Richard sends out a heart-felt plea to his lost love in Connie, I Miss You:
“It’s been all downhill since then. My mailbox is full of spam now, and the only notification I get is a little number in a red circle. No longer do I hear her beautiful voice telling me “you’ve got mail.” I’m constantly bombarded by popup adverts and unwanted porn and I have to look up the news myself.”
In this age of instant messaging, spam, 2.0 hype and incessant viral marketing it’s easy to forget how simple online life used to be.
No constant interruptions care of yet another Facebook application or 2.0 group chat, where being “Linked In” meant you were one of the chosen few to actually have some kind of Internet connection and Email applications greeted you with a gentle loving care.
Where spam was that very occasional and quaint chain email about puppies forwarded to you by Great Aunt Dora and IRC involved a VAX, an acoustic coupler, three different user manuals and just a hint of luck.
Some might suggest we’ve come along way — and to a point that’s true — but in some ways I cannot help but feel we’ve hardly progressed at all.
≡ This is a brief remainders entry relating to the topics of internet, links, reflections and written in response to an external article, comment or opinion — refer linked article for completeness and context.
Brendan Borlase is a Systems and Network Administrator living in Adelaide, Australia, having lived, worked and breathed Information Technology for over 12 years. Learn more.
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