The Arc of the Information Age Covenant
When the World-Wide web arrived on the scene, one wrote webpages by hand. Summer of 1995, I read the HTML spec straight through and then coded a site I liked. In DOS “EDIT”. When I saw something I liked, I looked at the source, then coded it manually.
Then HTML-writing tools came. They eventually had a suite of nice stuff, such as templates, auto-completion of tags, syntax checking, WYSIWIG editors, and built-in FTP.
Then there was Blogger. You could use it as an online journaling platform. You used templates (or, if you were inspired) created your own, then the site would publish onto your own server.
Then Blogger started hosting blogs. You didn’t need your own site, but you needed some knowledge.
Then LiveJournal and all their insipid ilk, where everything except your usually-short observations were provided, and they did all the stuff with accounts and friends. I think.
I skipped MySpace.
Then Facebook, miniblogging with tight maximum-post-size limits. Super short mini-Christmas-letters. People could “me too!” with a thumbs-up button, and post constrained responses.
Then Twitter, 140-characters microblogging. Your thoughts are supposed to fit into those 30-or-whatever words, or they will not be seen by your readers.
Next, presumably, a social site at which you give a thumbs-rating of your state, and can thumbs-up or thumbs-down someone else’s thumb state.
Soon, you just decide where on the Web you are going, and if you like it and haveth not your own site, you can tell your friends, and you’re back to 1995.
Then, the Web will be provided for you as a stream, and you can simply switch streams, and we’re back to TV.
Then, all you can do is choose to turn on your computer or not, and we’re back to church.
Finally, we won’t get to decide whether we turn on our computers or not, and we’re back to school.
And all of that because losers couldn’t figure out how to write in HTML. If the information age fizzles, it’s their fault.
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7 Responses to “The Arc of the Information Age Covenant”
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October 2nd, 2009 at 22h16
Do I have to disclaim that all that’s a joke? Gawds I hope not.
October 14th, 2009 at 17h22
Are they really the losers?
No. No, that would be me.
What … monkey … help … confused…?
Also: guilty guilty guilty. I use it precisely for the same reason (except WTF monkey?) because I then aggregate the tweets (gah this terminology) as one big daily post. Which you may be missing, if you’re following in Google Reader.
October 14th, 2009 at 17h03
How would you thumb rate my down-thumbing of your thumb state? I like twitter though. It’s small enough for someone who wants say something without having to write an entire paragraph about the fact that they’re craving churros at that particular moment or wonder where the monkey is publicly (well..). Guilty, and guilty. Perfect for random people with short attention spans. Guilty, again.
And all of that because losers couldn’t figure out how to write in HTML.
Are they really the losers?
October 14th, 2009 at 18h01
I was watching Aladdin. Enough said. :S
October 14th, 2009 at 20h02
I’ve been sitting here trying to puzzle out what “when-information-arcs-you-have-entered-the-o-zone” (the URL) means, and I wrote it. Electrical arcs … um … create O3 from O2. Yeah. OK. Then what the hell is “the o-zone” a play off of? The Twilight Zone?! Weak. I hope there’s something else. Help?
October 14th, 2009 at 22h22
Enough said.
All you want to say, enough to simulate a conversation, or enough to give me a frakking clue what you’re talking about?
Like, you were watching Aladdin (and high?) and were tweeting “The animated monkey is offscreen, I wonder where he is?”
October 15th, 2009 at 16h04
I guess it could apply to all three options.
They were in the cave! Abu was surrounded by lava! :O High? I plead the Fifth. Let’s just say, friends don’t let friends take Benadryl.. haha