I remember my job at Fidelity back in the late 90’s. We were cooking up this revolutionary new way for people to trade…online. It was back in the day when you sometimes paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for a url and every website had a little worker guy image on it because it was under construction.
I remember how many people at that time said it would never happen, this internet fad. It will never take off. Who wants to go on the internet to shop? Who would ever give their credit card across the world wide web, into the ether? Why would people rather talk online than on the telephone? Well, friends, if you are living in the year 2010, you are living the internet dream. We are connected 24×7 and it’s getting easier and easier to shop, communicate, browse and work.
But there always has to be someone who doesn’t believe it. Along comes Prince, who I love dearly. My first album that was banned from my record player by my parents was Purple Rain. I think I know every word to every song on that album. The man is a musical genius and has millions of fans around the world but refuses to embrace technology and went so far as saying the internet is over in a recent interview picked up by Mashable. And, he went on to say
All these computers and digital gadgets are no good. They just fill your head with numbers and that can’t be good for you.
It is hard to believe that there are smart, influential, talented people out there who believe that the internet is the root of all evil. What about all of the great things the internet has does to open business and commerce? To connect people around the world? To create access to information? To make music available to fans everywhere?
Maybe we’ve all fallen prey to the cult of Steve Jobs, and Facebook, and iTunes and Twitter and the many gadgets and websites we use every day to help us do our jobs better, live better, learn more and be more productive members of society. Maybe we should go back to our pre-internet days and forget all the gizmos, gadgetry and websites.
…on second thought, I’ll stick with the cult. Sorry Prince, I ain’t buyin’ it.