Life, Technology and the Web
It never ceases to amaze me how much technology has improved our lives, most especially my generation’s. Twenty five years ago in the Philippines, news about a far away loved one was always a month delayed, because that’s how long it took a letter to arrive from another country. Oh sure, you can make a phone call-if you’re willing to wait ten years, which was how long it took to get a landline in those days. The lucky few who did have landline phones made a killing charging neighbors/customers who borrowed their phones to make their own phone calls.
When my father worked in Saudi Arabia in the 80s, we would send letters to communicate. More frequently it was the handwritten kind but every now and then we would spend the extra time and money to send the audio version: state-of-the-art cassette tapes. Whichever way you did it, it still took the same amount of time: one month.
Nowadays it seems if you can’t get something in an instant then it’s too slow or unacceptable. Whether it’s email, IM or text messaging, whatever you want to say can be heard halfway across the world and by as many people as you want–all in a split second. So my father, who literally lives halfway across the planet, can ask me what I had for lunch and he would have had his answer before I even started on dessert.
As fantastic as instant communication is, even more life-altering is the world wide web. Any information is literally at your fingertips. Looking for a phone number? Go to whitepages.com. Need directions to go somewhere? Go to mapquest.com. Need to know the meaning of a word? Go to dictionary.com. It’s a phonebook, map and dictionary, all rolled into one, and much, much more.
But if I had to pick the single most paradigm-shifting web site for me, it would have to be Google. Not only can you find information that you’re looking for, but you can also find information about things you never even thought to look for before! Take yourself, for instance. Before Google, had anyone thought of searching themselves on the net? Unheard of. But nowadays, “googling yourself” is such a common concept that it’s almost a prerequisite before dating someone.
When I tried to google myself, one of the topmost hits was a profile on LinkedIn. Wow, I thought, a lot of people must be viewing my profile. When I followed the link, I was puzzled for a while at the information, until I realized that it was a different Jon Zafra! Apparently, in Spain I am an IT Project Manager in a big pharmaceuticals company. Interesting, I thought. Maybe I’m in the wrong continent.
