Have you checked your spam folder lately? 

If it’s anything like mine the subjects look like:

Vi%gra cheap!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rx %$*&^( pre$cr1pt1ons
cheap via9r@, d1et p1lls, etc.

Not to mention the “she’ll love your new member” and “I represent Mr. Nkoko, the Nigerian oil billionaire” e-mails.

This past school year, my daughter Freckles wrote a research paper on the lunar astronauts.  We went to the local library and checked out a couple of books, but the majority of her research was done online especially on the NASA.gov website.  (Interesting tidbit: the school doesn’t allow the kids to use Wikipedia.)

I thought back to when I did a research report in fifth grade - lots of time in the local library using whatever they happened to have there and only during library hours, searching through that card catalogue, Xeroxing photographs for the report on that smelly old machine that churned out shiny paper b&w copies that I had to physically cut and paste into my report.

Contrast that with Freckles’ access to thousands of sources whenever she wanted, ability to watch video interviews with actual astronauts, option to download thousands of pictures in the NASA database and intersperse them in her paper in the appropriate place.

While she was working on this paper, I couldn’t help but think how fantastic the internet can be.  Then I checked my spam folder.  I guess as with everything, there’s an upside and a downside.

(Getty Images)

(Getty Images)

• 
  (Permalink | Email This Post )
  Posted by: Sarit Catz