Monday, February 22, 2010

Day 21: Google it!


It's 12:02 A.M. finally, the next day, which means I can write today's post. I know, I can't wait sometimes. Sometimes...I can't sleep, so I write.
I just got home. I was listening to the radio in the car and they were playing this song on 92.3 that I loved. I had no idea who sang it, so I listened to a common phrase for the title so that I can search it on youtube. Well, I didn't have to search, it was right there, the first video I picked. It's amazing to me that we can just go to a site, type in anything, and there it is... it's purely amazing, and sometimes, we take it for granted.
If you guys want to hear the song I searched for, here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwT7rKTqQbk
A bit more than 10 years ago, there was Napster and we all loved to download free music. Even though, it took hours with dial up internet, we all did it. Now, it takes a second, and we can find anything that ever existed. Technology is ridiculous these days, but we can't go on without most of it. I can't imagine not having internet connection or not being able to check my email, or not have email, and, of course, how can we go on not knowing what the whole world is doing on Facebook, right?
I remember the World Book Encyclopedia people that used to come around knocking on doors and asking us, kids, questions about the ocean and sky to prove that we were stupid enough for our parents to buy these books. I remember them asking me, "Do you know what color the ocean is?" I was 6 years old then, as I looked at them in confusion, and said," blue." I remember them laughing at me at that point and saying, "No, honey, the ocean is colorless, you see it as blue because it's reflecting the sky." After that day, I never forgot what color the ocean was. We, actually, have a World Book set, 27 Volumes of "world" information in print and heavy as hell. These days, it's Google or Wikipedia. Oh, and what the heck do we do with our dictionaries now? Google is used as a spelling guru and we can find a picture of ladybug shit from Google images, if we looked hard enough. Personally, I like actual books as oppose to the internet. Books are priceless and their existence is crucial, I think. All I know is that, my kids are not going to be carrying around Ipads, even if they're made fun of at school, or... atleast I hope they're not going to be carrying around Ipads. (I'll get back to you on my discipline as a mother when I have kids.)
It's kind of ironic that, recently, my phone has started acting up and it's almost not functional. It's off most of the day, but it's kind of nice, sometimes, to have privacy and be to yourself, where no one can reach you.
Tip of the Day: I know this tip is going to be one that a very small percentage of you will actually try out, but I'm still going to give it a chance. Either leave you phone at home for a day, or turn it off for a couple of hours. Try it out and see how it makes you feel having no connection to the world that you're so used to. It's possible! Believe it or not, not everybody had cell phones a few years back and they went on with their day just fine. It's kind of sad that we rely on technology so much nowadays, and it's probably just going to get worse, but, overall, who am I kidding, because I can't wait to get an iphone and technology is the reason why you're here reading my thoughts.

"Technology... is a queer thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other." ~C.P. Snow, New York Times, 15 March 1971

1 comment:

  1. Shit did they use that line on you too? That's exactly what we were asked by the Encyclopedia Britannica people and yes we also own the entire set with the gold plated edge on the pages.

    ReplyDelete