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| Am I Glad That I Met Earl? |
| Flash back: many years ago… I had first thought my co-worker had been talking about someone cool that she was hanging out with named “Earl”… She had said something about how she had got to him. It wasn’t until much later that I learned that Earl was not a he, but was an address, a place in cyberspace, and was spelled “U-R-L.” Thinking back, I still vividly remember that first time…that first involvement with Earl. That first website access: a confusing series of letters, names, punctuation and slashes. I remember how hard it was for me to remember which slash was which (forward or backward). If the Internet was so great…so advanced…why couldn’t Earl be easier to deal with? I can’t recall the actual name of that first website, just that I had to write down Earl’s information because it was so strange. I do remember – once I had gotten online and started to surf around - feeling like I had traveled to a whole new realm, able to access multiple pages on sites all over the world! I had gone wild…back then…accessing frantically, time after time…and then…finally learning restraint. I rationed myself. I quickly learned that too much Earl was bad for other relationships. Too much Earl meant I didn’t go to the gym, or I didn’t do other chores. Too much Earl was bad at work…a distraction that became so bad at my company that there were soon rules relating to how often employees could go visit Earl, and where they could meet Earl, during the business day. Flash forward: Now, many years later… Earl’s world now includes my two teenage sons. And Earl is suddenly back in the forefront of my life… I thought I had tamed Earl, learned how to control Earl. But now, I see Earl tempting my kids. They have quickly become addicted to all that Earl offers. Somehow, now that they are involved, Earl seems more dangerous. When I upgraded to DSL, Earl became even more treacherous…and more available and faster than ever before. We started using our credit card with Earl. Almost everyone we know now uses Earl. Without access to Earl one has suddenly become a disconnected island…at work, at school, in scouts, basketball league, at home…no matter what group of individuals we are associated with at the time, Earl is in the middle of how we communicate, exchange information, share a calendar, whatever. We are on school group lists, scout group lists, we have a family website…we pay our bills, we bank, we buy…all via Earl. Earl is everywhere. So, we communicate and we share…all with Earl right there, a part of it. My kids’ Earl appetite continues to grow. My old desires to surf along with Earl resurfaced and increased. Too much time is now spent with Earl and others like Earl. There is always just one more link that beckons. The spider web of Earls goes on and on. Five minutes of Earl turns into hours. |
| To finish Earl story |
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