People under thirty years of age, and certainly those under twenty, are probably unimpressed by their ability to send and receive messages (and even photographs and videos) instantly to and from people all over the world.  It has been such an integral part of their relatively short lives that they take it for granted – along with the ability to access a huge variety of news, information, and entertainment just by turning on a machine and pushing a few buttons.

As someone who was already a teenager in high school when Americans first began watching TV on little black-and-white screens in their homes, I remain awed by what has transpired in the last two decodes.  (No, kids, I'm not utterly ancient; the telephone, radio, and motor car were around before I was born.)  Although all the technology of the last century – automobiles, the telephone, radio and television, air travel, and so on – would seem miraculous and incredible to people who lived in the nineteenth century, all of these technologies evolved slowly compared to the rapidity of advances in computers, digital technology, and the Internet.

To put this in perspective, I sometimes wonder what my parents would think if they were to come back to life today.   Although it hasn't been that long since they were alive, I'm sure that they would be utterly stunned by the changes that have occurred in such a short time.  They were alive when men walked on the moon and they saw their share of amazing inventions, but I still think that they would be mind-boggled.  They would probably think that they had awakened a hundred years in the future, rather than only twenty or thirty.

My parents, Americans by birth, lived in South Africa for seventeen years and raised their three children there (I was born there).  During that time, they were virtually cut off from family in the United States.  I met one of my grandparents only once, on a trip to the States in 1947 (the sea voyage took up to three weeks each way).  Long-distance international phone calls were rare and expensive; their only contact was by letters containing outdated news.  This wasn't because South Africa was technologically primitive; it was because, by today's standards, the world's technology was primitive.  Everything, even communications, took a long time to get from one place to another.  Radio was the principal means – in most cases, the only means – of transmitting news in real time.  American movies appeared in theaters in Cape Town years after they were released in the United States.  Television was nonexistent.

Even after my parents returned to the States in 1949, communication with friends they acquired in their 17 years abroad were highly limited.  My older siblings, too, had few ways to maintain any contact with their high school acquaintances.  I recall that one of my older brother's high school chums was something of a geek (though the word did not exist then) who dabbled in electronics.  Sometime during the 1950s, this fellow put together a "wire" recording (the precursor of audio tape) and mailed it to us.  I don't recall how we got the equipment to play it on, but I do remember that everyone was amazed to be able to hear the recorded voices of friends from far away, albeit several weeks after they had made the recording.  Remember, that was a mere fifty years ago; it would be another twenty years before audio cassettes became commonplace.  Yet in the past three decades we have jumped from slow, cumbersome communication to instant transmission of voice, images, and written messages.

What we're now starting to take for granted would have been considered impossible not long ago – more in the realm of futuristic (way into the future) science-fiction than something likely to happen in our lifetimes.  To be sure, some of my acquaintances who were aware of imminent breakthroughs in personal computers made what I considered at the time to be some rather wild predictions, but even they did not anticipate the "worldwide web" or, if they did, did not foresee its impact or its rapid growth.  Indeed, science-fiction writers did envision many incredible technological developments that have not happened, but a worldwide digital network of computers was not one of them – or, if it was, it was not among their most prominent visions for the world of the future.

Once this worldwide Web became a reality, however, it spread like the proverbial wildfire.  It's almost as if, once the real geniuses made the technology available, they unleashed a huge reservoir of untapped innovativeness and creativity.  Minor geniuses created more software, more applications, and more tools.  Although some of the more sophisticated stuff was beyond mere mortals (i.e., non-geeks), it became within reach of those willing to learn – and a lot more of us were willing than might be expected, even among older folks who were naturally wary of these new-fangled machines.  It may have initially appealed only to the young who take new concepts in stride or to the technologically inclined who enjoy the challenge of working with machines.  However, it rapidly captured the interest and attention of people in all walks of life, young and old, even people who had never before cared about anything that could be labeled "technology."  Many of us felt that it was far too complex for us to grasp, but we tried anyway.

We made the effort because we perceived how much this new technology offered us.  Before long, grandmothers were sending e-mail, middle-aged men were creating websites and blogs, and the world was awash in digital photos and videos and privately published writing.  Much of what has been produced is mediocre, and a lot of it is absolute junk, but those who had gems to offer could now do so easily – and could, potentially at least, reach an audience of millions.

