Google, is just one of the gates into the Information Highway also know as the Internet. There are several schools of thought on just how beneficial the Internet is or can be.
Last month I was informed that I would have to have a root canal. The very words strike terror in most peoples hearts. So, I got the bright idea to "Google it"!
Big Mistake! I found over 2,260,000 references or hits, as they call them, about root canals.
Hooookayyyyy....now what? I've been told the best thing to do is go to the first one on the list. That one was the Wikipedia site. Very informative but it was information similar to what the dentist had told me. So I moved on to the next.
YIKES!!! That was my second mistake! I shoulda lefted well enough alone! Now I knew much more than I really wanted or needed to know.
The question you have to ask yourself before you go web surfing for information is, "Do I really want to know?" Frankly, I didn't, but I didn't know until it was to late to take it back. Thus, my foray into the mysteries of root canals could be classified as a "Woe-is-Me". Not a prediction, mind you, because my experience was nothing like the horror stories I read on the Internet. I'm not going to lie and say it was a breeze, but it wasn't bad. I'd do it again.
This event, coupled with a discussion I had with my very technologically challenged Mother In Law this past weekend, got me to thinking. She (MIL) was listening to several of us discuss the latest event happening on Facebook and remarked that she was just not sure all this knowledge was such a great thing. "Sometimes, ignorance was truly bliss.", she said. You know, I think she just might have a point.
I've heard the same horror stories that you have about kids surfing and finding some really bad websites, the accidental visions that just don't bear thinking about. There again, I see the Internet and Google as a "Woe-Is-Me".
BUT:
I also have been able to find family members that we'd lost contact with over the years. I've learned more about the Scriptures, shared prayers with my on-line friends. I've made lasting friendships with people that I would have never been able to meet without the Internet. I've been able to do something I truly love to do, write a blog and actually have people read it thanks to the Internet.
In the end, it is up to us to guard ourselves from the dangers of the Internet, using care when putting words in the search bar of Google and other browser aids. The Internet is a part of the world, it is now a part of our lives even if we don't own a computer. We have to treat it as we do the world.
We have to use it wisely, not without a large measure of caution. Keeping our children safe from the terrors of the world is now extended to something else we've invited into our homes as we have the television.
Think back to your Grandparents and how most of them reacted to Television. They simply couldn't understand the fascination. The decadence of sitting idly around, watching a box with moving pictures in it was, as my Grandmother said once, "of the Devil". Well, she was right. It certainly is his playground and the Internet can be called the monkey bars on that playground. We all know monkey bars are dangerous unless you are careful when playing on them, but even then accidents happen.
Like all things beneficial, used correctly you get good results, misuse them and you can get hurt.
What is my verdict about Google you ask? It, and the Internet in general, is Wonderful when used wisely and correctly, and is Woe-Is-Me when it isn't. It's all up to you which you wind up with.
Now go out and make this day yours and all for His Glory!
Blessings~
Kat
No comments:
Post a Comment