Dateline: March 15 2010 – The Day Before IDD (Internet Destruction Day)
A open letter to the Internet …
We had a good run, you and I…
Gopher, Veronica, alt.pics – I was with you at the beginning…
Al Gore may have invented you but I was one of your earliest explorers.
Looking back, the pops and screeches of my 14.4 dialup modem were like the sweet songs of a bluebird in the springtime of our relationship…
You beckoned with promises of unlimited communication. If only we could have seen what they would make you become after Mr. Money came calling.
You blew bubbles of green that floated high, so high…Business models seemed so trivial back then….
But alas, what goes up must come down. Dot.com inevitably turned to dot.bomb…
But you were resilient…
You worked out, became lean and grew up a lot too…
Sometimes from afar, I barely recognized you among all your new adoring fans all clamoring to get you to come work for them…
I was so glad, when you became social again and reached out to me. I swear I heard birds chirping again just like the springtime of our youth. Tweet! Tweet!
And now the storm is coming. It’s almost here.
There will be no “us” anymore – only me – alone with billions of others.
My daughter – who was just getting to know you – offers me a tool that she is really proficient with – as a comfort for my impending loss…
She says it’s called a pen. And it can be used to draw beautiful pictures. She’s even promised to teach me how to use it to write something called a letter…
It’s new to me, so I’ll start with 3 small words…
Au Revoir, Internet.
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What do you think?
Don Power is a Nanaimo Business Marketing Strategist advising local businesses on how to effectively use tools like Social Media & Guerilla Marketing. Connect with me on Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin
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Hi Don,
I had temporarily forgotten about Al-Gore’s role. Albeit my understanding his involvement was sponsoring a bill rather than anything technical.
We are often too reliant on the Internet. Frequently colleagues on offices will email the coworker next to them instead of speaking to them.
The Internet for me has been a great social experience ‘meeting’ great people who I would never normally get to exchange ideas with.
But whilst the Internet is great for connecting us with people 1000’s of miles away it’s not so good when communicating with thise closest to us.
Thanks for the reminder that being social is not about Twitter or Facebook or email.
Hey Matt!
The Al Gore thing was tongue in cheek – I have always heard him to be credited with “creating the Internet” though I always knew it was some kind of joke…
It’s interesting that I wrote this about 30 minutes before the deadline for the contest so it all came in one stream. Once I read it – especially the ending – I remembered some of the things we’ve LOST as a result of the Internet – real, personal, non instantaneous communication with others.
I’m not a luddite but it was an intersting exercise to enviosin the end of the Internet – if only for a fleeting moment…
And now I’ve got to go answer my Email (hahah!).
Thanks for sticking with my blog as I change focus to local business marketing content!
And thanks for your comment!
- Don
Don Power – Nanaimo Business Marketing Strategist´s last blog ..Blogging for Business? Top 3 Questions to ask BEFORE you begin
No, please don’t let it die! It’s so much fun! We can’t live without it anymore!
Anne Moss´s last blog ..The World’s Most Obedient Dog
Hi Anne!
We (Westerners at least) have become so intertwined with the Internet now that imagining a world without it (I was among the last generation of kids that grew up without an Internet) is virtually impossible…
For good or for bad Pandora’s box has been opened and we cannot put the genie back in the bottle (to mix a couple of metaphors!).
Thanks for your comment and I took a look at some of the videos on your blog – pretty incredible – especially the electrical wire guy! I’ll have to show my daughter the ferro fluids thing too!
Cheers!
- Don
Don Power – Nanaimo Business Marketing Strategist´s last blog ..Nanaimo Business After Business – Rate Miser Mortgage Advisors
Awesome post, Don.
I have noticed a major reduction in quality of my handwriting over the last 15 years. It looks like a 10 year old kid’s writing now.
Ah – the early days of the Internet. I trained people how to use the newly released Netscape thingy at my dial-up ISP’s offices. I created my first site in 1995 (although the Wayback Machine only goes back to 1998, sadly, http://web.archive.org/web/19981212024447/http://www.doubleplus.com/). If I’d only really seen what was coming I would have taken it more seriously. I thought it was a simple geek-fest with little money potential (although you can see from my 1998 site that I was an early adopter of affiliate marketing by creating one of those at-the-time new “portals”).
Alas, if the Internet dies, I must take out my weapons and bring on survival mode. Fortunately I’ve read the Dies the Fire books and I’m ready. Oh, I’m ready for sure. In fact, I kinda want it to happen!
