Gen X, Google, and Internet dependence

I worked as a business researcher right after college graduation — a fancy title given to someone responsible for populating the company database and ensuring the integrity of the data.

This involved cross-referencing various websites, online directories, and news articles. This was in the year 2000, that time when Wikipedia and LinkedIn were unheard of. We used a lot of Yahoo and AltaVista for our web searches.

A month into the job, a colleague recommended a new-ish search engine that he swore was better than Yahoo. I doubted him at first, but decided to give it a try. “Try Google,” he said. “How do you spell that?” I asked. He spelled it for me, and I typed the URL on my IE5 browser. And so it began.

My life on Google

Fast forward to 2013 — I’m on Google Apps that runs on Chrome, I maintain Google Calendar to keep track of my schedule, store my documents on Google Drive, manage our corporate Adwords account, sync my mobile phone data with Google Contacts. I have a Blogger and YouTube account. I even work for a company that is a Google partner and sells its enterprise products. 13 years later and Google has taken over my life.

A lot of people think this dependence is a bad idea. They’re not comfortable with the thought that Google controls a big portion of our lives. It knows which sites I frequent, it knows when my ob-gyn appointments are, it knows which TV series I follow.

Heck, it’s even privy to my deepest, darkest thoughts through a private blog. It takes note of my interests according to my online activities and intelligently shows me advertisements based on this knowledge. It is the home of my personal, confidential documents. I have complete trust in Google’s ability to keep my life safe in that nifty thing they call “the cloud.”

Generation X and tech dependence

It’s spooky how Google has my life nestled in its mysterious algorithm. But it is a risk I’m willing to take. I am part of Generation X — the generation who saw the birth of the Internet. We started with the basics, and in the beginnings of our active working lives, the cusp of our blossoming careers, we witnessed how life and work got a lot easier with the Internet.

Maybe most of my generation do not mind the “loss of privacy” if it means getting this kind of convenience we now enjoy. Disturbing? Yes it is. But it’s the price you pay for modernization. It’s the price I’m willing to pay to keep my life on track.

Studies say that Generation Y, or the Millenials, are highly technology-dependent. The elders think this is unhealthy. I’d be quick to defend Gen Y and say it’s not their fault. They don’t know any better. At an early age, the world welcomed and equipped them with a speedy connection and easily obtainable mobile devices. Convenience and technology are what they are accustomed to.

Gen X’s case is more interesting. We knew what it was like to have to rewrite a 30-page term paper (painstakingly researched from dissertations and newspaper reels from the school library) due tomorrow because that darn floppy disc failed us yet again.

We coddled long distance relationships with snail-mailed love letters and expensive overseas phone calls. We knew the true meaning of blind dates because we couldn’t do instantaneous background checks on potential partners.

We witnessed how the Internet hiccuped its way into existence. We forgive its early stages — when it was expensive, slow, and scarce — because we didn’t know any better. And now that we have experienced what technology has to offer, coupled with experiences of the past, we cannot just quit it. Our level of dependency is on another plane — different, but just as intense as Gen Y’s.

I usually ask, what would I be doing for a living if it weren’t for the Internet? I cannot imagine. I owe the Internet my career, my skills, my daily dose of entertainment. I’m even trying to raise a tiny human being with a lot of online help.

I’m not about to give up technology. And before you start thinking that I am some odd tech fanatic, ask yourself this question: how many hours did you spend online today?

Now what will my life be without Google? I don’t know. I’m too afraid to even think about it. – Rappler.com

Boy with tablet image from Shutterstock

Dancing businesswoman image from Shutterstock