I've grown up with the internet. I remember in 5th grade when I went to my first website on my dad's work computer. I thought... wow, is that it? It was just a product page for Nike or something of the like. Nothing to exciting or fun... maybe a little overrated. Then as I grew older, I found more and more uses such as email and the Dr. Pepper homepage (I love Dr. Pepper) and I appreciated it more. I found instant messenger where I used to spend hours talking to friends after hanging out with them all evening on a friday or saturday night.
With high school came high speed internet and it really started to take off. I could do research for classwork, download music, and websites became more interactive. Then I went to college. Much of my classwork required the internet and at this point and I sat back in amazement thinking how this used to be done with paper. I then got a laptop and was introduced to the world of wireless. Wow... what freedom!
Now, here I am back in college. I can sit here with my cell phone where I use the wifi connection to check emails and surf the internet without pulling out a computer (no, I don't have an iphone but I hear that those work too).
Tonight I had one of those experiences that made me sit back in amazement. It's 1:37am in Boston and I "ran into" my previous-coworkers/friends online. We started up a gmail chat and flipped on the cameras for a video call... and suddenly I was swept away into a room I knew so well. The room happen to be a conference room at a contract manufacturer located in Xiamen, China. I had spent many hours in that room working on several projects for Klipsch during my time there. There on the screen was the familiar room with 5 friendly faces to greet me... Tom, Mark, Don, Bin, and Jerry - the team that I used to work with. They were half way around the work, some 8000 miles away and 12 hours ahead (roughly 1:30pm their time) yet it felt like we were in the same room. It was great to see them and hear about their latest adventures in China! Oh the internet!!!!
I guess I have time for one more story.... my Grandma on my mom's side, who lives in Indiana, has recently adopted the internet into her home (Hi Grandma!!!). She was a little reluctant at first, but with some coaxing and the help of my other Grandma who has been online for a while, she "gave in" and she loves it! It's nice to be able to communicate with her via email and show her the great things that the internet can offer. But the awe of the internet comes from how I can teach her how to work her computer in Indiana from here in Boston. I can log into her computer and take control of it from any internet connection (www.logmein.com, its great if you haven't tried it). With a simple phone call, I can then talk her through what I'm trying to show her. It's like we're in the same room! When she needs help or if the computer is acting funny, she lets me know, I log in and fix it. It's great! Once again... oh the internet!!!!
