Vengeance

Something to think about:

"I?m Afraid of The End of the Internet

I came across a link the other day ? one I?d seen before, but I?d never really thought about. To roughly paraphrase, it stated that I had found the End of The Internet, that I should turn off my browser, shut down my computer, and resume my life.

My first response was to laugh, as I backed out of the page and resumed my search for the elusive content that will still have the power to shock me, to intrigue me, to make me laugh out loud or send shivers down my spine.

Later, sipping my coffee and smoking a cigarette outside in my dusty old recliner that lives in the carport just for that purpose, I set down my novel, good as it was, and began to ponder ?The End of The Internet? and all that that wicked little phrase implies.

I didn?t reflect too long on the causes that might bring about the death of the environment- strange and numerous they may be, but as always, I began to focus on what I always seem to: How will this affect me? How would my small, insignificant little life be changed if I woke one morning to find that the communication of thoughts and pictures and hope and vanity that sustains me and keeps my mind occupied for hours at a time were to end? Would I resume old hobbies or make new ones? Could mah-jongg or chess or table tennis hope to capture me as wholly and without reservation? Could the time I spend on my various collections expand to fill the late nights and lonely hours when I?m not at work? Would I ever again find an outlet so real, so convincing, so well able to allow me to shout my thoughts into the minds of thousands?

No. And you, reading this, your veins full of caffeine, your eyes red and bloodshot, wrists sore and fingernails bitten to the quick: think about your own lives, think about the time you spend hunched over a keyboard, think about the number of people you consider your friends, or in-jokes you?re a part of, or places to spend your midnight hours that only exist as packets of data that travel from some unknown server to another, faster than your father?s father or mine ever imagined.

I?m Afraid of the End of The Internet, because I have no idea who I'll be."

- Joe