I've been meaning to write about this since it happened a month ago. On December 7th, 2007 I celebrated my ten year anniversary of being a yahoo member. here's the proof. I did a little research on wikipedia and found that yahoo mail had only becoming readily available and public only a few months before I joined. It's amazing to think about how much the internet has changed since then. At that time the internet was a primarily text based exchange of information. And while alot of people were using the internet, there was much less dependency on the internet. Now, very few people in the Western World can go about their day to day routine without using the internet in some way, particularly people of my generation. Doing the math I was twelve years old when I signed up for my Yahoo Mail account. I was perhaps the very first Micro generation of twelve year olds that had an email address.

I actually would try to sum up the ways in which the world changed in regards to the internet over the last 10 years. I would say the best way to put it is the freedom of information. When you want to know something, all you have to do is go onto the internet. Whether it be a list of all the Jane Doe's in Montana, or a picture of Kevin Spacey when he was twenty years old, or a recipe on how to make southern fried chicken, it's all there. And no matter what it is, fi you're halfway decent at sniffing around it's generally available within seconds, and in more than one variety, and at no cost but the time it takes to find it. Bottom Line is that information that was once locked up, and kept readily available only to specificities, is now available to anyone who has access to an internet connection.

For the fun of it I decided to query my examples. It turns out there is no Jane Doe in Montana, but there is a John Doe in Eureka, Montana link

I'm not sure if this is Kevin Spacey at 20 exactly but close to it based on the fact that according to wikipedia he was at the Julliard school when he was 20 and this is him at the Julliard School link

As for the Chicken recipe, I got more than I bargained for, a step-by-step video! link

It will be amazing to see how much has changed come my 20th anniversary, and 30th and so on. Every 10 years in this century is bound to bring about radical change. It will just be exciting to see exactly what that change turns out to be.