"Back When I Was in School...."

"Back when I...(fill in the blank)."  How many times have we heard that from someone of an older generation?  I can recount my mom telling me of how she didn't have the internet with all the journal, magazine, news, etc. sources available to her when she wrote research papers in college.  It was up to her to find the pieces on her own, and this definitely required a TON of work!  More so then I've had to do for my papers at least.

So this week I have chosen to consider what it would be like were the internet not available to students around the country, specifically college students.  I chose to observe the prevalence of the internet in our studies after having completled the writing assignment for English class. 

For the writing assignment I went online, found the topic I wanted to discuss, then searched several news websites in order to gather the closely related articles.  After I found what I wanted, I was able to reread (or rewatch) each piece online however many times I wanted.  There was no going to the library, turning on the TV, or searching the newspapers involved whatsoever.  I canNOT imagine how much extra time that would have required for the analysis assignment.

I think it's very easy to take for granted the extent to which information is available within a space of not even 5 cubic feet (namely, your computer).  It was so easy for me to simply get back on the internet, retype my search in google or the URL address bar, and access the desired information within seconds.  Within the past 2 decades, the internet has drastically changed the way people go about writing papers, collecting information, catching up on headlines, etc.  I am hardpressed to think of anything in fact that I cannot discover on the internet.  Needless to say, I am so thankful for this somewhat new technology!