24/7 and no matter where I am, my show is always on. It doesn’t end there; every form of entertainment is available no matter where you are. Access to information is no longer limited to a desktop or a specific location. It is no surprise that we are mobile and have access to a lot of information. You can do almost anything, but what do you do? What does this all mean?
Work or entertainment is no longer limited to a particular location. This is not news, we are aware of this evolution of technology. Why is it significant? It affects are daily lives! There are a great many of you who only communicate using voice on cellular phones, but you are in the minority. There are many more who text, email instant message, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and use social media to communicate. Playing games, getting directions, special applications (iPhone or Android apps) or something else, but you are barely grazing the surface.
You have access to more information than your neighborhood library or even the library of Congress. You have access to museums, companies, experts and so much more. What do you do? Play games email or just look at your bank account? If you can master just some of the information on the internet, you would be rich. You could sell services to companies and individuals to create websites, create networks or other technological wonders. You can start a business on the internet and make money running your business.
What are you doing? The internet made everything convenient and technology made it mobile. You get to use the information wherever you are! What do you do? You are watching movies, TV shows, YouTube or Comedy Central. There is nothing wrong with these entertainment options, but it should not take up all your time. What are you doing to make yourself more effective in your career? When I was very young I was reading biographies of famous successful people to learn about them.
You have access to much more information and you don’t even know what to do with it. You are playing Farmville or watching some viral video. You can make videos, apply for jobs, learn about new career options or about your own career, you can network with business and social colleagues and learn new skills in a foreign language. The internet is so much larger than just that. I can research in any language and translate it in seconds. If I can create a question, I can find the answer!
It is really that easy, but what do you do? Do you take advantage of these resources? I know I use the internet as a resource for information. I use the internet to provide ideas for articles, shopping, learning about various products and other pieces of information. Have you thought about taking classes online? There are free classes from MIT, you can take. You do not receive college credit, but knowledge is powerful. Having access to MIT, may mean learning about new information that could help you make money.
Every day, something new occurs such as electronic books you may be able to use for information or use for a business idea. Maybe you make book covers or personal diaries and could develop a cover for the iPad, Kindle or some other mobile device. The list is growing and you are missing out. What are you waiting for? Are you either using the internet to make money or find information that is helping you in your career? The resource is unlimited! I learned about my family name and how it dates back to the 1500s and it means newspaper in Dutch. Will that make me money? No, but it gives me insight and confidence to pursue a writing and publishing website.
Final Thoughts
What does this all mean? There is so much out there and the majority of us never even make a dent. We all have access, but we do not even use it. Am I telling you to forget movies, games or checking your bank account? Of course not, but don’t stop there. Start to use the information and make your life better. Earn more money or enrich your life. Read a book or an article or learn something through an online class. I would love you to come back and read one of my articles on my website again. We have all this free information and we don’t even use it. It is a little like having the keys to the kingdom and doing nothing. My show is always on and that is all I am doing!
Photo by: Hamed Saber
Great post and great reminder! I always seem to have my eyes on a screen these days, I can’t get enough information, especially when it is so easy to access. I love technology, I think I’d be lost without it now 🙂
The next step is what you do with the information. The next great idea is out there waiting for you!
A person with resolve will get things done no matter what the circumstances are. Buffett, to screen for good companies, used to go through pages and pages of company reports and he used to do this for months! Now we have the same information at our finger tips, all for free, yet, there hasn’t been one to replace Buffett!
Not yet! Are you aware he uses Benjamin Graham’s book on value investing as his bible. They are probably running hedge funds. 🙂
It’s about choices isn’t it? Technology has made information, even a college degree accessible to many people. It takes an investment of time to make a better life for yourself, that is the choice I am making. I agree with you KC, the internet is an incredible opportunity for learning and improving your life.
Rich people have access to information and money (capital). The internet makes much more information accessible to everybody. You just have to figure out how to use it.
Is this motivated by your time as a teacher? I find I have this talk constantly with my classes. I pull their Iphone’s out of their hands (which they are trying to use during class time) and I basically give the a very similar talk to the one that you outlined above. There is more technology in the latest smart phones, that there is more computing power than in the first shuttle to the moon. Yet we play Angry Birds? Is this technology actually somehow contributing to making us dumber and lazier?
I am still a teacher and there are a lot of distractions out there. Students would rather play than work, although I keep trying by sometimes letting them play educational games. All I can do is expose them and maybe they will remember it later.
