Last week I was on vacation in the beautiful village of Lu Bagnu, located in Sardinia, Italy. I had the chance to read more than usual and I found an interview to Pamela Paul, author of the book “100 Things We’ve lost to the Internet“.
The book presents the world before cyberspace. If you are a non digital native like me, you will know what she is talking about.
There are the small losses: an adolescence largely spared of documentation, meeting people by chance, and the genuine surprise from receiving a postcard. And there are larger repercussions too: weaker memories, the inability to entertain oneself without a wi-fi connection, and the utter demolition of privacy.
In the first pages of the book she remembers when we used to spend the days playing in the courtyard, when we had to ring the doorbell to ask if our friend was home and could come to play, when the TV was black and white and with very few channels.
Pamela admits being a bit nostalgic of those times because she misses a lot the feeling of being in one place without always being connected to the rest of the world.
Besides that the author lists a series of things that now have disappeared. Have a look at some.
The person who knows everything. Nowadays everyone has access to a huge amount of information and can claim being an expert (even though I would say that we can only claim being very well informed).
Getting lost in a city. With Google Maps we always know where we are. Before the Internet we used paper maps and it was easier to get lost (I have to say that I can easily get lost also with Google Map or my mobile GPS, especially when it says – take the first road North-West – sorry how would I know where North-West is, you are supposed to drive me through…).
Finding your soul mate by chance. Before the Internet, we might have met our soul mate by chance, on a beach, in a library, or in a club. Nowadays, if you are not on a dating app to meet new people, you friends may think you are strange.
Bad photos. We only have good photos today. We take three or four photos and then we choose the best one (that’s what I do, but my son takes more than three or four photos). Bad photos were fun, I remember one photo where I cut the head of a guard on a horse, the horse looked gorgeous though!
Postcards. Would you send postcards? Or do you post your own photos on a platform or on a chat? Wasn’t it beautiful opening your mail box, finding a postcard from a friend and thinking, look where they have been?
Weather forecasts. We are obsessed by the weather, aren’t we? We trust our app on weather forecasts more than opening the window and looking at the sky.
Dictionary. When we looked for a word in a dictionary we might have also read the meaning of some following words. Now, when we google for a word we only find the meaning of that word.
Newspapers. The same is for reading the news on paper. Our eyes may jump on other interesting articles next to the one we have just read.
To conclude the interview, the journalist asked Pamela if she would give up to the Internet. And guess what, her answer was that no, she cannot renounce to the Internet.
I must say I read the article on the digital version of a newspaper, and I would find difficult living without the Internet.
What about you, what would you keep from the Internet, and what would you give up?
