A Library of Alexandria magnified to infinity, the Internet brings the world to a glass monitor small enough to fit in a large suitcase. Wonderful? Of course, and that same flat screen allows us to send e-mails by the dozen, as opposed to snail mail, which is slow and expensive.
Talk about a modern-day Garden of Eden!
Sadly, our Garden of Eden is incomplete without Serpent. Nattily dressed and smiling like one of those old-time Mississippi riverboat gamblers that just stepped out of a time machine, the hacker fills the void. Actually, said hacker is just as likely to be an unshaven, pot-bellied, techno-goon.
We who qualify as Senior Citizens—the most anemic marriage of two words that ever was, but there you are—remember a sepia-toned world where words held meaning; where a message, whether by telephone or encased in an actual envelope, more likely than not meant what it said. But these days if you get a breezy greeting, such as “Hi,( your first name here)” and the message that follows delivers a get rich-quick scheme, you have just received an unwelcome visitor.
Should we emulate Elvis and shatter the glass screen? Of course not!
Just be careful.
Be Careful
Sunday
Feb 3, 2013 at 12:01 AM