A Fundamental Change

The Internet is great for a lot of different reasons. You can watch movies on demand. You can keep up with friends on Facebook. You can buy stuff and do your banking and your taxes all while in your pajamas. I could go on all day listing reasons it's cool. Heck, I most likely wouldn't have the job I have now without the Internet.

However, today I want to talk about one specific reason why the Internet is cool, and one fundamental change in my life as a result of the Internet. What I'm specifically talking about is how easy the Internet makes it to find answers to those dozens of little questions that come up over the course of the day, questions like "Why does a watery substance sometimes come out of the ketchup bottle BEFORE the ketchup?" or "Where did Toyota come up with the name Yaris?"

In olden days (i.e. 1992 or so) I would have thought of a question like that and then not been bothered enough by it to actually do any research and would have just forgotten about it. I probably wouldn't have thought of it again until some two-bit comedian actually asked the same question in his or her stand up act I was watching on TV. And then I would think that comedian a comic genius. "Yes!" I would say with force through my laughter. "I was just thinking that the other day!"

But now, when I have a question like those above, I just google them, and I know the answer in 30 seconds. I'm not exaggerating with this blog title: that's a fundamental change in how information is received. I no longer have to be willing to do the research in order to get an answer to a question I have. Well, okay, I have to do SOME research. I have to type "location of actual Brady Bunch house" in Google and hit the "Enter" button with my pinky finger, but that's all it takes to open up the world's vast array of useless (and on a rare occasion, useFUL) knowledge.

In the last week alone, I've used the Internet to find answers to the following questions:
1. How do you pronounce the word "derisory"?
2. Is Arlo Guthrie's "Alice's Restaurant Masacree" based on real events?
3. How do you remove an incorrectly installed toggle bolt from the back of a medicine cabinet?
4. What's the proper way to install a toggle bolt?
5. Did porn star Marilyn Chambers ever do any "real" acting?
6. In what year was the movie Billy Elliot released?
7. How do you get egg off of the glass that is in between the panels of an oven door?

It's easy to find answers to those questions now, and that's just a huge shift for all of us.

And maybe that explains why those late '80's / early '90's "observation" comedians aren't that funny anymore. If Jerry Seinfeld got up onstage and began a routine with, "What IS it about those Somali pirates, anyway?" before he ever got to the punchline I'd think to myself, "Google 'Somali Pirates' and you'll know more about them than you ever wanted to!"