Chuck Lasker´s last blog ..Are You Alienating the Color Blind?
Hey Chuck!
Ah the Interwebs! Boggles the mind to think what will be on our minds in 20 years from now when we look back in nostalgia for the technology we have today.
Maybe my kids will say something like “I was among the last generation of kids to grow up without an embeded Internet chip”…
Interesting to note you were programming form the beginning, eh? I remember a buddy of mine loading programs (or was that RAM?) from a cassette tape on his home PC…And yes, I have played Pong (nothing to do with the Internet of course…just another anachronistic thing to look back at and chuckle!) .
Yah -sadly if the Internet came down, Western (read: global) society would come crashing down with it…a modern day Tower of Babel…
I’ll have to investigate the Dies the Fire books – not familiar with it. methinks post apocalyptic genre? (Have you seen The Road or the Book of Eli? I haven’t yet but I never met a post apocalyptic movie I didn’t like ! Of course, I haven’t seen – and have no desire to see – the “Kirk Cameron” style post apocalyptic genre
Thanks for the comment!
- Don
Don Power – Nanaimo Business Marketing Strategist´s last blog ..Blogging for Business? Top 3 Questions to ask BEFORE you begin
I’m with Chuck, my handwriting has deteriorated in the last ten years.
I love the speed of email but nothing can beat sitting down and writing a letter to someone. Not only that, with text messages and email, receiving a hand-written letter really stands-out these days.
I live a good 2 hours plus drive away from the majority of my family and this has got me and my 7 year-old daughter in to the habit of sitting down once a month to write letters to our fam. Abigail enjoys the whole experience of crafting a letter, choosing an envelope, buying stamps, visiting the post box to mail it and the excitement of waiting to receive a reply a week or so later; something the Internet can (hopefully) never replace.
That being said, I would seriously miss the Internet if it wasn’t here.
Great entry Don.
Karl
Karl Foxley´s last blog ..How A Small Business Built An Email Subscriber List Without A Website
Hey Karl!
My 7 year old daughter loves to colour and make handwritten cards with hand drawn pictures for everyone.
She hasn’t become a complete computer kid yet so I’m hoping that her generation doesn’t loose the ability to hand write altogether!
I would miss the Internet too. Envisioning a world without the Internet now is kind of like wishing we sailed in sailing ships again – it’s quaint but logistically impossible (although before we run out of oil we’re going to have to come up with something!).
There is still something completely precious about the hand written word – something primitive – that I hope we never replace!
Thanks for your comment Karl!
- Don
Don Power – Nanaimo Business Marketing Strategist´s last blog ..Going Local – How do You Use Social Media to Boost Local Business?
Ah, if the internet died…what would we all do? Society as a whole has become so hopelessly reliant and addicted to the net. Its amazing how far it has come since it’s humble beginnings. I have been avidly using the internet for nearly everything for the last 15 years and I don’t know what I’d do without it.
Very poignant letter, Don…me on the other hand, the day before the internet died, I’d be speechless!
Hey Jerome!
Thanks for your comment. Your comment, and the comment from Chuck, above says it all…
We are intertwined in a web…Let’s just hope we don’t suffocate in a silky cocoon!
Cheers!
- Don
Don Power – Nanaimo Business Marketing Strategist´s last blog ..Going Local – How do You Use Social Media to Boost Local Business?
forgot completly about al gores involment ,accually had heard him say that once ,
cctv,security,surveillance
Thanks for your comment, Forest!
Tim Berners-Lee is widely credited with “creating” the Internet.
But did Al Gore really say he created the Internet?
Don Power – Nanaimo Business Marketing Strategist´s last blog ..Nanaimo Business After Business – Rate Miser Mortgage Advisors
hey don, Right on!
I totally forgot about Dan Quayle..didn’t he also invent post-its??
Haa haa.
Great connecting.
Ah, Maria…it was Al Gore.
Dan Quayle was the “potatoe” guy.
Thanks for your comment though!
Don Power – Nanaimo Business Marketing Strategist´s last blog ..Nanaimo Does Business BEFORE Business
ha ha!!! Late night commenting. brain not functioning fully.
Maria´s last blog ..eouoe
So what are you up to Maria? You got a web page or blog you’d like to promote?
