Feeling fine, online. 10 years and counting

“E-mail?” I remember thinking. “I’m in class every day. What does e-mail have to do with this class?”
I argued, but I didn’t want to fail so I signed up.
My first couple weeks on the Internet were pretty blah. I would go to the computer lab, type up my homework, e-mail it and go home. Then, and thank goodness for weather, it was raining and cold one day, and I didn’t feel like waiting for the bus. So I started surfing.
Now, 10 years ago the Internet wasn’t any great thing. In fact, one of the first places I surfed to was the Heaven’s Gate cult Web site that was all over the news at the time (in case you don’t remember, Heaven’s Gate was a cult of computer geeks who committed suicide in 1997—many members were wearing identical outfits and black Nikes).
But then I really started looking around. I found Web sites that were posting movie reviews (illegally) from major newspapers, I found the movie company (Troma) that made one of my favorite cult movies (Toxic Avenger), I found a list of every chalkboard gag ever written on The Simpsons... the list goes on and on.
I was instantly addicted.
Every day, after finishing my homework, I would search some more. It was fascinating the amount of information that was on the net.
In late 1998, I had my first article posted on the Web—a movie review for the UWM Post. A few months later, an article I wrote was picked up by an online news service. In early 1999, I did my first shopping on the net (eBay). The same year, I discovered online music, online video services, online movie chat rooms, and so on.
For me, it’s neat to think back to my pre-Internet days. It feels like I was in a cloud, so uninformed, so unaffected by the world around me. Of course, my ADD wasn’t as bad as it is now (what was I talking about), but that aside the Internet has been very good to me.
And while some have gone on and on about how their industry (banking, insurance, retail) has been changed by the World Wide Web, nowhere has it been changed more than inside the newsroom at a newspaper.
Newspapers have been around for hundreds of years, and for most of that time, they didn’t change. Sure, with the advent of wire services content changed slightly, then there was color...but for the most part, papers were unaffected by time.
In the last 10 years, papers have been completely retooled. Newspapers have moved onto the Web. They’ve added podcasts, streaming video, blogs, pop-up and online classified ads, up-to-the-minute news updates, content links and so on.
I can’t tell you how many times in the last month of doing video people have shot me confused looks when I tell them I’m putting together a video for The Sheboygan Press Web site.
“But the Press is a newspaper,” most say in paraphrase. “What does that have to do with a newspaper?”
Ten years ago ... nothing. Today, it has everything to do with a newspaper. Tomorrow? That’s a mystery. I’m pretty sure physical newspapers aren’t going anywhere, but you never know what tomorrow holds.So here’s to 10 more good years of the Internet. It will be interesting to see where this thing goes.
Photo of Yahoo! browser, circa 1997, courtesy of Tranquil Eye.
2 Comments:
Great piece! Should be on editorial page.
By
Anonymous, at 8:46 AM
Thanks, Sheboygan Press Fan. I didn't know we had "Fans." It's good to know you're out there. I'll pass your message onto my editor.
Thanks again!!!
By
Eric LaRose, at 8:53 AM
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