Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Why Blog?

Because it feels right. It's an outlet for me that i really need right now. I asked myself today why don't i just write a private diary with all these same thoughts?

Because no one would be able to read it. I WANT the interaction with others...its a part of who i am. I love people; always have and always will. And i love technology; always have and always will. So this is the perfect marriage of the two things that have meant the most to me in my life.

One of my favorite toys growing up was a Speak and Spell (Merlin was a close second). I remember just being so fascinated about how it worked..where that creepy voice came from, how the block letters were able to appear on the screen. To me, it was my first 'computer'. I've been hooked ever since.

The first real computer I ever owned was an Apple SE. This was in 1989 and i had just enrolled at Drexel University. At that time, all freshman were required to purchase a computer in order to complete and turn in assignments. They were well ahead of their time because i remember being the only person I knew, outside of school, that actually owned a personal computer. The sun rose and set on that machine...i used to dust it every other day and couldn't get enough of all the programs. I used to carry it to the dorms and we'd get like 5 to a room, hook up our computers together and have some serious Tetris tournaments. There was even a rumor floating around campus that Tetris contained some secret mind-numbing codes implanted by the KGB that was meant to brainwash American kids. Of course, we played anyway...what's a little Cold War espionage when you need to get that square block to fit somewhere? So yeah...i loved my puter.

But then something even more extraordinary happened. It was 1995 and i was working a temp job at some no-name ad agency. Anyone who's ever temp-ed knows that usually, you bored out your skull. So some no-name chick was like "hey why don't you sit at this computer and use the web?"

"The what?"

"The World Wide Web. Its a bunch of computers that are connected. just go to www.theglobe.com and you can chat with people there.."

and down the rabbit hole I went. Pardon the cliche, but a whole new world opened up to me. And as hard as it is to explain to some people, i know i'm not alone when i say that its a world that is just as real and valid and important as the terrestrial one.

So i have a request. Whoever reads this, please comment and tell me what the internet means or has meant to you. I ask because i have a very hard time explaining it (even to myself) and i've found that often others can just nail exactly what i'm feeling/thinking...

Holla at your e-girl.

2 comments:

Piscean Princess said...

I'm not ashamed to admit that the internet is one of my very favorite things ever. (I really like my cell phone, but partially because I can use it to go on the internet!)

The internet is how I take care of all of my business: banking, communication, research, journaling. Sometimes I wonder what I did before...

Well I used to handle the whole bankng thing on the phone. As for communiting with folks, unless they were in my regular phone rotation, I didn't. I didn't do any research, and therefore had absolutely no idea what was going on in the world (unless my news-whore friend told me or it was on Oprah). And the journaling didn't happen as often as I would have liked because writing makes my hand tired.

Where would I be without NetFlix? How would I find out what books I want to read and then put them on hold at my local library? How would I know what "Other Users" thought about a movie/book/product before I bought it? How would I get directions? Or phone numbers? Or know the menu options of a restaurant I'm considering going to?

I can't think about it anymore - it's unimaginable.

Technology is your friend.

Anonymous said...

as usual, i'm at extremes with it.

i frequently despair at the glacial pace of anyone whose google game ain' vicious, yet i habitually lament the impatience of those who are information-on-demand addicts.

real for real, i ain' tryna imagine life without the keystroke convenience. but in a broader context, i do feel that the immediacy and overreaching accessibility of the internet can erode our ability to just 'appreciate'.

in that respect, the internet sometimes strikes me as the final burnt bacon strip in the fastfood generation's blt.

that said, it widens the variety of human experience in many other ways, whether via warzone blogs, close creative communities across the miles... or just two souls that somehow found love.