Prestel menu: The Internet, old school!
Sitting in front of the computer with the whole world at my feet: what the hell did we do before the Internet?
I’ve been online for a long time. I was on Prestel on an old BBC ‘B’ computer, slow, clunky, Teletext style pages, downright weird though quite pleasantly retro-looking now! Did the dial-up thing; how I miss the whirrs & clicks of the modem dialling into the web!
Seems to me, though, that in this age of instant news, instant connectivity, where the minutiae of peoples’ lives are thrust in your face at every click of the mouse, we are losing perspective about what is important in life.
Answer this: is the internet just a tool to you, an end to a means, or is it such an ingrained part of your life that without it, you’re like an addict going cold turkey? It’s the latter, isn’t it?
The SF writers all have their take on the connected world, cyberspace, call it what you want. I wonder though if we really know what we’ve got ourselves into. It’s not going to go away and we are on it for more than the ride; me you, all of us no matter how much we deny it.
And it’s with us every moment of our lives. The picture you take on your iPhone [is there any other phone worth having?] is online in seconds, a flashmob is set up in minutes, the policeman kicking the shit out of a protester is on the front page of the online versions of the press before you can tweet it!
There’s a theory called six degrees of separation. I don’t know how true it is but it sure feels like it in our instantly connected world and even if you do try and switch off from it, there’ll be no place to hide; you’ve already left your indelible mark on the world …
