geography and the Internet

Posted Tuesday, February 24, 2004, at 10:44AM by Eric Richardson

My dad sent me a link today to a 'blog post' (it's a magazine. it's an editorial. we just went over this.) on ChristianityToday.com entitled "The Web and the Exaggerated Demise of Geography". This is sort of what I was talking about in my paper I didn't write.

I think the global aspects of the Internet are amazing. Right now I'm working on a project with one developer in Spain, one in Michigan, and me out here in California. The other day all three of us were in an IM chat, talking about what needed to be done, sharing files, and doing things that pre-Internet were simply unattainable.

But the global Internet isn't what excites me right now.

Right now I care about the local Internet. I care about local food reviews. I care about local music. I care about local pictures. These things have a context that's important to my everyday life. It excites me to think about people all across my city adding content to their websites, content that can then find its way to my screen and help me understand the things around me. That's what's cool about the Internet. It's instant access to the information that is relevant to me.

The global stuff's cool, too, just in a less relevent to my day to day life sort of way.