My amazement about the internet hasn’t seemed to wane over the years. Tonight, I was amazed by the fact that I can get advice about so many topics from internet forums.

I got info about how to record conversations I have with people on my cell phone. Having the ability to make broadcast quality recordings of the interviews I have with various people around the country and around the world might further me along the path of journalistic nirvana.

Well, that’s probably an over-statement, but if Trinity moves out I will have a lot more money to pay in rent– 230 more each month unless I get another apartment mate. I imagine myself having to work more as a server but using my cell phone to interview people during breaks between shifts and then using that to generate radio and text material.

But this internet thing is amazing. This reminds me of why some people have been for over a decade now, if I am not mistaken, raising a fuss about what some people refer to as the ‘digital divide’.

Whether I am looking up info about how much calcium I should intake per day or about whether reusing plastic bottles will increase my cancer risk, the internet seems to be a valuable tool.

Also, the internet has given rise to a variety of sources of info beyond the mainstream media outlets, whether it is in the forms of Iraqi civilians or US soldiers blogging about the occupation in Iraq or other alternatives to mainstream media outlets.

Further still, the internet allows for interactivity, unlike the one-way-street type of communication of watching tv news or listening to a radio or reading a newspaper.

And… the internet involves the ‘media consumer’ engaging in her or his customized searches for information.

For example, if I want to, and I have done it, I can spend a big chunk of my day reading about and viewing and listening to content about my chosen topic–peak oil, climate change, sweatshops, the US occupation of Iraq, and so on.

Before the internet, consumption of media products had a lot more to do with me thinking about what the so-called ‘gate keepers’ chose to print or broadcast.