The internet is 40, not that many of us would realise unless some wise person had told us so. For most of the human race it has only really been on the radar for the past decade; in 1994, for example, there were fewer than a thousand websites. Now there are billions.
But what is it all for ? And is it doing any of us any good ? Why do people like me do this with our time, I mean join blogger any write all types of crap like this. Personally, I blog because I'm an egomaniac, I think I can construct an argument and because I don't mind being bombarded with abuse by wierdos.
And they are out there. The one thing the internet has done is given everyone a potential voice to say anything they like. Some, by no means everyone, have taken advantage of this cyberspace democracy to spout, in the main, nonsense, abuse, vitriol and hateful bile. Just like me.
Which is fine, after all, most of us love a good rammy. But others don't and instead use blogs, photosites and all the rest to put their lives on the web in full public display. Facebook, twitter and the like flourish on the quotidian, the banal, the everyday opening up a window on the private world of jobs and family life. They lay out who we are and what we think, if anyone's interested.
The amazing thing is people do seem interested, perhaps just an extension of human curiosity that's been there since the start of time. Except that we have always been able to screen who sees the kind of thing we want to tell others and now we can tell everyone who has a computer.
That may seem marvellous, a great leap forward made possible by human ingenuity and the technology it has created. Or it could simply be a universal way for everyone in the world to embarrass and make a fool of themselves.
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