Amazing how all this has skyrocketed (the Internet and everyone using it and wanting on) in the past eight years or so. I got online first in 1997, with a USRobotics 33.6 modem. Had it for YEARS, and thought I was hot stuff.
Now, eight years later, cable and DSL are in nearly every city, wireless is commonplace, non-tech regular joes have their houses networked and routers for all computers in the house to get online, etc.
People now actually freak out - on various levels - when they CAN'T get online. Notice that? Suddenly, their entire world comes to a halt (I'm that way to a point...I hate being away from e-mail and breaking news).
If terrorists REALLY wanted to throw the Western world into a tizzy, they'd figure out some way to bring all this down, and hard. People would panic and spaz-out big time.
I take it for granted, at this point, just going to my computer and going anywhere I want, for whatever reason. My banking, ordering products, buying music, staying in touch with friends that I'd never consider phoning, news, Mac stuff, etc. If I had that taken away from me for more than several days, I'd kinda hate it, to be honest.
It's changed everything, it really has. Makes me wonder what another 5-10 years are going to be like. And with all that good stuff, there's the unavoidable bad. I'd be really interested in seeing an objective, non-politicized study on the effects of easily-acquired pornography and gore on society. There HAS to be some, because when I was eight years old, I had no idea what a cumshot was, or an interracial she-male amateur cheerleader gangbang.
Kids now...jeez. I can only imagine what "education" they're getting!
There's no telling the kind of stuff they're trying in the back of the school bus! "No, put her head down lower like that...yeah, that's how the picture looked. Now take your other hand and put it..."
