TV made a huge impact on me, I loved it as I didn’t need to sign up to Foxtel or some other cable provider and I could pay for shows I wanted to watch, nothing else. YouTube fills the gaps for me, if I cannot find it on Apple TV, then watch it there. So the need for dodgy downloads was starting to diminish…..or so I thought. Apparently we are still hard at it here in Australia, lagging behind countries like China, Japan and Korea. So what triggered all of this? 
The launch of Netflix on 24th March. Netflix is a much whispered about, much anticipated online “cable tv” offering and I think its largely due to the fact that its web-based (so everyone can access it, not just those who subscribe, get a cable box, pay for installation etc) and because of the success of some of its shows (House of Cards? Orange is the new Black?). This got me thinking, is the internet slowly replacing one-by-one each of the different technologies in our lives? Are we going to be totally web-based in the near future? Will television and cable disappear?
All of this is exciting on one hand, as our mobile devices are internet ready, so there is no limit to what we do, where we do it or when. But imagine if the internet went down………imagine a world with no alternative. I know that when I have left my phone at home, or if the battery goes flat (horror of horrors) I barely cope, but its usually only for a short period of time. Imagine an extended period of no internet……..worrying. So are we overly reliant on it? Yes. Should we be wary of committing 100% of our lives to it? Yes.
drjenhowell 