The memory of using American Online is a little bit blurred by the years that have gone by, however certain thing stay in my mind like no time has passed at all. While most of my friend’s families that had computers were placing them in central locations, my family was taking a different approach. Our computer was shoved into a tiny closet in my dad’s closet like a stepchild being punished. I never understood my parent’s choice of placement. Last time I checked, closet computers never really did much for the Feng Shui of a room. The computer itself was a large chunky piece of equipment that took up more space in the closet than it gave you to sit. The real question at the time was whether or not this new piece of technology was going to lead me to a new world of knowledge or destruction.
My father first helped me sign in to AOL. We set up my screen name and password and I was so excited about the adventure that I was about to embark on. When I sign in, what do I hear? It sounded like what I would imagine the sound of 1,000 Furbies getting strangled by owners who had finally reached the breaking point. It was quite possibly the most horrendous sound that I had ever heard. Why did I have to listen to that noise when all I wanted to do was get to my AOL Kids Only area? When I had finally reached my Narnia, I could not have been happier. I was web surfing all over the place. I took quizzes, looked at sports, and played games until my dad realized that I had been clogging up the phone line for 2 hours. They eventually placed a restriction on the amount of time I was allowed to be on the computer at one time. They had hoped that this would keep me off the phone line for long amounts of time, but the monster had already been created. Even if I wasn’t using the phone line, I was always on the computer. So many games needed to be played. I played Number Muncher all the time. I made that little green man eat so many prime numbers that he started to have an obesity issue. I died so many times in Oregon Trail that Cerberus was like a pet. I made so many roller coasters that I should have already had a degree in physics. Playing on the computer was not my only activity of choice. I played baseball, I swam on the swim team, I had friends, but when night rolled around and it was close to bedtime, you could be sure that I would be playing some sort of computer game. Were my interactions with this new technology hurting me or helping me. I honestly believe that by learning and becoming comfortable with the computer and the World Wide Web helped me to become a more involved citizen of society. Take my parents as an example. Over time, they have not logged the hours of time that most people spend on the web. It’s hard for them to do simple task without calling my siblings or I when it comes to loading files from one disk to the hard drive. If I needed to find information on a certain topic, chances are that I can find what I need by the time that my parents have typed www.google.com. I took classes as an elementary student that helped me become a more efficient typist and researcher. I can use Adobe products to create concert posters or flyers to promote friends bands or my own agenda. I can edit songs and hour long radio programs together without thinking much about it. I contribute all of my technological abilities to an early start. Now, it can certainly be argued that Internet has and always will be used for the passing useless information from one’s brain to another, but at the same time, it is a powerful tool that can be used for good. Internet is a just like every other medium. Parents need to monitor what their kids are looking at, and it needs to be treated with respect. I think that Vannever Bush’s intentions of creating a device that will pass along knowledge from one place to another has been fulfilled and it is up to us to use Internet in a responsible way.
I have decided that I am going to help pass on something useful with every little blog post.
This is a poet that I really dig and I think that others will as well. Enjoy.
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