Monday, May 24, 2004
I had an unusual event happen last night. Some one said to me...
"Did you know they are putting comic books on CD? I like that cause I like comic books, but get bored with reading."
What? Don't like reading? How can you not like reading? The first thing I thought of was the Andy Griffith Show. Even Goober liked reading and he was a...
...well...a goober.
And that's where I have the problem with teaching people the computer. Most of them don't want to read. What else is a computer besides something to read things on. Sure now days, you get things like Flash, MP3s, and JavaScript, but core of the internet is reading. I've been on the internet for a long time. I first got on the internet back in 1990, and I thought, "Gee this thing is cool. It'll be great if they could get more stuff on it and speed it up."
Then I got back on in 1994. There was a world of difference. The whole thing had sped up, but it also had been dumbed down a bit. The trend on the internet has not been one to get more reading on the internet. Now days, whole sites run off of simply decoration.
Why does Spam need a website? Sure at least Spam does something with their site. They sell t-shirts and hats. Papa John's allows you to order a pizza, but what's the point of this?
And that's what breaks my heart about the internet. My brother once spent an hour downloading software that made chat rooms that you could chat in. You know just talk. Like with a microphone and your voice. No, it doesn't turn it to text, we're talking about streaming audio here folks. (I guess it was streaming audio. You'd have to pester him to find out how it worked.) He spent an hour doing this, and he has a cable modem. That's forever. What did he find? A discussion on science? Religion? Politics? No, what he found was room of fifteen people saying "Whazzzzup!" repeatedly. He shut the program down and never ran it again.
That is what has happened all over the internet. I like a little eye candy as much as anybody, but to truly enjoy the internet you need to use it for it's purpose. Mass communication. A Sharing of ideas. Remember this stuff folks? Were turning perfectly respectable things like Blogs into just another way to see boobies.
Not that I mind boobies. But I also like to read about the person behind the boobies. Is that second site pornographic? Probably, but that doesn't make it repulsive in my mind. It's interesting to see what movie she saw. You still get cool posts that say,
Get to the point Gunny your wandering again.
I know. I've been fought the urge three or five times already this post.
The thing is I've been having some problems at work. The fact that I enjoy reading is because I am such a quiet person. There are a lot of folks that I work with that have to pop. All the time. And their world has to pop as well. And it's distracting me from my work. I think that I am going to start wearing earplugs.
But that makes me anti-social and rude. Which only causes more problems at work.
The problem is that it gets louder and louder, because these people need to make more noise to hear themselves. Which is also kind of selfish. (The key word there is also. Because it's also viewed a bit selfish to want to exclude them from mine. Not that I want anyone excluded.)
But I can take comfort in the fact that I am not alone in this. How many of you are sitting there right now with TV off concentrating on this post. Take refuge in this, recluses. We may not congregate, but we do exist, and if the internet is any kind of indicator, we are very powerful. Because we think. We read. We explore new things. We do not need a world that is always entertaining. We some times make a world that entertains us. We often times invent the pops in the world.
Just don't forget. There's a whole big world out there. And if you plan to head out into it, say to go to Wal-Mart or get a bite to eat. You should probably take a shower if you haven't today, cause there are other people there, and they won't hesitate to point it out. Loudly. Repeatedly.
I'm sure there was point to this post. It just eludes me now what it was. This is another problem with being an introvert. I have a hard time getting thoughts to other people.
"Did you know they are putting comic books on CD? I like that cause I like comic books, but get bored with reading."
What? Don't like reading? How can you not like reading? The first thing I thought of was the Andy Griffith Show. Even Goober liked reading and he was a...
...well...a goober.
And that's where I have the problem with teaching people the computer. Most of them don't want to read. What else is a computer besides something to read things on. Sure now days, you get things like Flash, MP3s, and JavaScript, but core of the internet is reading. I've been on the internet for a long time. I first got on the internet back in 1990, and I thought, "Gee this thing is cool. It'll be great if they could get more stuff on it and speed it up."
Then I got back on in 1994. There was a world of difference. The whole thing had sped up, but it also had been dumbed down a bit. The trend on the internet has not been one to get more reading on the internet. Now days, whole sites run off of simply decoration.
Why does Spam need a website? Sure at least Spam does something with their site. They sell t-shirts and hats. Papa John's allows you to order a pizza, but what's the point of this?
And that's what breaks my heart about the internet. My brother once spent an hour downloading software that made chat rooms that you could chat in. You know just talk. Like with a microphone and your voice. No, it doesn't turn it to text, we're talking about streaming audio here folks. (I guess it was streaming audio. You'd have to pester him to find out how it worked.) He spent an hour doing this, and he has a cable modem. That's forever. What did he find? A discussion on science? Religion? Politics? No, what he found was room of fifteen people saying "Whazzzzup!" repeatedly. He shut the program down and never ran it again.
That is what has happened all over the internet. I like a little eye candy as much as anybody, but to truly enjoy the internet you need to use it for it's purpose. Mass communication. A Sharing of ideas. Remember this stuff folks? Were turning perfectly respectable things like Blogs into just another way to see boobies.
Not that I mind boobies. But I also like to read about the person behind the boobies. Is that second site pornographic? Probably, but that doesn't make it repulsive in my mind. It's interesting to see what movie she saw. You still get cool posts that say,
"Now I am back at my machine, looking over my scattered and jumbled files again, with no good excuse not to do some proper work. The box has had its spring cleaning. Presumably inspiration will follow. (So long as you understand I take 'inspiration' to mean 'browsing and possibly buying things I really have no use for, online')"
Get to the point Gunny your wandering again.
I know. I've been fought the urge three or five times already this post.
The thing is I've been having some problems at work. The fact that I enjoy reading is because I am such a quiet person. There are a lot of folks that I work with that have to pop. All the time. And their world has to pop as well. And it's distracting me from my work. I think that I am going to start wearing earplugs.
But that makes me anti-social and rude. Which only causes more problems at work.
The problem is that it gets louder and louder, because these people need to make more noise to hear themselves. Which is also kind of selfish. (The key word there is also. Because it's also viewed a bit selfish to want to exclude them from mine. Not that I want anyone excluded.)
But I can take comfort in the fact that I am not alone in this. How many of you are sitting there right now with TV off concentrating on this post. Take refuge in this, recluses. We may not congregate, but we do exist, and if the internet is any kind of indicator, we are very powerful. Because we think. We read. We explore new things. We do not need a world that is always entertaining. We some times make a world that entertains us. We often times invent the pops in the world.
Just don't forget. There's a whole big world out there. And if you plan to head out into it, say to go to Wal-Mart or get a bite to eat. You should probably take a shower if you haven't today, cause there are other people there, and they won't hesitate to point it out. Loudly. Repeatedly.
I'm sure there was point to this post. It just eludes me now what it was. This is another problem with being an introvert. I have a hard time getting thoughts to other people.
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