Computers and The Internet Have Changed The Way We Learn About ."EVERYTHING"..(please read)(short)

[Stuart G]

also posted in "Education".

In the old days, (say 2000) before everyone got computers & internet, you had to go to the library for extensive
research. You had to look around, find the correct magazine or research material, take it off the shelf, take a look,
put it back & get another one.

....Now, you get the research from any newspaper or periodical, by sitting at your computer, and using "GOOGLE"
You can find anything, anywhere, and look at most TV stations without getting up to change the channel or go
to a shelf somewhere in your house or library.

...If you think things have NOT CHANGED A WHOLE LOT,... you are not old enough to know, or whatever?

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Thank You for reading this.

[Ocelot II]

1. I wish the internet had existed when I was in college.

I could have sat comfortably eating junk food in my dorm room while researching a paper, instead of holing up in the library with a pile of books, which I had located by rummaging through a card catalog. If I wanted a copy of something I had to go to the front desk where there was a photocopier the size of a Volkwagen, and for each page I'd place the page of the book on the glass, close the lid, put a nickel in the slot, push a button and wait. The thing would light up and go zzzzzzzzzz as it verrrrry sloooowly copied the page and verrrry slooowly puked out the warm, blackish, fuzzy copy. But at least it wasn't mimeographed.

[hay rick]

2. Or people had an Encyclopedia Brittanica, a World Almanac...

magazine subscriptions (PC Magazine, Scientific American, Time, etc.) and library cards. It was common for people to sit down and read for hours without interruption...

The internet is like having all those resources and much more riding around with you in your pocket. It is a mixed blessing. In the older, paper-based system, most information that made it into print was curated by experts and professionals. The digital era has made information more readily available, but the cost is that it must compete at a disadvantage with misinformation and disinformation.

[csziggy]

3. Yes, I was watching an old Rockford Files episode where they were trying to locate a person

These days, you just put their name into a search program and you can find their life history, every place they have ever lived, criminal and civil records, and so much more!

When The Rockford Files was made, the closest you could come was to check a city directory - if your city or town had one. Even then the information was out of date by the time it was published so it would be maybe a 50% chance of it still being correct for where someone lived.

[CloudWatcher]

4. One thing that has *not* changed ....

Is that figuring out just what sources to trust is still a mystery to most people.