My last pleasure: the bounteous web
I HAVE a friend who is a Datuk who once gave up smoking and spent his energy campaigning among his smoking associates to stop the ‘deadly’ habit. But now he has ‘repented’ from his gunslinging, judgmental crusade, and has long relapsed into puffing on the fag very happily again. He had warned me in no uncertain terms: “Raymond, this is my last pleasure, so don’t even try to stop me from enjoying it!” I had complied accordingly!
But this made me wonder: what is MY last pleasure? Has everyone a last pleasure they savor in and occupy most of their time with before they die? Is pleasure the last word in life? Is it a compulsory, or even a necessary, part of the life of the aged bipedal creature?
It seems that most people have pleasure in growing old without having a particular interest in anything; as retirees they retire completely, to wait for that fateful day when the whole business and switch of life are turned off forever and (as many believe) they will go into the realm of nothingness.
As for me, other than my joy in being in the Lord and being buoyed by the Hope which has no equal, my last pleasure must be the exploration of knowledge. I seek to be awed by new ideas and new revelations of reality, to revel in the excitement of finding the incredible, in the physical or ethereal.
In the 300-year Age of Discovery which started in the 15th century, daring explorers sailed to furthest unknown corners of the globe. Today we are able to undertake our own journeys of discoveries from the comfort of our homes, to expand our awareness of the universe from the sub-atomic to the galactic super-clusters.
Thanks to the Internet, we are spoilt for choice in the endless web of knowledge to stimulate our intellect to levels hitherto unimagined, surfing through multi-directional bridges spanning vast expanses of information. The Internet is my version of a “last pleasure” although “pleasure” comes by far short of paying justice to the excitement, ecstatic stimulation of the neural activity and the sweetening of the subliminal fluid.
Of course, today that the Internet has become an integral and deeply entrenched part of human lives, new words to identify the Internet craze have cropped up. There is the Internet Addiction Disorder (IAD), which is also commonly called Problematic Internet Use (PIU), Compulsive Internet Use (CIU), Internet Overuse, Problematic Computer Use, or Pathological Computer Use. All these refer to excessive computer uses, impacting negatively upon human lives.
But one Jacqueline Howard admits that in a 2008 study it was found that the use of Internet search engines can stimulate neural activation and potentially enhance brain function in older adults.
She reports: “The study results are encouraging, that emerging computerized technologies may have physiological effects and potential benefits for middleaged and older adults,” the study’s principal investigator, Dr. Gary Small, professor of neuroscience and human behavior at UCLA, said in a written statement. “Internet searching engages complicated brain activity, which may help exercise and improve brain function.”
So I guess I do not have to stop feeling guilty being an Internet enthusiast, but careful not to fall into obsession and earn the IAD, PIU or CIU tags.
Information is power, knowledge is very exciting, and discoveries are breathtaking! With the Internet the lone surfer will never be lonely, savvy netpreneurs will never starve, the artist will never run out of ideas, and the writer will forever be brimming with inspiration and overloaded with sources. The web is a bountiful ocean of harvests; its freebies alone would overwhelm and fill up the hungry!
And the challenge never ends because the supplies of information are inexhaustible as they pour into the web in the millions per day. In an expanding universe the seeker is challenged as if walking in a fantastic labyrinth. So how can this last pleasure be ever dull or poor, as even new regions beckon the netizen as the clock ticks?
This final pleasure of mine before I expire is also my borderless playground, where I get high as the incurable hunter, the joyous discoverer, the victorious warrior, and the insatiable glutton.
This is my final thrill ride, so let me be often lost in its swings and turns in which I bristle with ecstasy as I become more alive, younger, stronger, ever more confident, free, courageous and undefeatable!