Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

I'm sure most of you remember the years when the internet was first getting started. I still remember my first Yahoo! Mail account and the old version of Hotmail. I can recall the droning of dialup as you would connect to the WorldWideWeb and slowly wind your way through Netscape (the preferred choice of web browsing for a short time, at least in my neck of the woods).

Now things move at the speed of light. I can watch just about anything on the Internet. I don't need television anymore or the local news channels. The news, weather, and current events are at my fingertips. These strange occurrences that make couch lounging take on a whole new meaning go beyond the simple extended pleasures of the Internet.

Land lines are almost non-existent and good luck finding a phone booth. Everyone has cell phones and if you don't have one a pre-paid version is available for $30 or less at the local Wal-Mart. Laptops are the new way to use computers. We need instantaneous pleasure for our fingertips. Real letters and cards, gasp! Who has ever heard of such things?

Physical writing is sooo overrated. I mean when have you, an author, written an entire book by hand I ask. I take notes by hand, copy character outlines in the fine cursive I learned from Mrs. Mullins in the 3rd grade (FYI: her neck was covered in moles and we used to call her Mole-ins. I know, not nice).

The idea that you could communicate with editors, agents, and authors without having to be invited to some special dinner or visit New York has all but disappeared. Thank you Twitter! Not to say I don't appreciate this new twist to events. I am having more fun then I would have if I had been more serious about writing 10 years ago.

Bottom line: The depravity of this posts exists in my personal amazement of how far technology and worldwide communication has evolved in 10 years. I am thankful for it and at the same time mystified. The changes we see now will only be eclipsed in the next 5 years, with new websites and inventions to take our imaginations and relationships beyond their current sphere. We may not be transporting ourselves in hover cars or time traveling in Deloreans, but we are engaging with others in ways that no one would have imagined in the days of horse drawn buggy.