This evening at 7:43PM EST on June 17th 2008., I "Googled" baby boomer and found that there 6,930,000 references - that's an awful lot of information. More than I expect that I will ever need - certainly too much to hold my focus for very long.
On this same day, as a point of interest, apparently baby boomers fall behind the number of references quoted for "Gen x "and "Gen y" who post 14,100,000 and 9,620,000 items each. These numbers are so staggeringly high that to me they become meaningless. I know that hours will be needed to drill down to extract relevant information for any practical or directed purpose.
A look back...
When I attended public school in the 1960's we had encyclopedias.
Some families had their own set of encyclopedias. There were encyclopedia salesmen. In retrospect, that had to be one tough way to feed your family.
My frugal Scottish mother accurately pointed out that every suburban school I attended (newly built to accommodate our large cohort) was stocked with not one set but multiple versions of the worlds of knowledge we would require to complete our work assignments. Needless to say there were no expensive sets of encyclopedias coming into our home only to be outdated before the school year was out.
In many of our assignments, we would look to "get" information about a certain subject. I seem to recall being directed to use more than one source but often falling short of the mark. I recall that it was generally agreed that the Encyclopedia Britannica would have the last word on any subject. So if you were able to obtain information from that source and presented your report in some legible fashion you would pretty much have the job done. As a young student, it felt to me that there was some comfort knowing that there was a limitation of information that we might be required to know. I guess as an adult I would describe this as an exercise in defining or containing scope of information.
But now there are almost 7 million references about baby boomers that are identified in Google's search engine. Now I know there is too much information. So my exercise is to distill it into a conversation - a lens if you will that others may wish to look through and share their perspectives.
As a student, I loved to read, (still do) and spent a lot of time in our public and school libraries. I learned the Dewey decimal system much to the delight of my high school librarian. Apparently, this was not a common occurrence among students, so resulted a pleasant co-existence with the librarian.
Online Shopping for books...
A great interruption for home office workers :-)
Today, I learn about what books to read by receiving emails from Oprah's book club lists or special sales online at chapters/ indigo or amazon.com.
This winter I ordered two of Ken Follet's books on line, one hard copy and one in paperback. The hard copy was so heavy I swear I developed tendinitis but still could not put it down.
I love that the books come to my door and am still excited to open the fresh pages of my newest collection for my own private library. I don't really like to lend books my books and am always surprised at people who, without hesitation, ask to borrow the book when I am finished. To me, books feel like very personal items and I am always amazed that people do not feel the same way as I do.
Library searches are now much a thing of the past for me as I use Google or industry sites to get information for presentations or market information.
Personally, I always use online 411 for phone numbers and order food online for home delivery wherever possible. I swear I will never buy another CD as I am an ipod girl now!
I adore that I can find so many thing that I need online. Like many of you I am time crunched - so the time saved alone is a tremendous value.
I am somewhat of a late adopter of technology - but have taken to it like a duck to water. I will be sharing in a future blog my recent journey through personal technology.
The last 24 month period that the digital camera, ipod, blackberries that can work around the world and create maps and traffic advice for me, electronic picture frames, Big Screen LCD and home theatre all came under my one roof has been a discovery of delight and pure joy.
And now I am blogging.
Next on theboomerway blog I will share with you my adventure in purchasing my treasured golf clubs on e-bay!
Write often - thanks for visiting - come back soon
;-) Publisher of http://www.theboomerway.com
....it really is all about us!!!
