Take Facebook. I read that 500 million people have signed up for it. That is nearly twice the population of the US and borders on one in every 10 people on the planet. But it did not include me until the other night. A friend sent my wife a video on Facebook and she wanted me to see it. She sent me a link so I could see it on my own computer but it would only work if I had a Facebook account. So, making the total 500,000,001, I joined. I have enough to keep me busy and as another friend warned me, Facebook can be a big time waster. I haven't been keeping a record of how much time I have been spending at the computer but the amount gets pretty high on some days. I had seen that a relative I had lost track of was also on Facebook so some good may come from joining.
Take Wal-Mart. I did not plan to be a supporter of Wal-Mart but I have turned out to be one. A couple of years ago, gasoline was $4 a gallon. I know that is much cheaper than it is in much of Europe and probably elsewhere but it was a high price for us. That price turned our attention to driving costs. The nearest grocery store is Wal-Mart and the next closest is nearly three times as far. It seemed the economically sensible thing to do: shop at Wal-Mart. Some items I want are not available there but it is a large store and sells groceries as well as many other items. The prices are good and so is the quality. I realize that many of my friends are against the firm. I think the most common reason expressed is that the company pays wages that are too low and thereby puts a strain on social services and other tax-supported aspects of local and other governments. I read The Wal-Mart Effect by Fishman, a book that gave both advantages and disadvantages to the store and its policies and the effect on other businesses.
Take distance education. A term for teaching classes in a way that allows the students to work at home on a computer or in a classroom distant from the teacher by means of television. I did not plan on being a distance educator. But I did see that many of my students, after a whole day at work and then driving 50 to 90 miles to get to my class, were tired at the beginning of class. Of course, they were even more tired by the end. Deer and other animals on the roads, old cars subject to breakdowns, winter temperatures and wind chills quite capable of killing and slick ice on roads were all hazards the students faced getting to class. I found out that special television arrangements (ITFS) and use of public television could easily substitute for those long dangerous drives. As the world-wide web developed and optical fiber cable allowed larger and faster computer communication in text, pictures, video and sound, one thing lead to another and I did about ten years of distance education, in many circumstances and several media.
