The Internet's Effect

by Dave Clark

     There has been a lot of discussion about so-called internet “junkies” that is, those who can’t seem to get enough; who spend every minute of their spare time surfing the internet, sending and receiving email, and even working on their personal websites. I don’t spend all of my spare time on the internet but I do spend a lot. So if maybe, in fact, I am addicted, I’m here to relate my personal experience.

     Late in 1995 I signed up with a local Internet Service Provider, having had an account with CompuServe for about a year. Internet access through Compuserve at that time was expensive (five bucks an hour if I remember correctly), so I hadn't bothered to access the World Wide Web until I got the direct connection through my local ISP for a flat $19.95 per month. (Seemed cheap until I had to add a second phone line so that friends could still call me.) At once, I was immediately impressed with the vastness of the Web and its potential. I could look up information on just about anything. It was like having a giant library at my finger tips and I was fascinated.

     Personal web pages weren’t abundant in 1995 but my ISP provided a web page editor so their customers could create a personal page. By typing into the ISP’s ready-made fields within my web browser, I could easily put up a home page with my name, address, phone number, interests, etc. Now, not only could I find stuff on the internet, other people could find out about me. It wasn’t long before I figured out how to type html code into those ready-made fields to make my home page a little fancier than my peers at the local ISP. All of this was fun and I was hooked!

     Since getting connected to the internet, I don’t watch as much TV as I once did. (Some would say that’s a good thing.) I don’t ski much anymore, something I used to do about once a week. So, although I don’t get that exercise, I save about $200 a month that once was spent on skiing (during the season). I was never much of a letter writer, but I now keep in touch with family and friends via email far more often than I ever did before, and no envelopes or stamps are required.

     Beginning in my early teens, one of my big interests was photography. I was the kid in school who always had a camera taking photos of all the other kids (pestering everyone in the process). When I moved to Colorado, that hobby evolved into taking pictures of the mountain scenery around home. Somehow over time, though, I lost interest in photography. Perhaps you know how it is; you take some photographs, get the film processed, look at them once or twice, then put them away in a shoe box and never look again. That’s how it was for me. I would rarely look at the pictures I had taken and lost interest in my hobby. (Don't ya hate it when that happens?)

     Well, then came the internet, a perfect way to share my photos with the rest of the world. After learning more about the html language for creating websites and getting software to help me with the hard stuff, I launched a site designed to share my pictures of Colorado and other scenic places. This has renewed my interest in photography. I’ve done a little promotion of my site, and now instead of having my photos packed away in boxes, they’re viewed each day by two or three hundred people from around the world. I get messages from all over saying “thanks for sharing.”

     My photo website has been a big boost for my interest in photography and has created two new interests for me; website design and a new kind of photography — QuickTime Virtual Reality panoramas. I now carry a tripod and a digital camera and in addition to taking regular photos, I’m capturing immersive 360 degree panoramas. With your computer and a web browser (and the free QuickTime plug-in), you can “spin” my QTVR’s to look in all directions, as if you’re actually there at the spot where I was with my tripod. Way cool, man!

     So, my so-called internet addiction has: 1) kept me in touch with friends from far places, 2) sparked new interest in my old hobby and created two new ones, 3) given me a good reason to get outside to capture scenic wonders for others to enjoy and, 4) saved me $200 a month on lift-tickets. Not all bad, I think.

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