How I see the web

My idea of the web

So #netnarr people this is me with my laptop in Latvia, my current home until my husband (or the army) decides it's time to go somewhere else. I use the internet to regularly talk to my children, parents and friends. These are the relationships that keep me sane and allow me to just say, "Sure honey, I'll just pack up and we'll go." (Not that I don't get upset with the moves but hey that's life!) So I see this as a two way street between me and whoever I am communicating with. With Facebook and Twitter since it is user generated content I just have to have my goggles on and drive right past the crap people post and occasionally defriend people as an added last resort. So Google, Facebook and Twitter are filled with detritus and it is up to me to make sure I avoid it. That's my responsibility. When it is someone I care about and they have posted something that is just foul I will go and look where they got the source material for the post and then say, as nicely as possible, "Did you know that this content is generated by the KKK, Neo-Nazis, etc." Most of the time they have no idea. 

Trusted sites are sites that produce content that I am secure in believing, even the CBC because they do make corrections when they have got it wrong. (Have a look at the American Alliance Trendwatch publication, amazing!!!) Most of them are professional in nature and not media sites. I should have added Snopes in there as well. 

My Google relationship is the complicated one- it's not like I create a huge amount of content though I do respond to the content of others- it's just I go to Google the all knowing all the time. I pull out my magic device while I am on the road and type in "Kaives senču dižozols" and it says "oak of Kaive." Google I need to know how to cast on using the cable method. Here ya go says Google! And heck if I didn't like the way that video taught me how to do something I will find another until I do find one that works for me. I always have at least 20 tabs open at one time. What I don't like about Google is it thinks it should always give me the same answer every time, even when I switch things up. Uh no thanks Google. That's when I go and flirt with the other search engines, because I'm like that.

The internet for me is magic because if I have a question on anything it has the answer. It's a library card! And I love the library! But it's up to me to be skeptical and check if the information is correct.