At work last night I was sitting down behind the computer. To customers looking to be served, I appeared to be answering emails or something equally as reasonable. However, like most shifts, I was actually perusing the internet. In this particular instance I was reading an article on intothegloss.com (which I highly recommend if you’re interested in what beauty products other people have in their bathrooms, like I am). Anyway, I came across an article / promotional piece entitled ‘Read Everything On The Internet (But Do It Later)’. It was advertising a new app called Pocket which enables you to bookmark internet pages you want to look at later more conveniently. That wasn’t really what interested me though.
Emily Ferber used an anecdote at the beginning of her article that felt a liiiiiittle too familiar.
“In the same way normal people probably ask if you’ve read a book or a magazine, I often find myself asking friends “Did you read the internet today?” Now, this is not to be confused with asking if they’ve seen particularly viral portions of the internet, i.e. “Did you see 64 Cats Who Just Can’t Cat Anymore?” I am usually referring to the internet in its entirety. And after witnessing the absolute frenzy when Google shut down its RSS feed, Google Reader, I don’t think it’s an unfair assumption.”
It got me thinking about something I had never really recognised before.
Sure we all understand how the internet has become an integral part of our lives. My grandma had an iPhone before I did for God’s sake. However, what separates myself from my 63-year-old grandma (who has less wrinkles than me, I’m pretty sure) is that people my age have a much more thorough relationship with the internet. We know what is going on online every second of every day.
Take most Facebook conversations with my friend Nicolette for example. Recently when the security video of Solange Knowles punching up Jay-Z was leaked, all she had to say was “Did you see…” before I could answer “yes” and then probably something like “great outfit, bad weave”. Another example was Peaches Geldof overdosing or when Instagram was down and the whole world stopped. Or even more recently anything to do with Malaysia Airlines.
All anyone has to say these days is “Did you see…” before we can quickly respond with a “yes” or in the Instagram instance maybe a “YES, MY FEED WON’T LOAD PAST 7 HOURS AGO”.
I can’t really remember what it was like before the internet made me somewhat telepathic. Honestly, it was a little bit scary how desperate I felt in Europe a few weeks ago with no 4G and no ability to ‘read the internet’ every day like I am so habituated to.
No need to worry though, it took me approximately 15 minutes to catch up as soon as my plane touched down.
– Caitlin
*Photo sourced from intothegloss.com*
