The Internet: A Portal of Opportunities

Sometimes you think about a certain technology and consider, "It's great to have, but I could probably live without it."

In fact, many of the technologies we have today I lived without for a very long time before it was even a thing. Cell phones, for example. We did not have them. If you had to make a phone call when you were out and about you went to a public pay phone. And of course, if someone needed to get hold of you when you were not at home, they had to wait.

If you were at the grocery store and the wife remembered something she forgot to tell you to get, there'd be no way to let me know. And sometimes you got home just to have to back to the store.

I have to admit, I'd be pretty lost without my cell phone these days. But I could learn to live without it much as I did before they were invented and became a common thing.

But the Internet? Something we did not have a for a long time either. I'd be lost for sure without that. And for what it has become, it has opened up many more doors and opportunities that simply would not exist without it.

Beyond all the banking I can do easily now with it, buying stocks is easier. Communicating with people is easier. Seeing firsthand other cultures and actually hearing from people around the world is easier—as well as enlightening.

Through the Internet, back in the 90s, I was able to turn a passion for writing and for the horror genre in particular, into something. I was able to create an online horror fiction magazine that cost me virtually nothing. No printers. No costly distribution and advertising.

And thus, FrightNet Online Magazine was created. Now defunct, of course. But nonetheless fun while it lasted, and it allowed me to meet and work with many of the horror writers I was a fan of. I was Ivan S. Graves, and even got to put together a horror anthology that probably would never have happened had it not been for the Internet.

Dark Whispers.

Unfortunately, that book is no longer available as the publisher went out of business. But again, like FrightNet, it was fun to do and I was able to enjoy an experience because the Internet opened that door for me.

In a way, the Internet also opened opportunities for me to share my musical efforts. For whatever they are worth for that matter. I am no strong musician by any means. But I can create things, do covers and write music and record it and share it—and while a lot of that isn't because of the Internet. The Internet certainly makes it more possible that it ever was before it to do that.

I was even able to learn much more about music through YouTube and other places. It is easier to learn a new song than ever before. It improved my guitar playing, and while I don't play the drums, I can understand them better and write the beats to put together my own songs and covers.

Being able to do a cover of a Breeders song, "Safari," or share an experimental original instrumental like, "Sin Letra," would not have been possible before the Internet.

And speaking of those originals, I never would have been able to share and make money from any of it either. Because there would not have been a YouTube to exist to be able to make my own little music video for a song like, "All You Are," or publish an entire album like, "Pink Flamingoes," misspelled on purpose in places like iTunes, Amazon Music or Spotify.

I would not be able to write and share my thoughts and ideas with anyone without the help of an actual publisher picking and choosing what is worthy of being shared. Because of the Internet there are places like myLot and HubPages, and of course places like read.cash.

And even there, who ever thought you could actually make money doing any of these things before the Internet without "getting your break" or having someone else decide whether what you do gets to have any eyes or ears on it?

The Internet is such a large part of my life and my daily activities now that I have a hard time, sometimes, even thinking back to the days before it existed. Gosh, talk about thinking we were living in a prehistoric world or something.

From money to having a place in the world, the Internet has simply become something, a technology that without a doubt, I could not live without. Nor could I imagine a reason I would not want it to exist.

Lead image by Porwest, Dark Whispers anthology cover, with artwork by Jimmie Arroyo.