| I was born before the internet. I was in high school when Ward and Randy decided a Computerized Bulletin Board was a good idea. The internet was a thing after I was into my adult life. I'm 58, and NO, I don't feel overwhelmed. In fact, it is surprising to me the quantity of things that have not made it online. You would not believe how many daily social events made it into the local newspaper in my home town. There are accounts of my recent ancestors comings and goings, the family party that likely resulted in my Father's birth 9 months later... ;-) There are whole swaths of things that never got recorded, and never will. The gatekeeping functions of publishing have been replaced by the savage and random fates. History of my family from Europe is gone, blown up, bombed, etc. The internet makes sharing widely possible. It changes the forces that limit the availability of information. Sometimes getting rid of the gatekeepers, and replacing them with propaganda spewing fountains of drivel, sometimes enabling the common person with a knack for telling stories to connect with an audience that would have never found them before. I'm glad the Internet Archive is here, trying to compensate for the loss of the wildly generative early internet. >Btw. you could say, just turn off the Internet and buy a book, but can you really pretend it doesn't exist? And how long can you stick to it? If it weren't for my current eye surgery issues... yeah, books are cool. Could I turn it off, and do without? Only if it's a challenge... and surely I can outlast anyone who grew up swimming in the internet. ;-) Example: I still know how to drive from coast to coast using only paper maps and written directions. |