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Rlyss · 10-25-2004, 05:22 AM

I remember using Encyclopedia Britanica as a reference in essays, and then the awe with which we used Microsoft Encarta '95 as a substitute. I remember trawling through pages and pages of both mediums looking for information on my middle-school essays and marveling at the advances in technology able to fit ALL those huge hardcover books onto one little piece of plastic.

I'm not sure if I can say that the thrill of Google doesn't match though. Sometimes I marvel at the speed at which I can find information (ignoring accuracy for a moment) compared to the books, or even Encarta, and am still amazed at the incomprehensible size of the net, and other times I just think 'Oh great, another godamn Google search'.

I think isis makes a good point about everything seeming a certain way when it's the present. I was born in 1983 so it's the late 80s and the 90s that influenced me the most. I see a two year old toddler now and marvel when it strikes me that September 11 attacks to him or her is something that happened in the distant past, much like much of most of the Afghan/Soviet conflict, the Vietnam War, the Munich Olympic attacks, etc. were for me. They're events that happened to other people in another world that I can only study, and not experience. The post-September 11 era is something that we all experience, but to anyone born after 9/11 it's just... normal life.

10-25-2004, 05:22 AM	#6 (permalink)
Rlyss The Pusher Location: Edinburgh	I remember using Encyclopedia Britanica as a reference in essays, and then the awe with which we used Microsoft Encarta '95 as a substitute. I remember trawling through pages and pages of both mediums looking for information on my middle-school essays and marveling at the advances in technology able to fit ALL those huge hardcover books onto one little piece of plastic. I'm not sure if I can say that the thrill of Google doesn't match though. Sometimes I marvel at the speed at which I can find information (ignoring accuracy for a moment) compared to the books, or even Encarta, and am still amazed at the incomprehensible size of the net, and other times I just think 'Oh great, another godamn Google search'. I think isis makes a good point about everything seeming a certain way when it's the present. I was born in 1983 so it's the late 80s and the 90s that influenced me the most. I see a two year old toddler now and marvel when it strikes me that September 11 attacks to him or her is something that happened in the distant past, much like much of most of the Afghan/Soviet conflict, the Vietnam War, the Munich Olympic attacks, etc. were for me. They're events that happened to other people in another world that I can only study, and not experience. The post-September 11 era is something that we all experience, but to anyone born after 9/11 it's just... normal life.