This year marks 10 years since I first dabbled in the Internet world.
Back then I spent an afternoon with a tech-savvy Gen-xer who used the net to email people she had met as a traveller of the back pack variety. It was a strange but interesting experience to find all of that information literally at my fingertips.
We now live in a tech world where keyboard interaction is a way of life for people and business, so the trick is to ride the wave. Internet use is an eye-opener because it showcases the best and worst of civilization. Both are under the same electronic roof.
There’s a special place for you in e world whether you just found a cure for pancreatic cancer or posed badly for a drunken pass-out photo with a little help from your friends with camera phones. Little is sacred or out of bounds in this strange new world.
People expose their soft underbellies in the internet world.
For example, there is a frightening amount of functional illiteracy on the net. s
One can only hope that they can stay hidden behind an email name where that world will never expose an education system that clearly left the bar far too easy to limbo under for these people. Most times I wonder if there is even a stick in the way.
There are soulless predators on the net who use it as a weapon to exploit victims for financial gain or, even worse, the kids of the world.
This is the dark side of the net where nothing is sacred for these maggots, but fortunately public awareness is also on the rise.
Enough about the bad, let’s talk about the good side of the internet. The net is an amazing source of information and effective social contact for people of all ages and needs.
You become part of a world wide electronic neighbourhood which caters to all of your specific business and social requirements. Newcomers like Twitter keep things brief.
That is a bonus when one encounters an endless supply of the boring, long-winded, and self-absorbed on the net.
The story that currently has the trees of the world breaking out the champagne is the steady movement towards e-publishing by the written information media in today’s new world.
The Red Deer Advocate is no exception as it keeps its irons in both fires, although with a complete edition still available through newsstands and home delivery.
The interesting opportunity for guys like me is a chance to develop a website magazine to compete in the new internet world and that is exactly what my brother Jerry and I have done in the old car and truck world.
We have always been old vehicle fans so a chance to write about this hobby is a very good fit for both of us. We have launched mystarcollectorcar.com because we have found that car guys and girls are like hockey parents except their car is their personal star.
I first met the internet 10 years ago and even then I knew that I would be doing something with it in the future. Now I’ve found the perfect fit with mystarcollectorcar.com.
Jim Sutherland is a local freelance writer.