Ok, I don't want to be boring but... we're on the Internet, right? I'm writing here, and if you're reading me, it's thanks to the Internet.

How was it, ten years ago, when we were not all "networked"? 'Cause I'm starting to forget it. The thing is, you're sitting in your room, in front of your PC, working, doing research, whatever. And you start having thoughts. You start wanting to say something, write something. You can write a story, but sometimes they're just ... thoughts. About a movie, about a piece of music you're listening, about a new friend you've made or a shocking event you saw on the street the other day. And you start thinking: where can I post this? Because you can share them. Of course, you've always had this chance: the friends who dined with you the other day? You discussed the political situation all night, maybe. Or you went through all the movies you have seen lately. But those thoughts that you're having NOW... you write them, and you know there are people who will read.

How was it, when we couldn't do that?

And in what language do we do this? I know I'm not alone in this. I'm not English mother tongue, I'm Italian and I live in Italy, but when I started this page... well, nearly all my "virtual friends" were English speaking, 'cause I had met them on English-speaking boards. Things have slightly changed now, I have many more virtual friends from Italy now, and some of them are not so familiar with the English language. If I want to share these thoughts with them, too... what language can I speak?

Mixed language posts is the short-term answer, I guess. Or mixed language LJ journals, with some posts in one language, and others in another. I've already seen  some. As I said, I'm not alone in this.

Long-term... I don't know. I guess the Internet will help people improve their English. Still... if distance no longer divides us, languages still do. 

And after sharing this hackneyed bantering with you, I feel better and I can go back to my... translation work LOL

Tags: banter, internet
Current Mood: thoughtful
Current Music: Una storia così - Noemi Smorra

I know this will seem obvious to most of you but... I still often stop and wonder at how the Internet has changed our life. When I started to work as a translator (and I'm not that old!), I founded a small firm with four partners, we had an office in the city, collected or received the translations on paper, wrote the translation in a word-processing file and sent it back to our customers on a diskette (does anybody even remember floppy disks?), by cab or express forwarder. To think of it now, when the mere idea of not having a file to overwrite gives me a panic attack! LOL 

And we used dictionaries. Actual books, I mean, made of real paper, the traditional way. Nowadays, there's still two dictionaries I rely on, for the rest, I use search engines ;) And I'm best friend with several online dictionaries and, of course, the Wikepedia.

This, as far as work is concerned.

Then, there's the whole "the world in a nutshell" concept. You want to check where a movie is shown? How big the cinema is, how many seats are left for tonight's late show? Here is a map of the theatre, seats in different colours, on your PC screen. Or you tell a friend you will mail them the instructions to reach your house, but they tell you "don't even bother, I'll use Google maps". You went to Ikea twice but you still haven't found the curtains you were looking for. You're tired of going back and forth, but oh, magic, you can actually access their inventory, and check when they're available at the exact store you want. Pardon me, but my jaw still drops at some of these things, every now and then. 

And social life, of course. 7-8 years ago (as far as I know, at least, or was it more?), the first message boards and chatrooms started to appear. They looked a bit clumsy, if we look back now. And there was this uncomfortable feeling that chatrooms were a new kind of marriage-breaker - a bit like text-messages on cell phones, with a difference: text messages truly are marriage-breakers :P. 

Today, there are still message boards and chats, but there are also blogs, live journals, communities... 'cause people have found out they can connect over the Internet, they can "network" just like the actual "net" and telephone wires, and pick up people who may live thousands of miles from where they live, but share their own likes, dislikes and interests: they may be very distant geographically, but they can very close emotionally and psychologically. 

This, to me, is the most amazing part. Because how a person born and living in another continent can be experiencing exactly the same kind of facts, events and feelings as I'm experiencing, and describe them using words that I would use, with a spirit and a humour that resonates my own, is still a mystery to me. 

Globalization, some will say. The human kind, and the world getting smaller, I say.

So, you wake up in the morning, prepare your coffee, then you open the window in your room to let the light come in and see what the day will be like where you live. And then you switch on the window on your desk to let words come in and see what the day was, is or will be like everywhere else. And you eagerly check whether you have word from your friends from all five continents, and visit, while sipping your physical coffee, the virtual coffee houses where many customers exchange views and chitchat about anything and everything.

Seriously, I don't know why people seem to just sit at the PC and take it for granted, because to me, the Internet has been the most radical change in our life since the Industrial Revolution.

Tags: banter, internet
Current Mood: impressed