What’s an Internet? LOL

I tried my best to be really fast and hoped that no one beat me and found this on ccn.com but I stumbled upon a video of the “Today” show where it was taped in 1994 the title being “Katie Couric, what’s an Internet?” and the discussion that went on about the @ sign and what is internet. I mean if you think about it is only been 17 years since this was televised but to some it doesn’t seem that long ago at all. It is really funny to listen to this, but then again as Matt Lauer says: “It was a mystery to all of us.” And indeed it was. Lets us think about where we were in 1994? I was in 4^th grade then and had never even seen a computer. I could not stop laughing when Bryant Gumbel was saying that people in California were scared and were going to bed with their gym shoes on and a flashlight.

This goes back to our dialogue in class from last week where we talked about the “why the patterns of communication change?” when we know the patterns change because of Technology, Culture and Communication. All of this tying directly to the fact that because of Internet which is the technology part, our culture and communication has dramatically changed. It also touches on internet evolving every day, for example on the YouTube video its show the “Today” show’s new email which then had the “at” letter which was enclosed in a circle where as now it’s much more modern in a cursive writing. They also talked about how they thought the “@” was pronounced “at” and not “about”. But this is not the first time I am surprised to know what exactly the “@” means in English. When I was learning Russian they informal name of “@” is “Sobachka” literal translation to English it does not mean “@” at all. It means “puppy or doggie” it doesn’t even look like a dog. There you have it, the evolution of internet and how it runs our daily lives. I am sure our kids someday going to laugh at us when we are still using Mac Airs where we can be using some new technologically advanced gadget to stay in touch or waste our time on.

Here is the link below if you'd like to watch it:

http://marquee.blogs.cnn.com/2011/01/31/today-flashback-katie-couric-whats-an-internet/?hpt=C2