Comments

Stop and think — 27 Comments

  1. I couldn’t agree more. But there is a downside. For example, NOT traipsing about shops, Vitamin D deficiency? I am up too early this morning, Grandad. Gotta visit the ass doctor.

  2. I’d be out of a job – and that’s just for starters!

    I’m currently chatting to a colleague who might as well be sat next to me, but he’s sat in a very brightly lit office in Beijing waiting for the traffic to die down once the Olympic opening ceremony has finished – it’s all so simple.

    I often say I’ve chatted to someone and my other half says “do you mean really chatted or just messaged”, my general response is “What difference does it make?”

  3. It’s funny you bring this up because I was only thinking something similar the other day. My reason for thinking about it is that I’m reading for the second time a book called “Where Wizards Stay Up Late” which is about how the forerunner to the Internet came into existence.

    It’s a fascinating read, especially if you are a techie and what I’ve been pondering recently was whether the creators ever imagined what their creation would be used for now.

    That is spam, phishing attacks, scams and stealing credit card numbers 😉

  4. I spent 5 years begging my parents every hour of every day to get it, so I appreciate it.
    The level of influence it has had on me overall is possibly worrying though.

  5. I’m watching 2008 drummers open up the Olympic ceremony in Beijing live on the BBC website whilst typing this…..

    I think that says it all!

  6. I remember a day not so very long ago, sitting in an auditorium at a university that my son wanted to attend. The professor at the front showed us all the ‘world wide web’ on a big screen. I knew nothing about it at the time and then it was quite a small ‘thing’.
    I remain eternally grateful to aforementioned son for all the idiot guides and diagrams on beer mats that have brought me to where I am now…. conversing in many languages to people all over the world and enjoying it immensely – it has changed my life and saved my sanity!!!!

  7. You’re welcome! I should have kept some of those beer mats for some of the people I work with now!

  8. Suppose it’s like any other media – printing press / radio / TV etc were all life-changing ideas or inventions in their time, but growing up with them more or less diminishes their spectacle.

  9. What amuses me is that the Interweb has only been around for a couple of decades [some would say only one?] yet it has become a life saver for some, a profession for many and an indispensable means of communication and commerce. I doubt that the developers could have had the slightest inkling of the uses to which it has been put.

  10. Keiron and I were just discussing that first interview at uni – it was 12 years ago!!! His life has changed so much since then!

  11. Unforeseen opportunities from technology unimaginable a generation ago, and what do we do with it?

    Bebo.

  12. I received an email about 3 or 4 am this morning from someone reading my blog.

    They are so far out of the usual demographic that pop in, it was startling.

    They wrote the kindest words about having been reading for 6 hours straight, bless their wee cottons.

    Unsolicited, but immediate contact, from a complete stranger, with only good things to say.

    Made my week.

  13. Grandad,
    Your blog is the first one I ever participated in and I am still amazed that I can read, write, and enjoy (or not) the input from so many of your friends. I look forward to your observations and welcome the introspection they can sometimes evoke. The internet is amazing, and has opened doors never before available. Just one word of caution, from my saintly Irish mother, “our freedoms will kill us if we are not carefull”.
    John

  14. I don’t know what I would do without the Internet. I love to look stuff up and, with the Internet, I have instant gratification. Additionally, I have been helping my 6th grade grandson with his math homework. I have forgotten more than I care to say, so I am often going online for help with math. Do you know that Youtube actually has math lessons? They do, and the lessons helped me understand how to easily find the greatest common factor and least common multiple. What a world.

    I enjoy reading your blog from way over there in Ireland. It is on my favorite list and I check it daily.

    And, like Shannon B, my house would be cleaner as well.

  15. My eyes, ears and what’s left of my brain are still all shook up from watching the Olympic opening ceromony, and I can’t get me head together to think of a comment….
    (And where else but the Interweb could I impart this totally uninteresting snippet … ?!).

  16. three cheers for the interweb!! I know I couldnt live without it. Well, ok, I could, but I’d rather not. Power to the people, I say! Though I’m with TT (or is it ‘tt’) there’s something beaut about a nice ole shopping trip the old-fashioned way. Everything in moderation.

  17. i would have to give up my “hermit” status and go deal with the god-forsaken town I live in…might make me finally move outta here! hhhmmmm…

  18. I don’t think I’d like it very much at all. It makes it so much easier to stay in touch. My parents and brother live in S Africa and my sister lives in London, as well as one of my brothers. My other sister lives in Germany and I’m in the USA. (And to confuse the matter even more, we’re all actually IRISH ha!). There are a total of thirteen grandchildren in all the above countries. It’s great to email, skype and send pics of the children instantaneously. Otherwise, I’d find it even harder to live here than I do already!

  19. I go into a spin if I can’t get connected and it’s made Clare’s absence tolerable since she messages or Skypes every few days. Although I still gain some sadistic pleasure ramming into small children with a shopping trolley so rarely shop online!

  20. Since we don’t have television we would probably die without internet…
    How do I know you are in Ireland, you could be that idiot down the street that thinks he’s cool because he has an Irish bumper sticker on his humongous truck?
    oh he thinks he’s tough that one, but I could kick his can in right down the road!

  21. What would your life be like, if suddenly the Interweb ceased to exist?

    Broke.

    Hold on – I am broke. Broker, then.

  22. I would be lost. I definitely take it for granted but you’re right, it’s amazing how much it can do and how much we can rely on it. I got annoyed the other day because there was something wrong with the website where I pay my phone bill and I couldn’t pay it. I had to stop and think, ‘hold on a minute though, could you not just got to the Post Office like you used to do before you could pay online?’

    I never thought I’d get on this well with technology. I was a bit phobic to begin with. Now I think I’d probably get withdrawal symptoms if you took the Internet away from me!

  23. I just know I’d miss my Grandad, so very VERY much.. I’d have to go hire an beared old irishman to sit around and talk all snarky to me.

  24. Absolutely it’s taken for granted. Just leave it up to us humans to be marveled for a few minutes or so, start complaining immediately after about “shortcomings” and “I wanna’s” then just after it works to the majority’s liking, it’s taken for granted like it had always been there.

    Cynicism aside, there’s always a fair part of me that’s still young enough to appreciate the marvel of the WWW and everything it can bring to any individual with a home computer and a browser. It’s even more amazing considering the WWW itself has only been around since 1993 (although the Internet and the Arpnet was around several years before that). So what if it died?

    Back to snail mail instead of email.

    Phone calls instead of Instant Messaging.

    All forms and filings etc have to be done through the post and/or in person.

    All shopping done by doing it yourself or by catalog.

    News, weather, all media etc by television and radio (who do you believe then?).

    Remember going to the library? Can we talk about obsolete information?

    Etc….

    Okay, I’m done now. You did ask you know. 😛

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