You know what? It's actually not social network that has taken over our lives, but this giant monopoly called google. I mean, obviously facebook is more popular than it has ever been, especially among teenagers; yet, it is only some sort of a playground (with its very own storms in the sandbox) to us to which we might get have already got addicted easily, but cannot (and should not) take completely seriously. After all, we keep admitting to ourselves that it is only a waste of time, something that only distracts us from work or any kind of efficent, constructive offline activity. We enter the fields of social network when we crave distraction, when we want to procrastinate, just a few more minutes of fun until I get down to business, just let me take one little peek at what has happened out there in the super-duper & ever so superfical world of facebook, let me check my notifications just one last time, before it's really high time I started working (sounds familiar?).
We may spend ever so long minutes logged onto facebook on a daily basis; still, what was supposed to connect us, ended up withholding us from actual, real-life socializing by locking us to the flickering screen of our computers. Hence, had it been shut down by some miraculous reason, once the symptoms of withdrawal have wore off, we would be able to go on, like it never happened, like we never wasted those long and precious hours chatting, posting, liking, commenting, tagging, and stalking people whom we hardly or don't know at all. We would spend those freshly regained hours with doing some actually constructive activities, or, more likely, we would eventually find some other distruction. Still, it would be yet another playground to us.
However, the thing that is impossible to avoid and not to come across on a daily basis if you are such an avid internet user (or should I say complete, incurable addict?), as I am, is google. Since, unlike facebook, it is not rubbed into our faces in every other second, we are not harrased to like some idiot company's page in every bloody advert may it be on a random page of the internet, on giant billboards, or on the paper bags of a pastry franchise. Still, google is there, google is everywhere, google is all around. It it written on the wind, it is everwhere I go.*
Once I turn on my computer, google search is my opening page. God only knows how many times a day I hit the search button. A large number of times I only check the correct spelling of a word (don't you?), but in the majority of the cases I do succeed in finding useful information. Whenever a question pops up that we don't know the answer to, the first thought that comes to mind is: "Let's google it!" And we do. And if you know how to use google properly, you will find the answers to most of your questions, and not just the correct spelling of a certain word.
Then there's my gmail account. It is my virtual post box, where all my precious mail (and all that spam, and useless newsletters that I always throw into the trash without reading, yet, I cannot be bothered to unsubscribe...) is delivered, where I can receive, send, and store formal & informal letters of all kinds. Then there is google calendar. I only use it for work, nevertheless, it is essential, as I can easily keep track the lessons I give, and whenever an event is changed, I am notified via email. I check it several times a day, I cannot work/live without it.
My next important google page is google reader which is my virtual, enormous newpaper with currentl, local, cultural, DIY, entertainment, fashion, photography, fun etc. sections. I follow about 200 (or even more?) blogs, and thanks to google reader, I don't have to open each every blog on a daily basis and see whether there is a new post in a certain blog I follow, but it's there, gathered in one long, ever so growing stream on one page. Obviously, I also use blogger for blogging, and every once in a while google map & google earth.
Now, can you see how google is there everywhere & all around? It is almost like air, you can't see it, you can't feel it, don't acknowledge it every second, yet, it is inevitable to use it, in fact, you simply cannot avoid using it. Naturally, I could switch to other services: I could use yahhoo (I don't even know how to spell it... I have to google the spelling. Isn't that ironic, or what?) as my email account, or wordpress for blogging, but it just never occurs to me to yahoo the answer, when I don't know something. Now that's what I call efficient marketing/PR !
And the most interesting thing about google is, that it has a very positive public image. People generally dislike monopolies, as most of us roots for the Davids and not the Goliaths of the world. It's simply because we don't want one, giant bad boy to take over the world. Yet, when you think of google, the giant, let-me-take-over-the-world guy of the interwebs, you think of something nice, helpful, and colorful, don't you? Now why is that? Obviously, there are some seriously creative guys (with very niiiice paychecks in their backpockets) in an a very chic and cool-looking (and should I add colorful?) office somewhere who bend their backs on a daily basis, so this enormous monopoly that is has already taken over the world wide web evokes positive feelings in its users. Still, it feels like they do it effortlessly, it comes somewhat naturally. And that's the way we like it, don't we?
Oh, and have I mentioned that the newest thing around is google+? But you have already heard of it, haven't you? Cause the word spreads pretty fast in the world of google. It is google's answer to facebook: it is social network, but, hopefully, it is of the useful kind where the emphasis is on sharing info, and not on exhibitionist teenagers spamming the internet with their trashy and ever so superficial and show-offy self-portraits. Now, how does that sound for a change? Quite utopian, doesn't it? Still, I am pretty sure, once it spreads, google+ will also have its trashy ways, but until then let's just wait & see how this thing turns out.
And now, if you really love me, come on and let it show*, and hit that like button under the post.
