The End Is Near!

I am not usually a prophet of doom sort, but about a month ago I read an article in the Atlantic magazine called “Is Google Making Us Stupid?." In it, the author suggests that frequent use of the Internet is having negative effects on our brains, one of which is the inability to read extensive pieces of text ( e.g. books).

Then, today I came across some sites that indicate we are nearing the end—at least the end of something, perhaps civilization as we know it.

First, is the narcissistically appealing How Many of Me, which tells a person how many people with his or her first and last names were recorded in the last U.S. Census. Of course, I checked my name. Surprisingly, there are supposed to be six people with my moniker.

A step down from that-- or perhaps up, depending on your point of view is Bubble Wrap Heaven. At this site one can burst a virtual sheet of bubble wrap bubbles and then request another, and another, and another…. paging Mr. Monk.

Finally, we come to the End of the Internet. Another page calls itself The Last Page on the Intenet. As the site says, “You have reached the last page of the internet. Now you can turn off you computer, go outside and play.” If you head back in the other direction, you might come to the Exact Center of the Internet.

As I say, the end is near.

Street View on Google Maps

If you haven’t visited the Google Maps site recently, check it out. They’ve made a startling—at least according to some people I’ve shown it to—addition. For many an address in larger cities, Google now provides a “street view,” a 360 degree panoramic photographic view of the street. One can then do a virtual walk down the street, and turn corners on to neighboring avenues. It doesn’t appear that they’ve gotten to North Dakota or South Dakota yet, but if you live in the New York City area, as I do, people from Google have likely driven down your street. While some people say “Oh, Wow,” others see this as an invasion of privacy. I’m with the “Oh, Wow” crowd, but I do understand the concern for privacy. What do you think?