Opinion: Older than Archie

Older than Archie you ask, let me explain!

I vividly remember growing up in small town mid-western Ontario when the salesperson from Encyclopedia Brittanica stood in our living room selling my parents on their product.

That set, after it arrived, was the main way my brother and I did research for school projects throughout grade school.

Then came the internet, or at least the backcountry early 90s version of dial-up. Speed was measured in kb/second out there, but it was a window to information and people from around the world. It also meant no more party line with the neighbours next door and Yahoo, both literally and figuratively.

Yahoo wasn’t the first search engine in the world, most people would say Archie was (I still remember that too) but it was generally believed to be used by the most people in the early 90s.

Yahoo was the search engine and landing page for many people. It had chat groups and the ability to make pages and interact with people all over the world. Maybe this is my nostalgia running a little wild, but it also seemed to be a much nicer place than the platforms of today.

I remember speaking with people from around the world on topics such as farming, black-footed ferrets and fishing just to name a few.

We played tanks, chess and other games, typed and read without fighting and posted without fear of the vitriol which seems to contaminate today’s internet.

Before Myspace, X (formally Twitter) and Facebook seemed to be a much more civilized exchange of information on something that was shiny and new to the millions who were just learning what www and https did, let alone hashtags and SEO.

Today, the job of the encyclopedia salesperson is obsolete as well as many others thanks to the internet.

You can Google, Duck-duck-goose, Bing and yes, still Yahoo search your way around the internet, but it’s become a more dangerous place where you can’t have an opinion without it being wrong in someone’s eyes. I don’t know when or how the place where we can access more information than was ever in those encyclopedias, became such a hostile place, but maybe we can get back there someday.

My friend Greg, who’s also older than Archie, said it best while sharing a picture of his pack of dogs.

“This is the pack. They don’t understand the hatred. They don’t hate others if they are around a different breed. They aren’t worried about silly things like genitalia and sexuality – they aren’t afraid of a Black Lab, and they don’t want to build a wall to keep away from chihuahuas,” bemused Greg.

“They may bark at a strange dog at first, but they welcome that dog into the pack after they get to know them. They aren’t scared of anything except the lack of treats and love… Maybe we should be more like the pack except maybe for that licking thing!!”

For those of us older than the most search engines, how hard can that be?