Happy Birthday, dear Internet
The Internet celebrated its 40th birthday last week. On Oct. 29, 1969, the very first e-mail message was sent by UCLA’s Leonard Kleinrock from Los Angeles to the Stanford Research Institute, more than 400 miles away.
It’s hard to believe how far we have come with technology in the last 40 years.
I remember when I got my first cassette player. There was a television show I really liked, and I would sit by the TV with my recorder, taping some of my favorite episodes. Perhaps I was ahead of my time, but I remember asking my parents if our movie camera could take pictures of what was on the TV, so I could watch them whenever I wanted.
We got our first VCR sometime around 1983, and it was amazing. You could rent movies and bring them home and actually watch them! And, joy of joys, you could actually tape programs to watch later. It was ironic because people would tape stacks of shows, but I wonder how many ever actually got watched.
We got our first computer sometime in the late 1980s. I had three children 5 five at the time, and I don’t recall really being sure what computers were for. My husband used it for word processing and spreadsheets, and the kids soon learned to use it for games, which almost, but not quite, replaced our Atari 2600. (One of my daughters, who shall remain nameless, actually survived spilling an entire container of goo – remember that stuff? – over the computer keyboard.)
In 1993, we got our first bag phone, and weren’t we just so special? We were astounded at the idea of being able to talk on the phone while in the car, but the phone seemed to work far less often than it was supposed too. Can you hear me now? Nope ... probably not.
And then came our first contact with the Internet. My husband came up with a user name that included all six of us, and we were wired. It seemed so wonderful at first, the thought that I would be able to keep in touch with distant family and friends at the tappity-tap of a key. But, you know, it hasn’t worked out that way. I have a long list of people I’m hoping to hear from, and another long list of e-mails I need to return when I have enough time to do it right. Donna, if you’re reading this, I will get back to you. I promise.
And the technological beat went on. Our kids got cell phones when they got their driver’s licenses, and I remember one dark night, driving through Georgia while on vacation, and listening to the kids talking with their friends from the back seat.
And today? Now my cell phone has an Internet browser, and I used the GPS function when we were in Colorado for a wedding this summer.
It’s interesting to look at all of this technology and to debate how it has changed our lives. Information has certainly become more readily available. I remember once, before computers, calling the library to find out who wrote the poem that included the line “Oh what a tangled web we weave.” Now, a couple of words into Google let’s me know it was Sir Walter Scott.
So “Happy Birthday to You” dear Internet. For better or worse, for good or for ill, you and your technological kin are with us to stay.
Barb Kromphardt is a staff writer at the Bureau County Republican. She can be reached at bkromphardt@bcrnews.com.
