If You Had Internet Access Years Ago----Would You Have Gotten Out Sooner? (page 3)

Carmel

....the internet in 1958?....No computers to access the internet with then... carmel

Although the question itself doesn't pertain to me...it did make me remember browsing for jw's stuff online in 2001. I saw this place and didn't feel like talking, so I never read the threads. I never came back till last summer when I began lurking. I don't know if it would have made a difference or not.

Fatfreek

No, I would have postponed getting out. I would've bided my time till some 10 years passed -- then wrote a letter to the elders just like Seeker4. That was some piece of work.

In 1977 when I was teetering on a decision I would've given just about anything to have JWD to check with, ask others their experiences, and to comfort me. To me, the fade would have been my choice because of my 4 boys. By stubbornly (yet honestly) speaking out to them and those I studied with, I was the perfect target for apostasy and subsequent DF.

Instead, I would have tried to stick around my family where I could have discreetly and subtly shared things with them as time passed. And kept learning from others, various ways to do it here on JWD. And using Peter's QUOTES site for reinforcement. We'll never know since we can't go back in time.

The rest is history. Two of my sons (and grandchildren) still have nothing to do with me.

Fats

zagor

15 years ago only few of us hackers knew Internet existed, lol

Mysterious

The internet was actually in full swing when I got out. But I would say it certainly had a large hand in helping me to escape the organization.

GentlyFeral

As a matter of fact, I had internet access fifteen years ago. But I still hadn't figured out why I was a miserable jaydub; still thought it was my fault. At that time I was still studiously avoiding all manifestations of apostasy and keeping shtum about what little independent thinking I was able to do.

When I did finally begin researching, I began by going to the public library and reading a real book – not about Jehovah's Witnesses per se; rather, it was Steven Hassan's Combatting Cult Mind Control.

gently feral

BluesBrother

No, I was too sincere in what I was doing and would not have visited 'dubious' sites. If 'apostate' literature came my way, I acted as you are supposed to and ignored it.

We were in a bookshop once, looking for some Bible research books. I picked up a volume that was was full of WT quotes, rather like the late lamented website. We just giggled and said that the words were obviously out of context .

So , no the internet would not have helped me , until things happened in my life that made me ready to accept different ideas - even to admit that I had been wrong..

fullofdoubtnow

Internet research was one of the things that helped me make a decision when I was first having serious doubts, so it did get me out sooner. I think you have to have the doubts first though. Maybe if we had had the internet years ago, some would never have joined in the first place.

JAVA

Like Gary posted, "Crisis of Conscience" helped me mentally leave the Tower before the Internet days. I wasn't attending many meetings but couldn't put my finger on the doubts I was having. I read an article in a news magazine about Franz leaving and his book. That put the nail in the Tower's coffin for me. Had the Internet been around in the late '70s or early '80s I would have gotten out sooner.
Information is powerful--that's why cults like the Watchtower discourage Internet use. The Internet has done more to expose the Tower for what it is than any single book or person; it's a great tool!

Scully

I wish I'd had the Internet (and all the info that is now available about the WTS) when I was 15. That's when I first wanted to quit, after reading Orwell's 1984 and being overwhelmed by the similarities with the WTS.

At the time, my options were (a) Leave The Truth™ and get kicked out onto the streets, and (b) comply with my parents' demands and keep a roof over my head. Within 2 years, I was totally assimilated and it would take me until I was approaching my 30th birthday to start seeing the cracks in the veneer again. This time, we snuck away to the Public Library and read a couple of chapters of Crisis of Conscience nestled into a National Geographic while the children enjoyed story time. That was September 1994, and by December of that year we'd decided we were quitting the JWs effective January 1, 1995. A few months later, we got a computer and the Internet.... the rest is history.

If You Had Internet Access Years Ago----Would You Have Gotten Out Sooner?