It would seem that in this new ether of internet 2.0, we have been inundated with a new form of self-gratification. A digital outlet for attention-seeking, bigoted opinionating or social interaction, blogging now provides yet another collective waste-heap that litters the search engines and provides a limitless supply of subjectivity, tossed together with the stench of plagiarism.
But lo and behold, you read my words from my blog. What raises me to an upper echelon of the blogging elite that warrant more than a flick of the scroll wheel? Nothing, I’ll freely admit. You see, the wonders of Internet 2.0, of the internet generation, of a collective creative outlet of mankind, is that any individual who is internet ‘savvy’, is not a ‘geek’ or a ‘nerd’ as the late 20th century stereotype would presume, but a socially functioning individual in an Ethernet world.
Perhaps in this new world, there are no ‘geeks’, but only the internet literate and the internet illiterate. Those who cannot easily sift through the junk, the spam and the 587000 search results in Google, and those that have developed the ability to wade through spam, to refine their Google searches, enhance their spam email filters and generally become proficient at ‘internet skepticism’. This really just means being able to glance over huge quantities of information to find what is relevant.
To those that have not bothered to join the internet generation, The internet generation is unlike the ‘baby-boomers’ or the ‘mtv generation’ – it is not defined by age, by decade of growing up, but by computer literacy. It is defined by those that have bothered to learn what Facebook is before passing judgement about their kids ‘wasting time’ on the internet. It is defined by those that learned how to turn on ‘content moderation’ in their search engine before claiming that the internet is just a perverse collection of pornography, before banning their children from the internet and joining a ‘family values’ party. No, this generation is more socially expansive, more resourceful and more capable of coping with a world that demands internet literacy.
I recently watched a friend spend 30 minutes attempting a Google search on a particular species of tropical fish. Eventually, she gave up, swore at the computer and marched away none the wiser. Later she remarked I was a geek, when I spent a few minutes sending a couple of video messages to friends in other countries through Facebook, posting a blog and buying a Portishead album off iTunes.
As a test, I timed how long it would take me to get the information she originally sought. 2 minutes. I’m not a computer programmer, not an IT specialist, and to me Java is somewhere that makes my coffee. But seriously, surely our society has moved into a fantastic new phase, but has left some people behind.
I’ll leave you with this to think about…
Whilst writing this entry,
- I’ve downloaded a video lecture on Equity Law from my university to watch after this.
- Noticing a friend was listening to a new album by a band we both like, I listened to it for free using iLike.
- I earned US$45 from the sale of some virtual real-estate in Second Life.
- I looked through the photo albums of 3 friends who are on holiday in different parts of the world.
- Internet-transferred some money to my landlord to pay my rent.
- Purchased an eBook for my studies.
This, I’ve accomplished in 30 minutes. The same 30 minutes that left my friend floundering. Efficiency is there to be had by those that look for it.
So I congratulate you for making it this far. The more the blogger writes, the more he veers off-track, but fortunately, that is the beauty in blogging. It is a stream-of-consciousness medium that gives every geek a voice.
