'Google it' over the last year has been entering more and more into everyday (offline) conversation. It is a phrase, in someways I detest ,and it got me thinking the other day, how did it make this leap? I now, present to you, my waffle on the Evolution of 'Google it'
Whilst message boards are still around, I think that phrase hammered at least 3 nails into the coffin into their slow demise. I also believe message boards to have been the perpetual grow bags for this ideology.
I would put it, that around 2005/2006 that his phrase began to appear, predominately on technical forums. I would say what happened, was technical forums went from being communties which grew at a steady pace, and where people knew (even just by handles) who each other was, to becoming influxed with new users hungry for information.
This new generation of message-boarders, were not prepared to spend their time navigating the pathways of knowledge that the old generation had laid down. Their posts were short and sharp.
"How do I do this "
At first the old generation, took the time to point to older posts, explain the rules of their ways to the new generation and tried to get along. In fairness, some took it on, but! As the numbers of this new generation began to dwarf the elders, the elders became tired and impatient. Their replies simply became:
"google it"
In this new dawn, in the era of 2007 AD, as the tribes of the elders vanished to the fringes. This new generation created new city states. Their marble built academies began to teach what they had remembered learning from the elders:
"If you want information, you need to Google it."
What the ancestors had spent many generations on building was now being ripped down, as 'google it', spread from technical forums to the social forums. Where once, posts in these forums, use to go on into their hundreds and opinions exchanged freely. They could now be bought to a crashing halt.
"Can anyone recommend a... " - google it
"Whats a good ..." -google it
"what did you think of..." -google it
The elders had respected the gods of wisdom and knowledge and devoted time to their study and preservation, now these old gods were being cast aside as in the dark of 2008, rose the light of the "Cult of I"
The cities became influxed with soothsayers from the land of Wikipedia, and found work aplenty with those who were members of this cult. No longer was study, education,verification needed. Many members of this cult lapped up the services of the soothsayers and then claimed themselves to be all powerful, all knowing. They were never short of an audience, for the mob knew no different. They only knew how to ask 'Google it', and cheered and roared when those of the "Cult of I" awnsered them.
As 2008 passed into 2009, the once safe offline world began to be infiltrated by the false demi gods of Iphonus and Androidus. Some refer to them as the angels of death, for the once passtime of solving the problems of the world at the pub table, became replaced with someone consulting one of them. As did the phoning a friend for input, or simply having a good old guess.
There are still those, in fact some who run the city state, who remember the elders and respect their old ways. But instead of reviving, promoting and expanding them, they fear the power of the mob. They are afraid they will tear apart this treasure trove and so instead, look for ways to protect it, control it, or even hide it. Some talk of introducing a state religion, others of hiding the words of the elders into tongues, so only the enlighten will find it.
A traveller from a distant land, looks at the ruins of the messageboard's, now overgrown with 'Google it' and feels as if they talk to him. They say
"Look on my works ye mighty and despair"
But that is not the only voice. In the streets of the city, there is a murmur, a whisper. For 'Google it' is built on weak foundations, the strains and crack come more visible every day. There are those who are fed up, when contacting the "Cult of I" priests, find that they keep been given pages, that seem to serve no other purpose then to sale something. Others howl in despair when searching for enlightenment, to instead only find a Brazillian porn star, who they are not sure is male or female.
Their numbers are small, but they are growing. It has to remain a whisper otherwise the mob would lynch them; For they say there is one, who is probably no more than fouteen or fifteen, who is their saviour - the prophets already walk amongst us.
This one is unaware of it now, but spend their time at the screen, questioning why we use information the way we do. Whilst the way of the messageboard belongs in the past, they also believe the search engine belongs in the past. When they get to college, this idea will start to turn ino the apparatus that will bring down the oligarchy of Google, just like the barbarians of Microsoft was crushed.
"Vivat Respublica" they will cry when this promised day comes and a new age will begin. I know this to be true, for my rune stones tell me.
--000--
I'll end this waffle with this thought; We may read of the ancient Greeks consulting Oracles, before making decisions, or for seeking guidance and wisdom and laugh, but we ourselves seem to becoming more and more reliant on google to provide the awnsers. Before some smart alex says it; yes google is just a search engine - my point exactly.
