2001 (A Digital Decade, Part 2/10)
Thursday, December 10, 2009
This is Part 2 (Read Part 1) of a personal look back at the sites, tools, behaviors, platforms, and technologies that have changed our lives in the past 10 years. Please add your own thoughts and memories in the comments.
2001 turned out to be a momentous year for both obvious and much more subtle reasons than I realized at the time.
On the morning of September 11, 2001, I left the apartment I was living in in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn on my way to work shortly before 9am. Outside, two men were standing on the corner staring towards lower Manhattan, having only minutes ago watched the first plane crash into The World Trade Center's North Tower. I went back inside, turned on the TV, and moments later heard the news that the second plane had hit. I went to the roof and bits of charred paper and ash were beginning to float across the water from the towers and land in South Brooklyn.
At the time, I still didn't have my own computer, and was in the habit of waiting until I got into work to check my email. I did, however, have a cell phone and called my friend who had moved from New York to Seattle back in April because I knew he'd want to know what was going on as soon as possible.
Then I went into work. Probably to get on to my computer, as much as anything else. At work we listened to the radio, and I watched live streaming video of network news on my computer.
Considering how far streaming online video has come in the past 10 years, and how it's still lacking in many ways, it's hard to believe that it was fairly reliable that morning back in 2001.
Sometime that morning, as more and more people attempted to get in touch with friends and family, cell phones stopped working. I think they went down in New York first, shortly after the towers fell. And pretty soon people all over the country had trouble making calls.
One of the striking differences about that morning, compared to today, is how many fewer people were relying on digital technology to communicate with each other. Imagine how an event of that magnitude would strain the system today. Not only would cell phone service go down, but so would Twitter, Facebook, all major news websites, and we'd probably even notice a global slowdown across the entire web as people started flooding the web with information.
Over the next couple weeks I felt unmoored, to say the least. The sketch comedy group I was in was about to open our first show at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre that week (great timing, right?). I was settling into NYC, and making new friends. But, I was also stuck at a dead-end job, and was spending increasing amounts of time surfing the web. I wasn't quite sure what the hell I was doing with my life.
It took me a couple years before I realized it, but I think the seed was planted that morning in 2001. Eventually I realized that being fulfilled in life has a lot less to do with achieving any predetermined or easily labeled goal you may have set for yourself, and a lot more to do with being creatively and intellectually challenged and inspired by what you do.
It was that realization that eventually lead me to where I am now, doing what I do now; and it will continue to lead me to wherever I'll be and whatever I'll be doing 10 years from now.
2001 turned out to be a momentous year for both obvious and much more subtle reasons than I realized at the time.
On the morning of September 11, 2001, I left the apartment I was living in in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn on my way to work shortly before 9am. Outside, two men were standing on the corner staring towards lower Manhattan, having only minutes ago watched the first plane crash into The World Trade Center's North Tower. I went back inside, turned on the TV, and moments later heard the news that the second plane had hit. I went to the roof and bits of charred paper and ash were beginning to float across the water from the towers and land in South Brooklyn.
At the time, I still didn't have my own computer, and was in the habit of waiting until I got into work to check my email. I did, however, have a cell phone and called my friend who had moved from New York to Seattle back in April because I knew he'd want to know what was going on as soon as possible.
Then I went into work. Probably to get on to my computer, as much as anything else. At work we listened to the radio, and I watched live streaming video of network news on my computer.
Considering how far streaming online video has come in the past 10 years, and how it's still lacking in many ways, it's hard to believe that it was fairly reliable that morning back in 2001.
Sometime that morning, as more and more people attempted to get in touch with friends and family, cell phones stopped working. I think they went down in New York first, shortly after the towers fell. And pretty soon people all over the country had trouble making calls.
One of the striking differences about that morning, compared to today, is how many fewer people were relying on digital technology to communicate with each other. Imagine how an event of that magnitude would strain the system today. Not only would cell phone service go down, but so would Twitter, Facebook, all major news websites, and we'd probably even notice a global slowdown across the entire web as people started flooding the web with information.
Over the next couple weeks I felt unmoored, to say the least. The sketch comedy group I was in was about to open our first show at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre that week (great timing, right?). I was settling into NYC, and making new friends. But, I was also stuck at a dead-end job, and was spending increasing amounts of time surfing the web. I wasn't quite sure what the hell I was doing with my life.
It took me a couple years before I realized it, but I think the seed was planted that morning in 2001. Eventually I realized that being fulfilled in life has a lot less to do with achieving any predetermined or easily labeled goal you may have set for yourself, and a lot more to do with being creatively and intellectually challenged and inspired by what you do.
It was that realization that eventually lead me to where I am now, doing what I do now; and it will continue to lead me to wherever I'll be and whatever I'll be doing 10 years from now.
2 Comments:
Love the quote. Couldn't agree more
Really relate and appreciate you sharing. Words to live by. Looking forward to part 3.
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