You know you are a PC addict when you can't tear yourself away from what you're doing to watch X-Files. On the plus side, you know you can cope with your addiction if you can manage to raise yourself out of the swivel chair for long enough to set the video. Millions of people watch X-Files and even there are fan clubs on the Net. Its members call themselves X-Philes the sort of word play that only works online.
Of course, with huge viewers you hardly need to go online to contact a fellow fan, but it's an example of the way in which PC technology enables you to extend your enjoyment of almost every activity - if you're willing to stretch a point and call watching TV as active. More interesting, though, is the way a PC and modem enables you to enjoy this kind of social life with people who keep different hours from you.
Go back ten years and you had to be on the same schedule as the people with whom you spent your leisure time. You can hardly go out to the coffee-shop, see a show, eat dinner or go on picnic with someone unless they're physically available at same time as you. You have to be synchronized. This was easy when almost everyone worked days, knocked off at five and had weekends free. These days, the trend is towards never having completely free time.
All this activity can make it hard to organize a social life - enter the Net. It's been obvious for a long time that Net enables those with specialist or unusual interests to get together intellectually, even if it's impractical for them to do it physically. Only now is clear it can enable you to get a social life - asynchronously. If someone lives just around the corner but your free time hardly ever matches up the Net enables you both to put that time when it's most convenient.
You might download your friend's contribution to the relationship at breakfast and upload yours - he or she can put their time in when it suits. It works and even better, it's socially acceptable. No wonder it is now common to see e-mail addresses on stationary or given along with a phone number. Well it makes sense because these days it can be difficult to contact people by phone because they are just too busy.
When the first telephone connections were offered for sale it was thought it would be no more than another high tech business tool. Its arrival meant that you could be friends, and maintain contacts with people removed from your space.
The Internet enables you to do exactly the same with people who are removed from you in context to time and space. One of the most favorite phrases among those who work in the IT industry is `enabling technology'. A word that's rapidly becoming just as well used is `compelling'. Of course a technology can't be compelling until it's been fully developed and there's no guarantee that an enabling technology will become compelling.
All of sudden people who wouldn't have dreamed of owing a PC are rushing out and buying latest kit complete with gadgets you can possibly imagine. Having discovered the wonders of PC communications they're no doubt going to be compelled to find out what else this enabling technology can do for them.
Yep, adding a net address to those other important possessions - your car and your camcorder means you can now sift your whole life through time and space. You can't get much enabled than that, can you?
About the Author
Dr. Adnan Ahmed Qureshi holds a Ph.D. in IT with specialization in the induction of information technology in developing countries. He is the former Editor of Datalog, Computech, ISAsia and columnist for The News International. At present he is working as Senior Industry Analyst and IT Consultant.