| I'm one of those early adopters of cool | | | | fingers on one of my Instant Messengers. I also |
| technology. Sure, it means I pay more - | | | | spend a lot of time in the world of social |
| sometime a lot more - to have the cool stuff | | | | networking, blogging, and social media. |
| early, but I don't mind because I'm totally a | | | | As a personal hobby I write for, and maintain, at |
| technophile. I love technology, primarily the | | | | least three personal blogs. Of course I have them |
| internet, and I'm old enough to remember well | | | | tied to all my social networking outlets like |
| when there wasn't such a thing. This means I've | | | | Facebook, Twitter, and Digg. One of my blogs is |
| traveled the full length of the path that's brought | | | | all about sports, another is about all the movies |
| us to today. | | | | I've watched so far this year, and a new one I |
| Remember the first website you ever visited? I | | | | launched is just me writing about the contents of |
| do. It was Ford Motor Company's corporate | | | | my daydreams. It's a bit of a social experiment |
| website. I don't know what I was doing there, but | | | | and one that I hope turns into something |
| that was my first experience with the World | | | | interesting. |
| Wide Web. Remember the first time you ever | | | | See, that's the power of high speed internet |
| saw a "dot com" television commercial? I do. It | | | | today, and it's something that was always there |
| was an advertisement for NASDAQ and their | | | | but needed to be developed, nurtured, and |
| website URL appeared at the bottom of the | | | | matured. Each person today has the ability to |
| screen at the end of the commercial. | | | | stop being a pure consumer of news and |
| I also remember the day I bought my first | | | | information and becoming an actual creator and |
| 28.8bps dialup modem. No longer would images | | | | contributor. That's the power of social networking |
| take an hour to download. They only took a half | | | | and social media. Each person can be armed with |
| hour! The first Flash website I ever saw was | | | | the ability to instantly report something of |
| from a German marketing company, and it was | | | | interest, or breaking news happening right in their |
| just about the coolest thing I'd ever seen. All this | | | | neighborhood. Citizens of the World Wide Web |
| seems forever ago, and maybe in terms of | | | | today are the eyes and ears of the world. |
| technology it is, but we're only talking back to the | | | | All of this is possible because companies have |
| early- to mid-1990s. Oh how things have changed, | | | | invested heavily in creating high-speed internet, |
| eh? | | | | wireless technology, and robust applications. Take |
| Today I have about a dozen tabs open in my | | | | advantage of the high speed internet in a |
| browser window, my Outlook is never shut down, | | | | technology bundle and transform yourself from |
| frequently my iTunes is playing something catchy | | | | citizen to netizen in no time at all! |
| from this decade, and I'm chatting with my | | | | |