Don Power – Nanaimo Business Marketing Strategist´s last blog ..Vancouver Island Real Estate Board Promotes Social Media for Realtors
yea.
come by and say hello. http://www.newyorkmom.wordpress.com
Maria´s last blog ..eouoe
I was thinking your original comment might have been some kind of spam because your last blog post was 5 years ago…what’s up with that?
Don Power – Nanaimo Business Marketing Strategist´s last blog ..Going Local – How do You Use Social Media to Boost Local Business?
You had me scared for a few seconds there Don … I thought you were leaving the digital world to become a Luddite!
I was just thinking, our oldest son is deployed in Afghanistan and we have never exchanged a written letter, not even once. We are in contact several times a week … over the Internet. It has become a necessity of life, business and society, and it would be a disaster if it was taken down. It makes you wonder how secure it REALLY is!
Cheers!
Randy@FlyFreeBiz´s last blog ..Sunshine Of Your Life
Hey Randy!
I’m still here and still an avid user of technology!
I feel like I’m connected with my brothers who live in Edmonton, Toronto and Newfoundland because we exchange an odd Email every few months!
So, there’s no denying that the Internet has made connecting a lot easier than it once was…That being said, I was once an avid letter writer and in fact I wrote many a long, plaintive letter hone to my Mom during my recruit year at Military College!
We recruits actually used to share each other’s letters when they’d arrive in the mail – it was a physical lifeline to the world we left behind…
Once day, I suppose, they’ll finally invent the replicator and the transporter from Star Trek (let’s hope that surrogates are a few generations away yet!)
and we can transmute our pixels into the real world, but for now we still have a lovely, low tech solution, the mighty pen!
Thanks for your comment Randy! What’s news up island?
- Don
Don Power – Nanaimo Business Marketing Strategist´s last blog ..Going Local – How do You Use Social Media to Boost Local Business?
No news up Island. And that’s the problem. It’s dead.
I’m looking for a job or an enterprise or a project or something, anything to bring in a little cash and relieve my boredom. LOL But opportunities up Island are few and far between.
I’m willing to bet that there are “people” working on ’surrogates’ right now. I know for a fact (in my gut) that “they” are already working on manipulating DNA in eggs and sperm BEFORE artificial conception, in order to create ‘perfect people’. Scary stuff. Don’t even want to think about it.
Glad to see that you have taken a more targeted and focused slant with your Blog. That should work out for you. I was never a fan of “blogging about blogging”. Though, I should talk … my Blog is about “everything”. That really narrows it down! LOL
Cheers!
Randy @ Fly Free Biz´s last blog ..Yu Gotta Luv English
Duuude, for a sec there I thought you were outa here. lol
Dennis Edell´s last blog ..UPDATED: Theme Customization Part 3 – Banner Advertising NOT for Sale!
Hey Dennis!
Hahah – I’m still here!
Thanks for sticking with me and the blog during my change in focus to local marketing issues…
I’ve been doing a lot of marketing strategy projects for real world local businesses in the city where I live (Nanaimo, BC) so I no longer blog about blogging (hahah!). It’s actually been very liberating!
I still love the genre though, even if I don’t have the same volume of page views and fans that I used to!
You know all about changing focus eh? You just did it in a much more systematic way.
How goes the new blog? Has everything played out like you expected or have there been some surprises?
What’s the best piece of advice could you give someone who wants to completely change the focus of their blog, knowing what you know now?
- Don
Don Power – Nanaimo Business Marketing Strategist´s last blog ..Blogging for Business? Top 3 Questions to ask BEFORE you begin
“What’s the best piece of advice could you give someone who wants to completely change the focus of their blog, knowing what you know now?”
Don’t. LOL!
OK Seriously, take it slow and don’t get discouraged. Depending on how drastically you change, you WILL lose readers/subscribers/customers, whatever, and that of course, can be quite discouraging at first; but it makes sense.
My story is a bit different from yours though Don, as I’m not changing my focus persey, but my primary target audience and taking my personal branding up a level.
Dennis Edell´s last blog ..UPDATED: Theme Customization Part 3 – Banner Advertising NOT for Sale!
NNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
the internet can’t die, it’s my life blood – the eternal life line of my existence.
But seriously, I almost forgot how to spell handwitng –ahh—I mean handwriting.
Mars Dorian´s last blog ..How to Maximize the Impact of your Brand
Hey Mars!
What a cool name and you have a great site on branding!
The interesting thing about this article is that is forcing me to realize that for “the powers that be” the Internet must now be considered an “essential global commodity” like food, water and oil.