Great admonishment to make sure that we’re staying up on the things that are necessary to succeed. I agree there’s an abundance of quality information, so why not use it to improve your life instead of just focusing solely on entertainment. Alas, sometimes we preach to the choir!
We are supposed to be lifetime learners. I think I am learning new things everyday. Perhaps, multiple things. I get a lot of my ideas for articles from the internet. Who knows, maybe I will find my next great thing! 🙂
Awesome message KC! The internet is like a fire hose of data. What you do with it will determine your success. Couch potatoes used to be glued to the couch wasting time. Now they are mobile and wasting more time! You on the other hand were reading biographies and gaining knowledge. Now you are gaining even more. Bonus, you are even spreading knowledge. Good show!
Thanks, rich successful people use information to their own benefit. Now everyone, if they choose, have access to some of the same information.
I have turned into quite the reader the last few years. I am constantly learning new information, tips, and skills that I find really useful. I love it. It’s like a whole new world has been opened up.
This is the ultimate lifelong learning, educators talk about. Now, the important part is how you use it.
I agree completely. We’ve left the information age. There’s information available everywhere. Now it’s the “how do I aggregate all this info-flow” age. Hey, I just coined a new age-phrase, I’m sure….you can say you knew me when….
Trademark it! It is just like 3peat, Pat Riley trademarked it when he was the Lakers coach. I think he makes money off of it.
Access to information can make you rich, if you know whatt to do with it.
Wonderful suggestions for improving ourselves and doing it cheaply! I completely taught myself how to use WordPress and do some light coding through various online avenues (all free). I have also recently starting utilizing free Kindle books to learn. It’s exciting to think about the resources we have available to improve ourselves!
My wife is readng many of the free or almost free books on Kindle. I think we are at the beginning of all of the information on the internet. The next stage is putting it into usable ways such as apps.
I like this article; I like it a lot. Particulerly the message that people have such a powerful resource and sadly may lack the imagination to use it for greater joy and purpose.
This can be said about a lot of things we are exposed to daily. The internet literally leveled the playing field if you know what to do. The next step is how to make the information more usable. similar to iPhone apps.
Treu, information is no longer power, it’s who can use the information the most efficiently that will benefit.
If you know how to use the information, it will make you rich(er)! There are plenty of opportunities out there.
“The cure for boredom is curiosity; there is no cure for lack of curiosity.”–Dorothy Parker
Good point! Is there a transplant or some other way to acquire it?
I know my key to wealth is somewhere out there and I try to find it day and night on the net for it. very thought provoking article.
Keep searching and you will find it.
The internet really is great, I love to use it to help supplement my economics studies. Buying papers can be so expensive, but a quick search at ssrn.com is quicker and more cost effective.
The internet as a resource is amazing! You can look up so much in a very short amount of time.
And now with google everything is so much faster. I remember the days of altavista and finding quality information took much longer.
Not only is it faster, there is so much more of it. We need better ways of filtering information.
Wow. Where can I even begin to describe how much I’ve learned from the Internet. Money, playing guitar, entertainment, knowing more about people in general. My latest fad has been to use YouTube to learn how to do “do-it-yourself” projects around house. It helped me install a back-splash. Coming up soon it will teach me how to install hardwood floors. Thank you Internet!
I think the internet is only limited by our own imagination. If I can ask the question, I can find thhe answer on the internet.
Too much information, it seems. I’m finding that unless I make time, my hard-book reading suffers. And yet I like sitting down in the library with a book and favorite tipple. Better than staring at an electronic screen.
I like the old media too, books, magazines and newspapers. There is something about holding the real thing. Unfortunately, everything is going electronic! There is so much information that will never go into print. Besides it is more current and easier to filter to get exactly what you want.
I’m with 101C here. I already spend so much time staring at a computer screen that my eyes are going bad. 🙁
Between work and blogging I think I spend upward of 80+ hours a week online. I still read a book now and then (20 this summer), read the newspaper everyday and learn something online. BTW, my eyes are improving and I can still read without glasses ( I just had an eye check exam). Go figure! As they say, there is gold on the internet, we just need to know how to pan for it.
Well Krant, I have got to unplug sometimes. I’m addicted enough to the internet that I must live in the real world as well 🙂
I have dual citizenship (live & electronic)! 🙂 Today, I realized that I spend more time blogging, and on the internet than work. Let us not forget, I am a computer teacher!
It really is amazing how much information is out there. I do agree with you that we should do our best to take advantage of the vast resources available to us.
Making the information more accessible is a double edge sword. What we do with it can enrich our lives or overwhelm us.