By: Taban Khajehnassiri
Information sometimes is "Free, Fun, and For Your Fortune", sometimes it's really "Informative", but sometimes it makes you act "Selfish" when you get it, and sometimes it shows you the "Horrible" face of the age! It is and acts just like a FISH for a net user! It becomes so heavy when you get older and older.
There is a lot of talk these days about the Internet and the young generations working with it eagerly, however, I would like to talk about something else here. Last week I read somewhere that the average net user, especially in the US and Europe, has 41 years of age, married and he has got two children. This average guy is now somewhere on the net sending an e-mail, searching and surfing the web for something or talking in a chat room with some other fellow.
He is so much under pressure, he has learned much about new computers and communications, he has his family, his children, his job, his past, present and future, undergone so many social, cultural, economical, political shocks and impacts. He is now online here on the net to fish the fish he deserves after all these years. He is somehow alone, mornings and afternoons, at the office or at home, he logs in with his own hands. He has got a mouse under his right hand rolling and a key of his keyboard under his left hand, looking for something in the horizons on his monitor.
He thinks and thinks over and over. What is my next step forward or backward? What should I do with this big big fish I've got here now. I am just an old man, I can not read all these new e-mails at once, how can I answer to all these questions, send replies to everyone, the autoresponder doesn't work properly. It is almost late at night, who is this new guy in this chat? He is from somewhere on this planet, a country I don't know, have not heard about it before. Is he a decent guy? I don't even know his real name, his ASL (Age, Sex, and Location) sounds familiar to me, 24/M/NY, he is Jack, my friend Jack in New York! no... no.. he is Scott, but this kind of info only they must have ... er.. I think this young man is playing tricks with me, he is kidding me, teasing me, why? He can be my boss, but I don't have a boss, I AM the president of my own company now, why should I carry all these fears on my achin' back with me. Clicking, clicking, clicking, I just want to know him more. "Where are you from, man? Talk to me! Talk to me NOW!" - "You are not Fred. Are you?" Ah, it sounds - He has gone! And the time is up. I have been wasting all my time for all these hours. I am just an old man. Where is my fish? I have to check out more search engines on this area, this field, this sea of information, for next week's lecture at the office. I need to talk to someone, I have to write two important messages for that customer right away. Oh .. my God, look at this banner, she's so pretty! I have to click here, oh no ... not now! It won't give me the information I need. My eyes cannot see, it's getting blur, what time is it?
I have to start my speech this way: "Ladies and ..., no.. no.. no.. with a simple thank you, it can be." I cannot think, my hands and shoulders ache, my back aches, my ears, oh they cannot stand this computer fan's noise any more. I prefer to go and sleep. What do I have for dinner, fish? Yeah, it is much better now ... Again, he is paging me: "Hey you old man! Are you still there? Okay ... I will send you the fish for a hundred bucks, Okay?" I was thinking to myself this little icon is a "Shark"! I have to log off now ... "No! Thank you", I said. Free Information Sounds Heavy! But I have to look for and look after my own FISH. I am just an old man, however, I can pace with IT.
This article first published as the editorial of WWN January 20, 2001