I was flipping through old pictures the other night and came across some I might not want around anymore. In 1989 I owned a pair of green Spandex shorts. A real bright fluorescent green to be exact. I was led to believe they were in style.
Growing up in this area, we were limited to what our local stores kept on the shelves. Rich’s and Almy’s had their selection, Mar’s in Athol had theirs and if you traveled further Zayre’s, Caldor’s and Bradlee’s had theirs. For many from small towns our only fashion sense came from regional department stores.
When I returned to this area in the late 90’s I was surprised to see we had caught up to fashion. It wasn’t a Wal-Mart on every corner or the local malls, it had to do with the internet. People were able to get out of Central Massachusetts without traveling. People were able to see what others were wearing and doing with a few clicks.
Food items like Buffalo wings suddenly became popular because small town pizza shops could look online and download recipes. Rather than someone like me coming back from New York with local recipes, anyone could jump online and within seconds recreate regional flavors in their kitchens. We were no longer stuck with the same old boring stuff.
Interconnecting people was really the founding principle behind the internet. It allowed people from small towns to travel outside their four walls and take in vast amounts of information. Sorting through the vast amount of information became easier with online search engines like Ask.com.
The internet helped shape store inventories because of demands for items from other areas. When I moved back here my ex-wife and I made Buffalo wings for a party. I was able to get one bottle of Frank’s Red Hot from each grocery store. Today Frank’s Red Hot is just as popular here as it was in Buffalo. I believe it was the simple ease of finding recipes that increased its popularity.
During that time the internet brought us closer by allowing instant communication. Without AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) installed on my giant laptop I wouldn’t have been able to communicate as easily with my family when I traveled. As long as I was online with AIM running, my ex-wife could send me pictures and chat.
The internet is rarely credited with doing anything useful. I realize today’s article seems a bit trite, but I think the internet deserves some accolades for boosting our knowledge of other regions and making the world a smaller place. For those with limited resources to actually visit other cities it opens their eyes that there are places other than Central Massachusetts.
Today the internet is taken for granted. Most of us have some type of internet piped into our homes and just about everyone has some type of data plan on their phone. Everything is done online. Our hundreds of Facebook friends who are more acquaintances and our crazy addiction to Match.com even though we secretly know online dating is terrible are all online.
If I was the ruler of the internet (and I may be someday), I would limit its use to only finding information. I would strip out everything and bring it back to 1999 when the internet was nothing more than an information super highway and a way to step outside of our area. Never mind, the internet may not have changed that much.
(Jeromy Patriquin is the President of Laptop & Computer Repair, Inc. located at 509 Main St. in Gardner. You can call him at (978) 919-8059 or visit www.LocalComputerWiz.com.)