I am pretty sure that in the future, historians are going to look back and say that the birth of the Internet holds a unique place in human history: it is probably both the best thing man has ever invented and likely the worst.
I was born in 1980, so I grew up just when the Internet was taking wobbly steps towards becoming the monstrosity it is today. When I was a tween/teen, I used to run the telephone wire to my room and block the phone line and dial up the bboards and use Telnet. Honk if you know what the hell I am talking about. But regardless, back when I was doing that, none of us hanging out on those text-based virtual boards could have imagined Facebook, Google, Twitter, Steam, Wikipedia, or any of that stuff. My nieces and nephew, born in the 90s and raised on Facebook and iPhone, don't know anything else.
I am a technically savvy person and I LOVE the internet. It is my playground. An epic series of tubes that leads to epic places and epic people I never would have known about, seen, or met if not for the epic Godzilla-esque mutant creature that is the internet. But being technically savvy means I also have a finely-honed sense of the DOs and DO NOTs. Because as wonderful as it is, it is also one giant cesspool that is ready and willing to suck your lifeforce away if you misstep.
Some schmucks in their fancy suits and ivy-league marketing degrees that daddy paid for have seen many a dollar sign twinkling in their eyes at the vast power and money-making potential of the Intertubes. But as Applebee's and MANY a corporation is discovering of late, you must tread carefully.
Follow me over the fold to find out what I am babbling about.
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