And now for something different

Greetings all,

This post will not have very much to do with D/s. At least, I don't think it will.

Last night I asked my wife what percentage of all the people she knew were on the Internet. She made an estimate of about 98%, with only some people in her mother's generation not being online. The same night I asked when of my son's friends the same question (he is about 25 years old). He quickly, without hesitation, answered 100%. I would say that probably close to 100% of the people I know are online as well.

This struck me as rather amazing. In 1995, almost no one, except a few geeks and nerds, knew about the Internet. Today, just over slight a decade later, everyone is using it. This seems a remarkable transformation to me, and obviously has had a deep impact in all aspects of our lives.

Why are people so drawn to the Net? The trite, trivial answer might be erotica (which is there in plenty, including its less fancy, but rather wealthier cousin knows as porn) or the various online games and fantasies people play out, assuming all manner of strange and fantastic personna. Yet, it goes much deeper than that as well. We are not communnicating differently, shopping differently, and perhaps most importantly, we are living in a constant state of ongoing, incremental education. Every time one has a question, the answer can be found (more or less) on the Net. We become engrossed in a topic and can spend hours of our time lost in web page after web page on what ever has currently caught our interest. We use bookmarks to retain our memory, and uselists to interact with others who share a common interest, and even build our own sites to share whatever it is we feel like sharing.

People seem drawn to their computers, able to spend many many hours. My wife is by any measure a technophobe. She is fearful of technology, does not understand it, and has great difficulty learning even the most basic of skills. Yet, she is now married to her laptop. If I took it away from her, she would be distraught. It has become a principle tool in her life, like the telephone, the radio, and the television.

It seems to me that we are all collectively involved in a revolution. It is a revolution that will be as significant as the introduction of the printing press, the steam engine, the telephone, and the computer. We are fundamentally transforming the modality of human interaction, we are creating new virtual nations of individuals, who share something in common besides the country they live in. These new nations, in time, will learn that they have power, and will seek to use that power.

I think there will be interesting times. Someday, we will speak to our grandchildren, and say "I was there in the beginning. I saw it all start. I remember the before time when it wasn't there." How strange they shall find us.

Be seeing you.