A Marking of Time

Today, September 2, 2009, the Internet turns 40. Can you believe it? Didn’t we just learn about this mystical cyber entity? Back in 1969 when two very bulky computers passed meaningless test data through a 15 foot gray cable, did those present known the scope of what they were unleashing?

The Internet as we know it today didn’t kick into gear until 1990, but I still say, “Wow!” I didn’t own a computer until 1996, a Macintosh Apple. I was very much a fledgling on the Windows PC the winter of 1997-98 after taking my first job as a church secretary. I barely knew how to stumble my way through WORD and Microsoft Publisher. And here we are eleven years later with me owning my own web design business and blogging.

I read a brief article out of New York stating the idealism of open access and free-flowing information that was the birthing idea of the Internet is eroding due to security needs against viruses and credit card transactions; purchases being taxed where unregulated times were without taxation of any sort. The article bemoaned the restrictions that are beginning to harness the Internet. For the most part, the Internet remains our wild frontier where laws are scarce and your personal protection is left up to you. Laws or no laws, I enjoy the place. I’ve educated myself to be able to roam around out there in cyber-land. You should do the same.

The greatest barrier between the generations of today is the knowledge to fluently use technology. I don’t believe there’s a specific age marker to throw down as a gauntlet. Suffice it to say, it’s the haves and have-nots or applicably the knows and knows not; a teeter-totter marker of those who Email, Facebook, Twitter, Skype, text, YouTube, etc. and those who do not. It’s not important you use and interact with all those methods. It is important you know what each of those terms mean. It is important to reach out and learn to function with today’s tools in order to be an effective communicator.

Stealing from a current acronym WWJD? (What Would Jesus Do?), I think he’d allow folks to put him up on YouTube . I think he might be on Facebook. He’d definitely have a cell phone to text all the disciples to meet him at the shore in Galilee. Because when you think about it, Jesus used unconventional means to effectively communicate his message 2000 years ago. Hmm, how’d that turn out for him?