I am addicted to the Internet. As a rule, I don’t participate in chats or instant messaging, but I appreciate the wealth of information on the Internet, particularly news, even though much of it is “bad news.”
Local headlines recently included two plane crashes off the coast of Maine, a possible murder in Old Orchard Beach, a stabbing in Pittsfield, a fire at a boys summer camp in Waterford, a cancer diagnosis for Portland City Manager Joe Gray and a bank robbery in Biddeford.
Headlines nationwide included “Camera captures bus attack,” “Father leads searchers to children’s bodies,” “Six semi trucks hit by gunfire on I-95,” “Man fatally shot mother of his child” and “Waters continue to rise in Midwest.”
Every day, new names and faces are added to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children Web site and the list of the FBI’s Most Wanted grows longer.
Sometimes when I read one “bad news” headline after another, I wonder what this world is coming to. I don’t remember the world being this violent 20 years ago, but the Internet didn’t exist then. The only news we had was what was fed to us by the nightly news and our local papers. Neither medium could give us all the news we now get from the Internet with a couple of clicks.
Maybe all these things really were going on around us 20 years ago, but we were oblivious due to lack of worldwide news and the speed at which it was delivered.
There’s good news out there, too – the National Zoo’s panda may be pregnant. Rescuers in Florida cut a motorboat belt from the neck of a baby dolphin. (I didn’t know dolphins had necks.)
I think the best thing about the Internet is the ability to instantly communicate with people around the globe.
I email friends and family all the way across the country. We transfer photos and sometimes videos. I keep in touch with my son, Zack, in Iraq by email and MySpace.
Zack has been in Iraq since December and the last time I saw him was July. He emails photos now and then, but it’s not the same as seeing him in motion.
I miss seeing his mannerisms, the way his mouth moves when he talks, the way he smiles, the way his hands and eyes tell a story.
He is really good about calling and while it’s good to hear his voice, I miss seeing him.
Last weekend, he contacted me on the computer using MySpace Instant messenger, which apparently is voice enabled. I could hear him but he couldn’t hear me so he was talking and I was typing in response. I kept telling him to download Skype, a free program that allows users to talk over the Internet, and finally he did while we continued our type/talk conversation.
He kept asking “Can you see me?” and I kept typing “No” as I checked my settings. I adjusted a setting, my computer screen went blank and suddenly a new window opened. There was my son’s face – live as he spoke!
Tears of joy sprang to my eyes. I clapped my hands and shrieked, “There he is! There he is!” I can’t even find the words to describe what it was like to see him and talk to him at the same time after nearly a year.
He turned his computer to show us the view of his room, but the camera disconnected and we were reduced to typing again. Too soon, he had to log off.
I was overjoyed to see him, if only for a few seconds.
The good news is, he’s coming home on leave. With any luck, by the time you are reading this, I will have my son home in the flesh and blood – able to see him, talk to him and touch him.
– Renee Worthing