In other words, if you’re a conspiracy buff like me, then you KNOW that “The Man” has been running all kinds of war game scenarios where the Internet goes down FOR REAL!
Can you imagine the US Military’s wargame strategy for a catastrophic collapse of the Internet? The ultimate irony is that THEY created it to help “survive” a global thermo nuclear catastrophe and now the LACK of an Internet can be the CAUSE of a global catastrophe!
Freaky! Anyway – I don’t think the Internet is going down anytime soon but with the issue of Net Neutrality (or lack thereof) it will be a much different animal in 20 years than it is right now!
Readers…check out Mars Dorian on Branding!
Thanks Mars!
- Don
Don Power – Nanaimo Business Marketing Strategist´s last blog ..Blogging for Business? Top 3 Questions to ask BEFORE you begin
Heck, it must not go down anytime soon.
If it would, well, it’s kiss your a&% goodbye.
Thanks for the info, I didn’t even know the military invented the internet !
PS. It’s been like forever since your last (this!) blog post came out.
Where’s the new stuff ?
(and thanks for the shout out!)
Mars Dorian´s last blog ..How To Increase Your Brand Value, and Why You Can Not Screw This One Up !
Well, perhaps electrical storms will wipe out everything. However that hasn’t happened as yet.
We have, of course, that fateful day, December 21, 2012.
That is the day that BOTH the I Ching and the Mayan calendar say that that is the end.
We are not sure what that end will look like, but it is very interesting that both traditions speak of the same day for something fateful to happen.
That is the day incidentally when the Earth and Sun are perfectly aligned with the center of our galaxy. It only happens once every 26,000 years, so many scientists are thinking that perhaps there is a magnetic pole shift coming on that day.
I hope to be around to see it.
Please visit the web site noted in the website box. It is a do follow site.
Sincerely,
Dr. Ann Voisin
I don’t believe it will be the end of the world, but I do believe there will be exciting physical consequences to the move from one of the galaxy’s hemispheres to the other. There simply have to be magnetic changes.
Many people say the Mayan calendar that ends in 2012 simply was set to be recreated at the time after the galactic change, not to signal the end of the earth. But who knows?
Chuck Lasker´s last blog ..Are You Alienating the Color Blind?
I think one thing that is REALLY lacking with the use of the internet as a communication tool is the social aspect. You can only communicate so much through words, nothing beats body language, tone and facial expression. The internet will never replace that heart-felt handwritten letter or a friendly smile.
Nice post Don!
Vancouver Island Reviews´s last blog ..Vancouver Island Irish Pub
I think they’re working on 3D and augmented reality applications that will make Avatar look like a trip to the moon!.
But here’s hoping humans are never replaced with a purely pixelated facsimile!
Thanks for your comment VIR!
- Don
Hey Don…
I’ve got to tell you, the longer you stay away from this blog, the eerier this ‘last post’ gets….
Agreed
Randy´s last blog ..Bobby McFerrin Rocks!
Hahaha!
I’ve been busier and more enaged in the “real world” than the blogging world of late…Just goes to show you that hominids still rule holographs!
How’s things on the (Regina) streets, mate?
- Don
Don – I came by the other night, saw more posts and pumped my fist in the air. Big ups to you, my friend, I am very glad that you decided to stick with the blogging train.
Things are pretty crazy around here – this spring is shaping up to be one of tremendous change. Work has been work, but the magazine is starting to do things and our site has changed (just a bit) to reflect more of what our corporation is really about.
It is good to go through times when you are more engaged in the real world – heck, I’m the guy whose blogging output has seriously dropped over the last couple of years. So, don’t take my last comment as anything more than an observation – I’m glad you were involved in the real world, but I’m also glad to see you back in the blogging fold.
By the way, I’m very much down with the change of focus and I’m going to keep reading as long as you keep writing. Though I strongly suggest you get your hands on a personal blog so I can read more of your musings!
Be Peaceful
Greg
I firmly believe that the Internet was a good thing and a great change. i have never chosen the Internet over inter personal communication and honestly I dont under stand the fuss. I meet people almost everyday and never have I opted to stay at home and chat with other people over going out with a couple of my friends. Honestly I am so grateful that I can properly keep in touch with my friends in various countries. The impact of Internet truly boggles me.
Oh please dont let it happen. I cannot leave without internet. It’s already part of my life, and without internet we cant express our thought’s by blogging, forum posting etc.