There have always been those who would share and those who would hoard. Tec=
hnology has only inflected this basic truth.
Certainly it is a lot easier to gain knowledge now than a few decades ago. =
Then, even finding out about a new product required subscribing to speciali=
st magazines. One read adverts and made expensive long-distance phone calls=
, spent an eternity waiting on hold, and months waiting for demo units to s=
hip, arrive, and potentially get shipped back. Things were different for th=
ose in the world's largest cities, where specialist stores existed. But oth=
er places (say, Ireland) were even worse than average, cut off almost entir=
ely from global knowledge.
Nowadays one taps a screen and gets instant info. On lists/fora like this o=
ne, we can get advice from the horse's mouth. The down-side is that, more t=
han ever, most people expect instant gratification and are less likely to p=
ut in the long hard graft necessary to find out for themselves. It is also =
true that misinformation can proliferate.
But I am not pessimistic. There are good people out there who still don't m=
ind learning. Perhaps there are more than ever. But they do tend to get los=
t in the tides of complacency.
The tides are bigger now, and reach higher shores.
-- Robin Parmar
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