The Interwwweb Killed It
A lot of my stories begin from conversations I have with some buddies down at our local coffee shop, Jim Norton’s. This one is no different. For some reason we were talking/ discussing/arguing about whether or not the Olympic torch had been to the top of Mount Everest (it was in 2008) and it only took a few seconds before the interwwweb and a buddy’s smart phone had confirmed what I knew to be fact. That effectively ended that part of a brilliant conversation and we all remembered the good old days when after a spirited-discussion we would hurry home to check our particulars by digging out the encyclopedia and seeing the facts in black and white and maybe a photo. When someone jokingly said, “What’s an encyclopedia?” the conversation topic quickly became the interwwweb and what it has eliminated.
There was a time when a night at the movies was exactly that. You went to the theatre and ate candy that you would only eat at the movies, sat/slept through the movie, then went home. Then they invented the video machine. Instead of standing in line at the theatre, you could rent a movie of your choice and watch or sleep through a movie in the comfort of your own home. When the interwwweb came along, it wasn’t long before the video stores were as obsolete as the encyclopedia. Instead of watching a movie on video you could now “stream” a movie or video to be played on your I-thingy anywhere in the world, including the top of Mount Everest when they had the Olympic Torch there. The interwwweb killed the video store.
Many years ago, musicians and recording artists would pay their dues by performing for years before they recorded a single note in the studio. Then they would release an album and sell as many LPs as possible by touring and promoting that record. These days, the interwwweb and computers have changed how music is made, played, viewed and sold, with very little emphasis put on true talent. Computer and interwwweb gadgets, gizmos and googahs (called “Apps”) can now make a tone-deaf, tin-eared, timing-challenged and talentless ukulele strummer into a interwwweb superstar overnight. And if you are a cute 3year old, you may have it made! The interwwweb killed record albums…and musicians paying their dues.
The interwwweb is slowly killing the printed word. Sadly, that includes some newspapers, maps, books and maybe most notably telephone books, which now are printed with microscopic type and seem to be a formality. If you have an I-thingy, you have no need for a map because not only will your smartI-thingy tell you where to go (politely), turn by turn, it will even show photos of landmarks and road signs making it almost impossible to get lost. I will admit, there are folks who have been saved from being hopelessly lost by this interwwweb feature, but I know there are cases where they become hopelessly lost because of this feature. Getting lost with a map, you can usually only blame yourself…or your wife… if you dare! The interwwweb has killed something in me that is very difficult to measure, called patience. I now get testy and irritable when I have to wait a few seconds for Ol’ Betsy (my laptop) to boot up. If I get a “searching” message, my fingers and toes start tapping and it isn’t because of a song in my head. The interwwweb has very easily killed my patience. Like it or hate it, we are all affected by the interwwweb. We just need to be tolerant of those changes and hope those changes are positive.