early
I’m commuting into NYC today by train, and even though it’s early I could sure go for a beer. I’m packed into a small seat on a bumpy tin can having to listen to a woman with a thick Jersey accent prattle on loudly about nothing important on her cell phone. But at least I have the Internet on my phone. It’s my only refuge, a welcome distraction.
That got me to thinking, what would I rather do without for a month, beer or Internet service? I know I’m the beer Brother, but I gotta tell you, I think Internet wins.
The reason why is simple – going without beer for a month would suck, but going without Internet connectivity would be damn near impossible! Work use aside, the Internet is my chief form of entertainment. I stream Top Gear via Netflix at home, I stream Pandora in the car, and as you can tell (I’m writing this on the train after all) I’m a little over-focused and producing content for this site.
So while the cool thing would be to answer the question with a hearty Amish “beer!” the truth is my answer is a chagrined “Internet.” Guess that’s why my wife calls me GadgetTron.
How about you, oh web surfing beer lover? Would you give up Internet or beer?
Beer & Whiskey Brothers 
Internet. Hands down. I’ve went months without beer before when I was dumb thinking it affected my running. I learned fast that it didn’t really make a huge difference.
The internet is where I get my news and entertainment. I rarely watch TV (although I have a new vice in Storage Wars) anyways. And besides, last I checked beer didnt have boobies.
Now that’s wisdom. Beer indeed doesn’t have boobies, John.
Maybe not, but it does make them seem larger and more beautiful, or so I’ve heard 😉
Oh Keith, you and your beer goggles!
I reluctantly have to say beer. I generally only have 1 beer per day (except when eating MD steamed crabs), but use the Internet every day–sometimes all day.
I’m in the same boat. I love beer, but I’m addicted to the Internet!
Well you said work use aside…right? So that would mean that the internet would be available for work purposes. So, given that fact, I say I’d give up internet. I don’t like it all that much anyway. Oh, I like this site, and I do surf on my i-Pad, but I think I could easily go underground for a month, and be the guy that has beer and whiskey. I think if you all really thought about it, you would see there is wisdom there. A month without knowing what movies your cousin rented, without knowing the latest hollywood gossip, a month of peace and quiet, and beer. I think you all are crazy for choosing Internet over beer. A month without it would be like a vacation. I’m in, and pass me a beer, the internet can take a hike.
Spoken like a man who has a tube tv with a VHS VCR in his living room.
I own it brother!
My sentiments exactly. But how would we survive without knowing what your friend from high school made for dinner or what their kids have accomplished? It would be the apocalypse!
Pass me a beer as well.
Cheers!
I tried to go one month without beer. I made it 18 days and was miserable. So while the internet seems like the obvious choice, I know I’d never last 30 days without beer.
Yay Beer!
Sorry, beer…the internet wins every time. I can live without beer if I have to. I couldn’t call home, check my bank account, watch movies, pay my bills, or plan my next adventure with out the internet. I literally could not survive without it. Sigh.
Boo Internet!
I rely on the internet for my work, so a month-long vacation with all the beer I can drink sounds pretty great. It would give me a chance to work on my handwriting. Maybe, I would even raise a barn or two (but probably not).
Yay, Improved handwriting skills…and Beer!
No way would I give up the beer. I use internet at work but not much at home. I’ve gone months before with no home computer and still don’t have internet on my phone (sometimes the battery is dead for days before I notice). My idea of vacation is no phone and no internet, but there’s always beer. After a backpacking trip I don’t reach for tech devices, I’m going straight for the cold celebratory beers. Of course my husband would say the exact opposite of all that!
Good on ya. I think some people are far too addicted to their phones.
No matter how much I love the Interwebs, I’d give that up before beer. I rarely go a day without having at least one beer, and even though I’m always online, I could drop that in an instant given the choice between the two.
Alex has got it right, you can be more productive without the net. A few years ago I built a garden shed (more like a tiny house without utilities) that took about a week to construct. Other than at work, I didn’t go online once!
I think in some ways it is a silly question, because the internet has become indispensible to our way of life. Its like asking whether we would give up indoor plumbing over beer. Well, no and no, and fortunately I don’t have to make that call. But I still say I’d rather do without the net than beer.
