THUNDER BAY – Think of it. Twelve short years ago, there was no Google. Can you imagine life today without this increasingly useful Internet tool? YouTube stated in 2005 – a mere five years ago – yet today it is as solid a part of the Internet and life in general that it is hard to imagine that it didn’t always exist. Heck, listen to a teenager, and they likely are positive that it always has.
Facebook is just over six years old. Think of it, six years ago, what would the 70,000 plus people in Thunder Bay be doing through their week with the time now invested in Face-booking?
Twitter is almost five years old. Yet today it is as much a part of the lexicon as any long-standing brand or product.
The pace of change in society is coming at us all faster and faster. Likely at a pace that frightens some in our society.
The Internet is changing lives in our world. It is a tool which can bring people together. It allows for the fastest possible sharing of information.
For some, it is likely that the pace of information, and the changes in our society are moving faster than they can understand. For some of those people, they become the techno-critics. Instead of accepting that change is that one constant in our world, they fight progress, or complain about the progress.
That is common, for many people, change is difficult to either understand or adapt to. In Thunder Bay, City Council will start something new tonight. Council meetings will be live-streamed on the Internet. This will open the door yet wider in our community toward a more open civic government.
Chances are there will be critics who will demean this new, and frankly welcome addition to our community’s democratic arsenal. For me, it is another step forward in communications in our city.