The Internet

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The Internet has changed the way we live (at least some of us). I'm not really sure when I first took my first small steps out on the Internet, but I think it was as early as 1992. Remember, this was a couple of years before people came to me and wondered if they could come over and copy the Internet. (Don't laugh! It came in the papers every time a new company took the bold step out on the 'net...)

The fascinating thing about the Internet for me is perhaps not the vast amount information, or even the technology [see computers] involved. The most exciting part of it for me, is that it facilitates an immense ability for people all over the world to communicate [see communication] in ways we have never seen before.

Take for instance one of the dullest forms of communication -- e-mail. This medium has grown from a simple convenient form of sending short messages, into a whole new style and way of writing. Think about that -- this new medium, being nothing more than a system of interconnected computers, has made people express themselves [see writing] in a whole new way. That is what I would characterize as nothing short of earth-shattering. E-mail has grown into a whole new universe, consisting of jargon and style one has never seen before. From the short messages like `I'm coming home now' to the huge mails (I've written e-mails consisting of over 20,000 words -- that's over 120kB of pure ASCII text!), it never stops to fascinate me... and it can be useful and efficient too, as soon as you learn how to use and control it. (For some, it can be extremely inefficient -- I simply feel that this, as everything else, is just a matter of how you adjust to it.)

Other forums of interest are the Usenet and IRC [see Internet Relay Chat]. These are more many-to-many than one-to-many conversations, which in itself often changes the way we think. More than once, I've been able to look at things from a totally different perspective when I meet people with a totally different background than the one I've got myself [see me]. However, it is imperative that the people discussing are actually able to be on-topic and calm, otherwise the discussion can boil down to simply a series of flames and name-calling, which is not good. The Internet has definitely its negative sides too -- the people participating are still only humans, although they are interacting in a quicker, more direct medium than perhaps even face-to-face-discussion has to offer. (How many times have you been able to talk with five different groups of people at once, on wildly different topics? I find myself doing that regularly...)

And then of course, you have the part that has become so big, many nowadays actually believe it's the Internet itself: The World Wide Web, WWW. Millions and millions of pages -- some (and quite a scary amount too) being utter, un-updated crap (I definitely can't promise you that won't happen to this page either -- the last one I made stood for over two years without a single touch!), and some actually containing insightful, comprehensive information. Needless to say, this is quite a good picture of how the technology and the society is today -- there is an overwhelming amount of information, and even the school system [see school] has been changed to reflect this: Pupils are no longer taught to store mass amounts of `given' and `authorative' facts, but rather to be able to find the proverbial needles in the haystack of information. And yet people say that the Internet hasn't changed our world?

It is very difficult to predict what the future will bring. I keep watching ads for `broadband Internet access' (I've got ADSL at home now myself, after spending over five years with a 28.800 modem as the primary means of connecting to the Internet), primarily in the area of multimedia (this often means video, remember; that term became quite diluted with the arrival of the CD-ROM) on the 'net. However, as it is today, it's simply a matter for people to surf the web faster, and perhaps even more important, to get quicker access to MP3 and warez [see illegal copying and music]. Where will it all end? At the moment, I'm quite content with what I can find on my TV... What would I need video via the Internet cable for? Even more information that is difficult to search through? For `true broadband' to really become useful, we need some intelligent way of searching and keeping track of all the extra information, like we finally seem to be getting for text now. I simply do not believe that the technology is ready yet -- and I don't talk about video compression here.