I hate the Internet.
And anyone who uses it frequently will probably understand exactly what I'm saying.
I love the speed of the Net, as many writers do. Right from way back in the early 1980’s when it first became available to the very rural area I lived in, when you had to plug a telephone cord into your computer, none of this cable or
satellite technology. And it was slow, at times painfully so. But then, at that
time computers were also very slow, and the slowness did nothing to diminish
the wonder, the sheer joy of being able to send an article or a newsletter to
people in places as disparate as South Africa, Australia, The US and Jamaica,
and have it arrive within hours.
Well, yes, I did say it was slow. But in
those days it could take anything up to four weeks for a letter in what we now
call 'snail mail' to reach any of those destinations from here in rural Canada.
To be able to send copy for articles,
promotional materials, web content - this was in the pre-blog days, if you can
imagine that - in so short a time was a miracle in communication terms. These
days I can send an entire manuscript to a publisher in minutes, send article
proposals to magazines far away, write web content for companies across the
Atlantic who then use the miracle of the Net to disperse them to clients in
other countries…
But I hate the speed of it, too. Because there's no taking things back once you press the 'send' button. Some time ago I submitted a manuscript to a large publishing house. Thought I'd done everything to their specifications, until I got a note back saying I'd sent a WORD doc instead of a plain text document. They graciously asked me to resend in the correct format, but it was only when I checked that I realized I had inadvertently sent the wrong file. An earlier draft, in fact, not fit to be seen....
Yes, mortified.
We all know at least one person who has banged out an angry reply to an email or article and hit SEND before they've realized just how much harm that one little email could do to their friendship, career, or online presence.
Yes, it only takes a couple of inadvertent minutes to look a fool on the Internet.
And then there's IM, or instant messaging. It's surprising how that pithy comment, that funny rejoinder, can lose its context when it appears in your reply. I am still embarrassed when I think of an hysterically funny, ironic reply I sent to a writer who was hurt by a nasty critique from her critique group. It was meant to be comforting, but it seems it lost its well-intentioned humor as it traveled through cyber space.
Have you ever tried explaining that something you sent on the Net wasn't what you meant?
All you do is dig yourself in deeper...
The Net is also a wonder for spreading information and education. I've taken online courses that I couldn't possibly access if I'd had to physically go to the class. And I've had students in my online creative writing classes (now a book, Naked Writing:The No Frills Way to Write Your Book) from places as far away as the UK, Ireland, Thailand, the USA, Germany, Sweden, Israel....
On the love side, not only do I get great benefit from the Net as a writer, but I've traveled a lot and come to rest far from the place I grew up, and far from other places I've lived. But email, IM, Skype and all sorts of other geeky things mean that I'm just a few keystrokes away from people I love.
And that, my friends, is priceless.
Glenys O'Connell is currently working on a new romantic comedy/mystery series, Manners Malicious - more about that later! You can read first chapters of her books on her website here
10 comments:
Fantastic post. You nailed pretty much all of the pros and cons of the internet. I agree. Connecting with friends and family as I have on Facebook has been priceless.
Lots of positives to the net. The biggest negative for me is that I spend too much time on it and not enough time writing!
I agree about the love/hate relationship. Most days I can't decided which is which. I do like submitting this way-- much cheaper than reams of paper and postage.
All the time I was reading I was nodding my agreement. Nothing more to add than what the ladies above have said except - amen!
We've all had that Oh-No moment a nanosecond after we hit the send button. There's no taking back what we send. And what we send can live forever in cyber space.
Alicia - yes, I love the 'real time' capability - chatting on IM or Skype as if we were all in the same room! Priceless!
Jannine - LOL - yes, the Net can be a real time suck, too - I am so guilty of that!
Barbara - it's hard to imagine all that bundling of paper manuscripts, the query, the cover letter, the bio, the synopsis - and don't forget the time spent waiting in line at the post office! And then the disappointment if that battered, thumb marked, coffee stained ms comes back to your mailbox with a rejection note.....
Margo - seems we're all agreed on this love/hate relationship - but I'm willing to bet that very few writers would want to give up their Internet connection...I shudder at the thought!
Betsy - that is probably the very worst thing ever about the Net - not being able to take back what is said. That send button must be approached with great care....I was always told, as a kid, to 'think before you ink'. If you're writing a physical letter, you have time to think - and screw the paper up and drop it in the recycle bin, no harm done :-(
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