Friday, August 7, 2009

My Reliable Source




For a working Mom or a stay at home like me, the Internet has become part of our lives now. We have got so dependent on this medium, that we look up for various news and information and indulge on it as a trustworthy source. With this, came the most easiest and convenient form of communication; the e-mail, which took over the traditional form of letter writing. Electronic mail or E-mail crept into our system speedily. It is very difficult now, for most of us to switch back to letter writing, the conventional way.

As for my family and I, who reside many miles across the seas, away from our native place, our only communication with the rest of the homefolk is via a phone call or a letter. At the beginning, I would be on the edge of my seat in anticipation for my husband’s return from office, when he would bring with him, the snail mails we get from family back at home. Over here there are no door to door postal services; I depend on my husband’s company mailing address to receive my mails. Then things changed, when my husband got us a computer and the internet connection... It made easier for me to correspond. Since then there has been no looking back .

I love reading, from news papers, to magazines! I love reading paperbacks too , but with children and their workload, I had to be selective in my choice of reading and simply stand firm by my decision , Nonetheless I simply couldn’t resist the internet, the addiction that I fall back on to satiate my thirst for some reading.
The primary thing I do when one of my children fall sick is browse through my favorite health web site for information on the related illness . By doing this I tend to be more relaxed and calm. Getting some first hand information on the internet relieves the stress off me. Before the advent of the internet in my home, I used to be so panicky whenever the kids fell sick not knowing what wedged their immune system. I’d like to know the severity of the sickness before proceeding to the doctor. If it’s just the common cold, I try to subdue by some home remedy. Otherwise a visit to the doctor is a must.

Even my children, who are all of school going age, need the internet for some reference work for their assigned homework. Every now and then my 3rd grader, comes up with some class assignment and thus it is necessary that I approach the internet for assistance!

And in lighter vein I must add, when my eight-year-old wanted me to Google a picture of an elephant from the internet and get a print out from the computer, for his class project, My youngest , looked all perplexed and taken aback, wondering how on earth was I going to download an elephant-as big as that!!

5 comments:

  1. Ahh yes, the internet has become a mother's best friend indeed. :)

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  2. The internet has become a very reliable source over the years, but I know it wasn't trusted much at first for its accuracy.

    In elementary school we were taught to use the card catalogue in the library, but we never had to use it after that because everything's on the computer, and I've never really done research using books, I would probably be lost. I know when everyone started getting the internet and computers, my teachers would always tell us we needed at least two book sources so that we wouldn't just be using the computer, but that's changed. Now scholarly articles can be found on the internet, like Google Scholar, which is amazing. All universities have published articles and resources on online databases. It makes research efficient.

    The internet seems to keep you connected to your family, so now when you hear from them it isn't old news. I can't imagine waiting for a snail mail.

    While the internet and technology is great, I wonder how much is too much. How close are we to a "brave new world." In H.G. Wells' Time Machine, the scientist travels some hundred years into the future, and what has happened to humans is that they reverted to an almost child like, almost what we modern humans would call primitive, lifestyle simply because everything was easy. Everything seemed to have solutions. A click away.

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  3. yes it is wonderful - we used to marvel at the encyclopedias in our school library - now when my kids want to know something they just "google" it. In fact one of Emma's first words was google. LOL

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  4. i am curious did you get the elephant downloaded
    did you need extra paper?

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