I agree 100% with NicM… besides, beer has been around MUCH longer than the internet, so its obviously more important or else the internet would have been discovered thousands of years ago. Thats hard to argue with.
There is wisdom in your words sir! Maybe beer was the worlds first internet? You know depending on ingredients and flavors they would communicate across cultures with beer. Certain flavors meant, watch your butt, were invading, other flavors meant I would like to marry your daughter, still other’s might have been early craig’s list ads for goat skins.
Now are we talkin just beer or all booze? I might be able to do a month without beer if I had plenty of bourbon…. “loophole”
Loophole indeed. I think it is actually possible to go a whole month without beer or the internet. I know that sounds like heresy (and not the great stout from weyerbacher) but I’m pretty sure it is doable.
Give me enough Old Grand Dad 114, some W.L. Weller Reserve and some 10 year old AAA ( not 10 star, 10 year) and I might be able to make it a year without the internet or electricity for that matter….haha
It would take a lot of those, maybe a couple cases each! At least I like to think about that. 🙂
Don, I know you’re a whiskey guy, do you ever get to the Bluegrass state? I’m about 15 minutes away. There are some bourbons that it seems can only be found in Kentucky. You can get some damn good bourbon without breaking the bank down there.
Oh, I’d love to. One of these days we will plan a pilgrimage to the motherland.
I hear ya’ll but look what we’re doing right here. Wud you really wanna give up B&WB for a month? Its the only purely social on-line platform in which I participate.
I also do a heck of a lot of genealogical research and publication on the Web, but I don’t have a Kindle, an IPAD, a cell-phone or a TIVO (and I too own a tube TV and VCR/DVD player.) I actually still read paper books–lots of them! I love hikin’, fishin’, workin’ out in the garden, etc. But when the weather is brutal, as it has been more or less continuously of late, Internet is a real God-send for me. To me TV is for sleepin’ in front of, my computer ain’t.
Of course it would be a struggle to give up all of this…for a month…but I’d give it a try. 😉
I’ve had to go month(s) without either and I’ve adjusted better to the no internet than the no beer. After a long day training out in the woods, at the range, or in certain circumstances, coming back from a patrol, a beer or two is awesome. The worst part was I spent a month in Germany without the chance to even drink a beer. Talk about criminal.
Wow Scott, that might have been worth going AWOL for, you know…just for one night. 😀
Absolutely criminal, especially as Germany, sorry Bavaria, is the home of great beer 😉
Beer! That’s an easy for someone who wants to be off the grid in a couple of years. But there has been such a move toward the internet and using social media (especially in our recent ventures) that it is perhaps easier said than done.
I think you are right Mike. The heart says Beer, but the internet has stormed into every facet of our lives, so pragmatically the internet wins. If you are successful with your brewery aspirations, the internet will become an indispensable tool. No going off the grid for you my friend! Of course by that time perhaps you will have an employee that can handle all your net needs! 🙂
Definitely go without beer, but whisky? Now there’s one big dilemma!
The Internet will help you to connect with beer. Beer will not help your Internet connection. Sorry but I have to go with “teach a man how to (fish)” on this one.
So, teach a man how to use the internet, and he will have beer forever? I’m not sure that follows. 😉
But it does work for porn. 🙂
Man does it ever!
and you people are reading a beer blog?? how could you bring yourself to desert beer, to leave beer out in the cold while you choose fiddle with a keyboard and your touch-screen smart phones?? That is a shame to the name of beer. Dont get me mistaken, I’m 22 years old and am at the heart of the information revolution, but honestly, you’re telling me that you all couldn’t give up the world wide web??? I can do just fine with my cable TV, newspaper and flip phone… thank you very much.
I for one, can not imagine a world in which I turn my back on beer before I give up on the Internet. Come on people, it’s beer. Its the oldest and most wonderful craft beverage humankind has ever invented. I would be more than happy to cut my internet bill for a month and buy a different micro-brew six pack for 30 days, how incredible does that sound??
I’m sorry, I guess I had no idea what this world has come to… Who do you think you people are?? Choosing the internet over beer…
More than just reading a beer blog, some of us net choosers are WRITING beer blogs!