The Internet

Today's Topic at Daily Blog Topic is: The Internet.

What did I do before the Internet? I happen to be of that very special generation caught somewhere between X and Y. Some sociologists label me a member of the tail end of X; others will say I'm a forerunner of the Y generation. And still others claim that there's a special group between X and Y called "The MTV generation." I am amongst those rare few that remember life before MTV. I also remember when it debuted. Back then, Michael Jackson was still black and sporting one glove, Joan Jett loved rock 'n roll and daddy dear was interfering with girls just wanting to have fun.

I grew up in a small town in the Rocky Mountains and for entertainment, we'd play outside. Make-believe was a big part of everything. Sure, we had toys, but nothing too new-fangled or fancy when it came to technical appeal. I had a Commodore 64 and it was more intimidating than a helpful tool. Remember the days when booting up a computer meant learning a secret language and capturing the precise combination of characters on the screen? And what about the floppies? Later in life, I would be mesmerized by the high-tech wonders of the original Oregon Trail in school computer lab.

It wasn't until I was in high school that the internet became relevant to consumers in my neck of the woods. I hung out with the elite girls in school whose father not only bought a computer, they had this nifty little program called Windows, and the ultimate capability of plugging their computer into a phone jack. There would be a dial tone, a long pause, an ear-piercing squeal that seemed to last forever, and the sound of static. Then, ever so slowly, there would be this miraculous connection. We'd enter a chat room and watch the conversations scrolling up the screen. As teenagers, we'd create alter-egos for the chat rooms. We'd say we were 20-year-old college students when we hadn't even passed high school freshman English. Flirting in chat rooms led to the exchange of snail mail addresses so we could write letters. This was back when the internet cost boatloads of money to use and you could rack up a huge bill in a matter of minutes.

By the time I was really in college, I had graduated to a hand-me-down Wang. I'm not talking male sex organs, I'm talking computer geek. I was able to do research online, stay in touch with friends all over the country and maintain plenty of social interaction without leaving the privacy of my dorm room. I will say that the professors in college found the internet to be a highly-incredible source of information. The validity of a website was unable to be verified.

And while that conundrum remains alive even today, there are so many resources online for inquiring minds now. Wikipedia articles abound on any given topics. We've even become so advanced that e-mail is somewhat old-fashioned now. With social media sites like Twitter & Facebook, you don't have to go out searching for the news. The news finds you. And the next wave of technology appears to be focused on the micro. More and more people are expanding their cellular telephone capabilities to include the internet to replace the desktop dinosaur model. Myself? I'm going on vacation soon and will be leaving my notebook computer at home in favor of the palm-sized iPod Touch, which picks up wi-fi connections and does the trick for me without the excess bulk of a laptop carry-on.

I've made so many connections online that I know without a doubt that my life would be 100% different without it. For better or for worse, it is now an essential tool that I can't live without. I believe that the internet has made me a better person because it has opened my mind to so many new ideas, given me the news when I needed to hear, connected me with sources I otherwise would never have contacted and entertained me on a shoestring. The value of the internet is exponential when used correctly. And I'm not saying that everything is sunshine & roses. There is a dark underworld online just as there is a dark underworld in every large community. But we create the reality with the interconnection and collaboration of the universal media. I can't wait to see how everything evolves over the next few years. Long may the world wide web flourish!