Social Expectations on the Web

How the world has changed in just a little over 25 years. A full generation ago the Internet was new and mysterious. A few million people had enjoyed the experience of chatting via online services like Genie, Compuserve, and AOL. But the online world was nothing like what we have today. Most people were playing games on floppy disks in 1994. Today you can't even buy a computer with a floppy drive.

In 1994 every home had a VCR (video cassette recorder). We recorded our favorite shows on videotape and watched big, bulky television sets. Today we use DVR services provided by the cable company and watch shows on our flatscreen laptop computers and tablets. Some people even watch their favorite shows on their smartphones.

In 1994 you still picked up a hand receiver on a telephone and waited for a dial tone. Now you use Skype or some messenger app to make a video call, and you don't listen for a dial tone. All our calls are digital and we use Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) without even wondering how our calling technology works. And you have to go hiking deep in the woods before you get so far away from civilization you cannot call anyone for help.

We are the generation that grew up with computers and the Internet. I cannot remember a time when I wasn't connected to the rest of the world. My parents talk about what it was like to shop for a PC when they still cost thousands of dollars. Now only high-end gaming computers cost that much. Everyone can get a laptop for just a few hundred dollars, and they are much better computers than those bulky old desktop models.

The Internet makes it possible for us to magically connect the dots in our lives. If you want to look up your favorite actor, he may have a Facebook page. Your local healthcare specialist or dietician may offer help and schedule appointments via Twitter. We don't wonder if we should "go social" on the Internet. We just have to choose which social media service we want to join. LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Instagram are all waiting for your life.

If you're not sure of where your friends are, there are a thousand Websites to help you find them. If the yahoo.com email address for Kyong is found anywhere online, someone has made a Website about it. She may not even know it's there. Your own email address could have been hacked and stolen a thousand times over. The Have I Been Pwned? Website is a must-check utility. Every time we read about a new database breach, millions of people check to see if their emails and logins have been stolen.

There was a time when computer security meant turning your PC off. Now it means downloading software and running anti-virus checks. But even the AVG programs are being hacked and their databases stolen. You haven't lived in the information age until your information has ended up in some hacker's treasure trove of stolen account data.

Some people have thousands of "online friends". These are people we don't really know, don't care much about, and have little to no contact with. They are strangers online who decided to share their time with us. We share our lives with them.

In a thousand years an archaeologist may dig up an old laptop computer and wonder what it is. Its battery will be dead, its screen will be ruined, and there will be too much dirt in the keyboard for anyone to type on it. But if they know what the laptop was used for they may scratch their heads and wonder how we ever managed to share so much about ourselves with such primitive devices. Think about that. We are more social than our grandparents were, and yet they were more likely to know who their neighbors were and what they ate for dinner. In the future, people will be more connected than we are and know even less about each other than we do.

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