In my own case, I never dreamed that I would create a website.  Indeed, even when my younger friends were talking about dotcom-this and dotcom-that, I expressed no interest in looking at the Internet.  ("I have no use for it," I said.  Yeah, right.  A couple of years earlier, I had said the same thing about owning a computer.)  As was the case for many, I succumbed by getting e-mail – not Internet, just e-mail.  Within a year, I had a dial-up Internet connection and was surfing the Web.  Less than a year after that, I had discovered how easy it was to create a blog.  Soon, having learned some of the basics of composing on the Internet, I launched this website.  Somewhere in there I moved from dial-up to broadband.  Now that I look back on this progression, it's all a blur because I went from one step to the next so fast.  Everything else I've learned has been such a slow progression that I can clearly identify each step; this all seems to have been a mad dash from one thing to the next.  It is, in a sense, a microcosm of the way the Internet has swept into all of our lives.

Serendipity – the accidental discovery of something wonderful and useful while one is looking for something else – has played a huge role in everyone's experience of the Internet.  We can discover all sorts of resources by poking around on the Web.  Indeed, my bookmarks/favorites folder is brimming with addresses for sites that I've found purely by chance.  Admittedly, surfing the Web is sometimes rather like looking about at a yard sale where 95% of the stuff should have been thrown in the trash, but it's worth the hunt to find the treasures.

The Internet is also a remarkable way to establish contact with people one might not otherwise meet or for restoring communication with old friends or acquaintances whom one has lost.  I am not necessarily referring to commercial sites that track old classmates or set up online dating but to other, more casual and accidental meetings.  For example, because I participated in some Q&A boards, I have "met" some individuals with whom I have something in common; though the odds of our meeting each other in the "real" world are more than a million to one, we now exchange e-mail.  Unlike my parents, who could not even keep up with people they knew in South Africa after they returned to the States, I "met" via the Internet a gentleman in South Africa who shares some of my interests and who gives me an inside view of what living there is like these days – something I could not do any other way.  I've also heard stories of old friends (and even entire groups of people) who have found one another and reunited in a kind of virtual community through the magic of cyberspace.

We can, of course, emphasize the baneful influence of this technology.  Perhaps, in a way, it isolates people, causing them to prefer risk-free, remote contact with others rather than the ups and downs of "real" relationships.  Undoubtedly, the cloak of anonymity that the Net makes possible enables some individuals to indulge in mean-spirited comments that they would most likely never make in person.  Also, as is the case with every medium, the Internet has not escaped the clutches of the uniquitous marketeers and shysters.  It has spawned an explosion of both genuine marketing and fraud that makes even the overkill of commercial television look tame by comparison.  It appears that, for every individual who has been creative enough to contribute constructively to the Internet, there are three who use their creativity for nefarious purposes, and even some whose sole purpose seems to be to disrupt or destroy the very medium that makes this possible.

Nevertheless, I believe that the pros far outweigh the cons.  As a natural cynic, I could enumerate many negative consequences of technology in general and the Internet in particular, but there probably isn't any advance or invention made by mankind that hasn't been subject to abuse.  The sheer size and public availability of the Internet may ensure that there will always be abuses, but increasing awareness and knowledge make people more adept at squelching intruders and resisting fraud.  The Net may, unfortunately, give children access to pornography and cause the gullible to fall for scams, but its value as an educational tool and shopping convenience far exceeds the dangers – if people use common sense to guide their children and to avoid the shysters.  Scumbags and crooks will always frequent popular meeting places, but they can be controlled.

With its global reach and expanding availability, the Internet represents a revolution in how we relate to one another, how we do business, and how we live our lives that is comparable to no other in history.  Yes, we look back historically at the Industrial Revolution and mark it as one of the most sweeping transformations of human society, affecting every aspect of our lives – how we work, how we play, how we think.  That is all quite true, but the effects of the Industrial Revolution took decades to play out; we might more aptly call it the Industrial Evolution.  In comparison, the digital revolution – of which the Internet is the most influential and significant component – is an awesome leap.  Let's hope that all of us who are involved in this brand-new technological democracy ensure that it is leap forward, that it does not (as many human accomplishments have) become corrupted by those who would abuse it.