Internet's 40th birthday

Happy Birthday to the internet.

40 years young on Oct. 29, 2009

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id ... _article=1

So, 40 years, but it's only been really popular for about 10 years now. It took nearly 30 for the average person to even know the internet existed. I'm not sure what to think of that.

It certainly has changed the world, though. Imagine how different things would be without the internet.

Well, it was only made publicly accessible in the mid-90's. Prior to that it was restricted to government agencies and a select few private research institutions.

There's a BBS group, more of a historical society these days, that I'm in that talks about the BBS era frequently. It's actually still possible to run a BBS since all it requires is a phone line and a piece of BBS application software. Can't help but feel that we traded off a way of interacting with our local community for a way of interacting with the world. Both have their pros and cons, either way I think we've missed out on something.

Back in the late 80's my older sister ran a local BBS. She met a lot of her real life friends through that. Just having that knowledge makes me feel like I've lost out on some missed oppurtunities. Sure, I've met a lot of people online, including all the great folk here on PSAlgo, but in offline reality all my friends I knew in person have literally moved away in the past years. I've had no local friends since. Perhaps that's why people on other boards have on more recent occassion pointed me out as being a bit anti-social, as I try to live my entire social life through the internet and admittedly I take some things to seriously that were probably never meant to be taken seriously. Let me just say, it's a sad and pathetic existence to only exist as an online entity. If you have friends in real life, cherish them.

Do the pros of the internet outway the cons? Yes, absolutely, because in all reality the internet is a tool, a tool that enables people the ability to further utilize and excercise their freedom of speech, their freedom of the press, their freedom to share their life with anyone who has the time, their freedom to gripe, grumble, and complain about anything that's bothering them, their freedom to praise whatsoever they feel is praise worthy, their freedom to break free of the binds which restrian them in their everyday life. It allows the disabled a means to explore the planet, even the universe, without ever having to leave their home. It allows us to reach out to people in places which lack freedoms and assure them that there are places in this messed up world where all men and woman are viewed as equals, regardless of the color of their skin, their age, or what they may look like. In essence, the internet allows we the people of the United States of America to share a sample of of the freedoms we enjoy and mostly take for granted with those less fortunate.

<cough> And there's Ebay too. </cough>

Tweeg, that was a very interesting post you had. I can agree with a lot of what you said, especially about having more internet friends than local friends. A lot of the people/friends I grew up with and knew for years have moved, gone on, and I've lost touch with them as we have all become a slave to our busy lives, family times, etc. Also, it just seems easier somehow to make friends online....you can do it from the comfort of your room and never have to go out anywhere. I still have a few friends locally, and I do cherish them (as you said we should do), and I'm trying to make more as time goes on. With the internet we have the availability to make friends in a wider area of the globe than we may not have been able to do previously, also.

This gives me an idea for the next "Getting to know you" question.