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What can you do on the internet now? You can earn a degree, price compare, learn a new language, look for a job, talk to people in faraway places, get directions, buy almost anything, read a book… the list goes on.
I remember the day our first computer arrived at the house, in one of those hilarious cow boxes. It was a Gateway — to the internet.
Those were the days of hard disks and Carmen Sandiego. My dad had been working with computers since time zero, when he worked on site at nuclear power plants.
That cow box was the beginning of instant gratification. I think it was 2 years before we got dial-up internet, and America Online was our provider. You couldn’t talk on the phone and be online at the same time, so online time was sparingly doled out by my parents.
My first screenname was Gizmo27. Cute, right? Totally neutral. I came up with the idea from looking at the computer desk bookshelf and seeing my dad’s “Gizmos and Gadgets ‘05” book sitting there. I think having a computer-literate father was what really got me into the internet. As soon as I was in middle school, I started exchanging e-mails with classmates. Mostly, they were “surveys” like most people find on their MySpace accounts now. What’s your favorite store at the mall? Who is your best friend? Oh, AOL.
Then there was Napster. I was a Napster fiend. Instantly, I could have all my favorite songs, though I did my best to stay true to cassette tapes by taping the best tunes from Q101’s Top Nine at Nine. Everybody else thought I was a weirdo.
This was before I basically quit going to the library. I realized that’s the one thing that internet has impacted the most in my life. I used to have to check out books to write term papers, and all of a sudden, I was able to get the same information from the internet. Thinking about that makes me feel extremely lazy. Instead of “Look it up,” I say “Google it.” And that speaks volumes.
