Are you a Surfer?
surf - to float on the crest of a wave toward shore
surf - to search haphazardly, as for information on a computer network or an interesting program on television.
If you leave out ‘the shore’ in the first definition it could still apply to the Internet. The crest of the wave that has yet to recede. Millions surf the net every day, some seem addicted to it. It’s a trap that can grab us out of the blue as we track down an idea or follow links that show on an otherwise innocuous site.
We could be starting with an innocent question - someone mentioned the Baha’i religion in a conversation so you take a Google at it. That brings up a Wikipedia page so you click on it…
Then you see a link about Persia so you click on it. There’s something about World War I and the interbellum - what’s an interbellum? You go to the online dictionary and find ‘The interwar period is understood within Western culture to be the period between the end of the First World War and the beginning of the Second World War. This is also called the period between the wars or (in American English) interbellum.’
So you go back to the Wiki page and see a picture of an astrolabe and as you don’t know what it does you click on the link you find ‘The astrolabe is a historical astronomical instrument used by classical astronomers, navigators, and astrologers. Its many uses included locating and predicting the positions of the Sun, Moon, planets and stars; determining local time given local longitude and vice-versa; surveying; and triangulation.’
And so it goes… Several hours later you realise dinner is late and that strange feeling in your belly is hunger.
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