It amazes me when, as rare as it is nowadays, I stumble across a person, or more usually, an entire family that has no conception of computers or the Internet. It is a cultural thing, I'm sure.
In the early days of computing, it was a socio-economic issue. The people who got personal computers had the financial means to afford the expensive things (remember, early PC's were generally always in the thousands of dollars price range, just for the basic hardware...in the 80's, and even 90's, and yes, even now, this cost is prohibitive, especially if a person, or family percieves the device as extraneous and not vital.)
But now, for more and more individuals, it is less an economic issue as it is a cultural.
Like the minority of people who refuse to purchase a television on the basis that they feel it provides far more vices than virtues...you have segments of the population opting out of the information age because computers [and their software and connections to the Internet] are vial machines bent on diseminating dehuminization, pornography, violence, radicalism, exploitation and crass commercialism.
The early Internet was a geek haven. For the first few years it was mearly a way of using the Usenet and posting so frequently to simulate chatting, since the "Big Guys"...CompuServe, Prodigy and the new guy, America Online charged high fees to use their services and exclusive chatrooms open only to other members.
IRC broke out later and spawned a rabid interest in computing.
When the Web entered the scene, it slowly, but surely, changed the world.
My friend John Chiafalo and I ran a small computer reseller business in these heady early days and the only reason we didn't "make it" was because neither of us had the capital or the drive to make it happen. The drive was the main part becaus in hind sight, with enough drive in the market back then, we could have convinced even the most conservative investors of a potential profit.
It was fun times though, and from John and another buddy Jeff Cooper, I learned much of the foundation of the computer business. But as we all know, that business evolves ever so rapidly as to make yesterday's stunning developments, today's ho-hum applications, and tomorrow's has-been archives.
Yes, I've been around since the begining. My first log in to a BBS was on a 9600 baud modem in April 1993. My first post on a Usenet newsgroup was about Fall of 1993. The first time I accessed a website was around May 1994. My first personal website was later that month and by June 1995, I had a business website with a link and presence from a new portal known as Yahoo.
I feel like the Old Wise Man on the Hill...but unlike knowledge systems of the past where what you know grows and matures and developes into valuble teaching tools for the next generation, this medium doesn't play that way.
Younger people today don't care where IMs, file sharing, mp3s, chatrooms, MMOGs, YouTube, cracks, warez, and VoIP came from, thet just care that they are there.
Alhough as Netizen's go, I am an Old Timer...unfortunately, my expertise is Old Time Centric as well.
I am a dinosaur and I will not metomorph into oil.
In the early days of computing, it was a socio-economic issue. The people who got personal computers had the financial means to afford the expensive things (remember, early PC's were generally always in the thousands of dollars price range, just for the basic hardware...in the 80's, and even 90's, and yes, even now, this cost is prohibitive, especially if a person, or family percieves the device as extraneous and not vital.)
But now, for more and more individuals, it is less an economic issue as it is a cultural.
Like the minority of people who refuse to purchase a television on the basis that they feel it provides far more vices than virtues...you have segments of the population opting out of the information age because computers [and their software and connections to the Internet] are vial machines bent on diseminating dehuminization, pornography, violence, radicalism, exploitation and crass commercialism.
The early Internet was a geek haven. For the first few years it was mearly a way of using the Usenet and posting so frequently to simulate chatting, since the "Big Guys"...CompuServe, Prodigy and the new guy, America Online charged high fees to use their services and exclusive chatrooms open only to other members.
IRC broke out later and spawned a rabid interest in computing.
When the Web entered the scene, it slowly, but surely, changed the world.
My friend John Chiafalo and I ran a small computer reseller business in these heady early days and the only reason we didn't "make it" was because neither of us had the capital or the drive to make it happen. The drive was the main part becaus in hind sight, with enough drive in the market back then, we could have convinced even the most conservative investors of a potential profit.
It was fun times though, and from John and another buddy Jeff Cooper, I learned much of the foundation of the computer business. But as we all know, that business evolves ever so rapidly as to make yesterday's stunning developments, today's ho-hum applications, and tomorrow's has-been archives.
Yes, I've been around since the begining. My first log in to a BBS was on a 9600 baud modem in April 1993. My first post on a Usenet newsgroup was about Fall of 1993. The first time I accessed a website was around May 1994. My first personal website was later that month and by June 1995, I had a business website with a link and presence from a new portal known as Yahoo.
I feel like the Old Wise Man on the Hill...but unlike knowledge systems of the past where what you know grows and matures and developes into valuble teaching tools for the next generation, this medium doesn't play that way.
Younger people today don't care where IMs, file sharing, mp3s, chatrooms, MMOGs, YouTube, cracks, warez, and VoIP came from, thet just care that they are there.
Alhough as Netizen's go, I am an Old Timer...unfortunately, my expertise is Old Time Centric as well.
I am a dinosaur and I will not metomorph into oil.