Today i’d like to share my short love-letter to the internet and what i was able to learn because of it. Those who know me know: i am the internet. I’m shure if i’d turn of my computer and shut down my connection, the internet would die instantly. Don’t panic now, i won’t shut it of because: the Net made me. It made almost everything possible i am doing or i know today. I’d have to credit some – definitely not all – of my teachers for my basic education but mostly, the net provided me with everything and much more than i needed. The older i get the more i ask myself why tech, the net, programming, hunting for information was not part of my early education. But maybe it’s for the better if no one taints the pure source of information the internet provides us and adapts it to their own skills, beliefs and shortcomings.
For some of you these things I learned on the net may sound trivial and for the younger generation – the so called digital natives – it might sound normal. But for us, children of the seventies it’s mindboggling. So here are some of the things i solely learned and found out about because of the internet.
Videogames
I wouldn’t have been able to finish countless videogames if sites such as gamefaqs would not exist and i had to wait for some videogame magazine which is published once a month to find out the way to beat the end boss or to get that crucial cheat code. ↑, ↑, ↓, ↓, ←, →, ←, →, B, A, start, select
Music
Although a completely incompetent musician. Thanks to the Net and such amazing pieces of Software like Ableton Live i was able to create my first musical pieces within days.
Photography
My Photography basics where all part of some hours of research on the net, watching some Youtube videos or just look at countless pictures on flickr or 500px.
Creative Suite
For a long time i waited and saved my money to be able to buy Adobe’s Creative Suite and finally i was able to do it. It is a daunting task at first if you want to learn how to work with this amazing piece of software. But the net provides you with everything you need in order to learn how to make simple retouch-work in Photoshop or publish your first ebook with InDesign.
Coding HTML and CSS
I’m not quite sure why they did not teach us this in school but hey, the net made it possible. I coded my first homepage (Hello World) within textedit just by following the simple explanations on a site called Selfhtml by a guy called Stefan Münz. Thank you Stefan! Later i was able to acquire Macromedias (no defunct and integrated within Adobe’s Creative Suite) Dreamweaver and Fireworks which opened new ways.
Holidays and Daytrips
I was able to find out about places on earth which i could nod dream of before, i could organise everything i needed to go to these places and i could share my experiences with the people staying at home – all with some clicks on the net.
Fighting Techniques
As a livelong Martial Artist the internet came to all uf us as a revelation. Almost instantly we where privy to education videos of the greatest fighters in history. I still manage to perfect my techniques with videos from Eddie Bravo, Tiger Muay Thai or the Gracie Brothers.
Dieting, Nutrion, Health
There is not one recipe, nutrition tip or useful health-advice for my training or just personal health which i did not get on the net. It all started with something i found in 97 or 98 called the Spartan Diet, and goes on until yesterday where i found out about Bullet Proof Coffee
And all this for free. Yeah ok not all free, I pay around CHF 1’300.00 per Year in order to have a theoretical Download speed of around 150’000 kbit/s. And you would not believe the amount of parcels loaded with stuff from around the world i receive almost daily because i see something on the net and buy it. but yeah, the rest: just there for everyone.
Because all of this i am of course a strong believer in Open Universities and Open Education as well as online learned resources on platforms such as Coursera. I’d love to share my experiences with Online-Learning and discovering things on the internet with you and i’d like to hear your stories of what you achieved, learned and mastered with and because of the internet.
