A Ride on the Internet Can Be Big Cyber Bore
I’m writing this in the office, using an IBM 286 with hard-drive and a single floppy. I have access to all the knowledge accumulated in The Times since 1985. I can also link up with the Internet.
Whoopee.
Pardon me for dissing the information superhighway, but without visuals provided by a CD-ROM attachment, cyberspace can be a cyber bore. This is important to remember if you’re about to buy your (expensive) first computer and think your life is going to change.
Once you log on for the first time--which can be an exasperating process--you begin surfing the Internet. Or dog paddling, in my case.
Personally, bulletin boards are fun for about five seconds, but I’m not looking for computer friends at the moment, so I connect to the home-shopping network for a few minutes without finding anything I can’t get at the mall. Then I check the AP wire for the latest Simpson trial dirt and read about something I saw live an hour earlier on CNN.
The Internet is a useful tool for reporters, who can send electronic messages seeking experts to help them on a story, but I don’t have time to read 500 replies, so I do research the old-fashioned way: I look in a book.
Maybe cyber weenies can spend all day trying to go where no man has gone before, but right now, the information superhighway takes me nowhere I want to stay very long. Technology and my own apathy limit my potential, but at least I’m along for the ride. Which is essential in today’s high-tech society.
Staff writer Ken McAlpine recently decided to join the brave new world of computers. “I got tired of reading articles and having no idea what they were talking about,” he said. “Having been left behind on a lot of other things, I reckoned this was one boat I didn’t want to miss.”
McAlpine’s experiences--which he discusses in this week’s Centerpiece--should give hope to the computer challenged.
“Access to cyberspace is within the reach of everyone,” he said. “Even those of us who are intimidated can actually become fairly comfortable in a short amount of time. But becoming expert is another thing altogether. I still bumble all over the place, making mistakes at every turn. But how else do you learn?”
But now that McAlpine has discovered cyberspace, “I’m not saying I’m a changed man. It can be a pretty interesting place, but with two kids under 2 around the house, I don’t have a lot of idle time. Still, I’m sure it’s going to be a valuable resource and some fun down the line. And I don’t want the kids leaving the old man behind.”
