We were having a lovely meal together, my darling and my oldest son on a tropical island in the Caribbean complete with gentle breezes and palm trees. It was a beautiful night and we were really enjoying each other’s company and the conversation flowed easily, interjected with comments of “I’ll Google it.”
My oldest was going to research various topics for us further than what we were sharing. In addition to discussing places we wanted to visit, he was checking out whether our facts were right for the stories we were sharing. Not at the table, he would do this later on his laptop.
On one hand I thought this research potential was great, on the other I thought I wonder how this is for those who like to exaggerate their facts? Like a man we met while on vacation who said he played two seasons for the Boston Bruins; apparently he didn’t according to the Bruins’ players list found on Google. The computer kid was a doubter and looked it up as soon as he could. “Just didn’t fit the story line,” he said. “Because he said he was also a champion skier.” I bet he Googled that, too.
I can just imagine family dinners where Uncle Bob starts telling a story of his escapades of something back in the day, and the little darling with the iPhone interjects, actually Uncle Bob it was 1972 and there were only six, not 55 as you are saying. The younger sister looks up from her iPad and jumps in with “Actually, Wikipedia has that it did actually start in 1970 with a dozen ships.” Silence. Will those who like to embellish and entertain us with great tales tone them down now?
In our world of massive amounts of information at our finger tips should we confirm our information first before going to dinner parties, or just know that when you tell your stories chances are people are going to Google your facts.
I don’t want us to lose those exaggerated or embellished tales, many passed on from family to family or friend to friend. Who wants to hear the fish story with the actual measurements?
I’m from the day of the Encyclopedia Britannica and our parents were always telling us to look information up when we were confused. When the boys were little we had the Big Book of Wonder. Has “go ask your father or mother” been replaced by go ask Google. I believe so, actually it then can be a family activity as you can sort though the information and get excited by what you find. Who hasn’t been lured over to the computer screen by “look at this.”
In many ways I am way behind the technology and information search engines that my kids use so easily. For the most part I am OK with this, other times I am envious with the ease that they pull up multiple screens of information and move data around with projects.
I was concerned when they were in their teens that they weren’t reading enough. They were reading plenty, it was just not books, it was a computer screen. They had huge libraries of information available for their young minds to soak up and absorb. They still do this and they now read more books as well.
As much as I love the computer screen and its unlimited access to information and making my life easier, the way I see it there is nothing sweeter for reading for this writer than a book, with pages, and the printed word, and enjoying it while swinging in a hammock with a tropical breeze.
Michele Blais is a longtime columnist for The Morning Star.
