This post is part of the A to Z 2020 Challenge. I have decided to theme the posts around personal and societal responses to the Covid 19 crisis, including my resumption of Blogging!
There are very few words in dictionaries beginning with X but here is one you can get your teeth into…
You Make The Difference!
I first got a computer of my own around 1998 and shortly afterwards, I broke my hip and had to spend a year on crutches. But like the present lockdown, being stuck at home gave the opportunity to both develop a business and to explore the internet and how it worked.
What I learned was about the biggest business which sorts out the content of the internet at one end of the scale, and about all the individuals who contribute the content itself at the other end of the scale. At that time, the dot-com bubble had just about burst and like many people, I was wondering how you could make money out of something that was so exciting and full of potential as the internet clearly was. Well, it turned out that Google was the answer to that particular conundrum – it’s incredible power to index content plus the concept of matching advertising to words in emails, searches, etc., was winning combination and one that nobody else has since matched. However, without content, there would be nothing to index (or advertise) and whilst, as the years have passed since then, commercial sites have increased in size and sophistication, so too have the mass of individuals who put up content about their hobbies, hobby horses and interests – not least us bloggers!
“Origins of the Internet” by future15pic is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
When I first went on the internet, I was amazed at how much material was already there as a result of individual effort and passion and what a democratic, leveling process this was. Think of the libraries and encyclopedias and textbooks of the past, produced by professional writers and publishers at great cost and not always great profit. Now Wikipedia demonstrates both the strength and pitfalls of “co-operative” authorship. Tales of editing wars over particular entries are legendary. Nonetheless, it is often our first port of call when researching, doing homework or just filling an idle moment – although, surfing the net generally goes by the maxim that the most interesting items always appear when you are researching under time pressure and not so much when you are footloose and fancy-free…
The A to Z Challenge is an example of this liberal, undirected, fascinatingly varied contribution to the evergrowing internet and those who have laboured for several hours a day for almost 26 days! Some 500 blogs on the Master list at 2 hours a day for 26 days, well that is 26,000 hours work! We have seen essential oils, photographs, haiku, incredible quilting, politics, self-development to name but a few and all this has been done by YOU!
“Winter Camp bloggers” by networkcultures is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0
And you too ;)) Strange to think there is only one day left before the end of the challenge!
Y is for Young
OOOOOOH! Internet maps! You KNOW that would get my attention!
Yes, Internet a great resource. Thomas Friedman wrote the book "The World is Flat", basically illustrating how Internet has brought every person (who has an Internet connection) on to one platform. When I first got to on to the Internet, around 1998-99, I too had the same "Wow" feeling. It has changed our lives, is it not?
By they way, you too have contributed to the A to Z Challenge. I shall go back and read some of the earlier posts of yours that I missed.
I remember my first experience with a computer around the same times… I was star struck at what I could access and just wanted to know more and more about a computer. And now look at how its all changed. I wrote on the A to Z on my hubby's family stories.
Hi Jeanne – thanks for dropping by and commenting – I have tried to find your blog but it seems to have no posts?