I was thinking earlier today that the internet should get some sort of Nobel Prize. It’s one of the biggest things to hit the planet (in my opinion).

The very thing you’re mentioning is the thing that’s so great about the net. I’m a huge science fiction fan and I used to read about things like the internet.

Yes, it’s causing all sorts of immediate changes for better or worse, but in the larger picture it’s a wonderful thing. Access to ALL THAT INFORMATION!

Now when a doctor says you have this problem, you go online and research it. Are you the lone left-handed bicyclist in your borough? You can hook up with twenty more just like you online.

In my opinion, it would be too difficult to give someone a Nobel Prize for inventing the Internet. Who would get it? Al Gore? The Department of Defense?

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=who+invented+the+Internet&btnG=Google+Search

http://www.boutell.com/newfaq/history/inventednet.html

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Who_invented_the_Internet

I’m not necessarily saying that the Internet is a bad thing. I believe that the Internet is a GREAT thing. I do think that the Internet has made us more informed and has given use a sense of community. But it has also made us have a worse memory (except for out usernames and passwords), made use a little lazier, and more impatient.

leftystrat, thank you for you comment. I hope you continue reading.

“people don’t read something if it is more than a couple of paragraphs long” is so true. And it applies to the writers.

I discovered a collection of National Geographic Traveler magazines starting from the first issue in 1984. In the earliy issues I noticed the articles were long (about 10 pages) and the writing gave you a feeling of being at the location and interacting with the people. I could feel the history and uniqueness of the locations thru the writing. I wanted to read them all.

In the newer issues (about 1996 on) the articles are short (about 3 or 4 pages). The writing style is more like a travel agency brochure, mostly about the lifestyle activities (entertainment, spas, sports, restaurants). I could get the same information by a web search so they generated no interest in reading.

Oh well, with progress and increased access to information, we sometimes loose the underlying essence in the rush to brevity.

Zenium, you raise an interesting point. I don’t read a lot of magazine because of the majority of the content is editorial in some nature and I can usually find the article on-line, in some degree.

I have also noticed the quality of the articles that are written in my local newspaper. The articles are poorly written so I cancelled my subscription, which I had for 1 year, because I can read all of their articles on-line, for free. Why pay for it when I can LEGALLY get the same information for FREE.

Thanks for the comment and I hope you continue reading.

I was actually thinking about this the other day as I watched a show on the Sci-Fi channel with my son. I have always been the type that would watch a tv show or movie and wanted to be able to separate fact from fiction on anything that caught my attention. Back in the day :) that meant
1. Having parents that would buy (or even could afford) an expensive set of encyclopedias and then to keep them updated annual
2. Running to find said encyclopedias during the commercial
3. Perhaps searching through several volumes to find the relevant information and even then have the topic be simply too obscure for a main stream encyclopedia….which meant having to wait until you could get to the school library the next day or even at the end of summer vacation.

Now he just types in a term or two and pushes search and a whole world of information is magically at his fingertips.

My point is… will having such knowledge magically and so easily available at the literal touch of a button create generations of well-rounded super knowledgeable people, or will it create generations of people with superficial knowledge who think they are super knowledgeable geniuses?

Enquiring minds want to know :~)

Teresa,

You definitely ask an interesting question. I’ll answer it by choosing the answer it will “create generations of people with superficial knowledge who think they are super knowledgeable geniuses.” I choose that choice because a lot of people will know a little about a lot. That is actually how I would classify myself.

As an employee at a university in Pennsylvania, I have access to credible research in a couple of clicks. Most people only have access to Google and Wikipedia, which are becoming more and more credible as users learn how to properly search.

Now-a-days we really don’t have to remember a lot because we have access to research on the Internet. And because it is on the Internet, we don’t have to read everything to find the answer. We just use the Internet browsers “Find” feature (CMD + F on Mac or CTRL + F on PC) and there the answer is.

Thanks for commenting and I hope you continue reading my thoughts.