I do not have internet at my house. I have it in my office and I use it at numerous public locations. There are a few good reasons for this: 1) I don’t need the temptation to be on it and work all the time. 2) I don’t need the temptation of pornography in my house for me or my boys. 3) There is a lot of bad stuff out there for my little inquisitive minds to explore. 4) simply the cost of having it.
With that said, I am out-of-town now and our hotel has high-speed internet in the room. I have my laptop and my boys are searching sites every spare minute for the latest sports story, shoes, clothes and music. They have come to equate Google with information. Anything they need to know they can simply type in a Google search and there is the answer.
All of this reminded me of a story from a few years ago. I am a big fan of The Andy Griffith Show. I own all episodes on DVD and break them out for some TV marathons. Well, a few years ago I was watching an episode with my boys. In season 3 the first DVD has the classic story of Mr. McBeevee. If you have not seen it (and why not?) it is about Opie telling his Dad about a man who walks in trees and does amazing stuff. His dad doesn’t believe Opie and the ongoing discussion throughout the show is simply, “Does Mr. McBeevee exist or did Opie make him up?” My son Hunter, 9 years old at the time, turns to me and says, “Why doesn’t Andy just look him up on the internet to see if he is real or not?”
Thank you Google for changing the world.