The Internet - that thing invented by Al Gore (or maybe not) - turns 40 today. I only know this because I was on the Internet this afternoon, logged into gmail when a friend sent me an instant message with a link to a video on the National Geographic Web site.
I wonder if the inventors four decades ago could foresee the ways in which their extraordinary discovery would change our lives and our world. I don't think I even imagined it in 1996 when I created my first Web site "Kahlua, Colin and Claremont" as a freshman in college, amazed that I could actually scan and post a photo to the Web when now I can post video in minutes.
I might have been a little slow to come to the Internet, compared to other peers my age - especially my really nerdy computer geek friends. When I was in high school, my family didn't have a computer in the house. Instead, I used a word processor my best friend dubbed Duncan. It worked just fine for school reports, or writing bad poetry as most teenage girls do. If I needed information for a school report, I went to the library and looked up information in this thing called an encyclopedia. No not, wikipedia, encyclopedia, a printed book where all the facts inside are actually reliable - at least as of the last publication.
I have definitely grown fond of the Internet, especially since it makes my job as a journalist so much easier. Though I've never worked as a reporter in an era without the Internet, I did work in a newsroom without much technology for the summer of '04. When I was an intern in South Africa, we had the Internet in my newsroom at the Cape Argus - on one computer that had to be shared with 30 other staff members. Needless to say, I became reacquainted with phone books, maps and just asking questions of the South African reporters on staff.
I do appreciate the easy access to information that is proffered up by the Internet, but I did recently read a Wall Street Journal piece (on the Internet, of course) about how the next generation of kids who are growing up with text messaging and social networking sites as their main form of communication might be losing the ability to pick up on nonverbal cues.
I took a semester class on nonverbal communication, and the subject fascinates me. There are all those things we do unconsciously that tell people how we are feeling - like our eyes dilating when we look at someone we find attractive (which they also do after a few drinks which can complicate things.) It would truly be a detriment to future relationships if an entire generation of kids is unable to read a real smile from a fake one or to tell when someone needs a little extra personal space.
While the Internet is invaluable to me as a journalist at the Weekend Pinnacle, with all the background information and phone numbers I can find in an instant, understanding those nonverbal cues can be just as important. It's why I always interview people in person when possible, rather than over the phone, and why I never conducted interviews via e-mail. I get so much more out of people when I meet with them eye to eye, perhaps because they see me, too, and can sense that I am sincerely interested in what they have to say (at least most of the time.)
So Happy Birthday, Internet, with all your pros and cons. And excuse me, while I go cook dinner with a recipe I downloaded off, what else, the Internet.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Happy Birthday, Internet
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