Hate it or love it, use it or loathe it, the internet is here to stay; and for good reason too! This 20th century invention by the US military/ German scientists/ a hodgepodge of underground techs or whoever you choose to believe invented this oh so mysterious thing that your 16 year old perm haired pants sagging son refers to as ‘the net’ is probably the most important invention after fire. So whether you’re a tech savvy web developer, a chatty incessant selfie taking addict, a bewildered user just trying to update your facebook status or a staunch defender of the good old days of post and phone booths; this guide is just for you.
1. The internet is an idea: not something that you purchase in a box or something that comes with a laptop or computer. It’s the global interconnection of computers and servers with the aim of delivering resources. The resources may be services like social media i.e. facebook, twitter or an online course or email e.t.c.
2. The internet IS NOT EVIL: I keep coming up against this argument time and again and I am not afraid to say that if you subscribe to this it is more out of ignorance and fear. The internet is a reflection of society. There are good people out there but there’s also thugs, conmen, busybodies and so on. Just because Rose Muhando says facebook and twitter are evil, doesn’t mean they are (I’m going to have to write about that song soon).
3. Email: if you don’t have an email address, please put down this magazine, dash to the nearest cyber café and sign up! Now! Seriously, do it. Got it? Good, now we can go on. The email will open doors for you on the net, they don’t all have to be good doors, but still it will open them for you. Just about every site worth its salt will have a newsletter, program or chatroom that you will want to sign up for and guess what you use? That’s right the email address that you just dashed out to sign up for! There’s so much to say about this, it’ll take an entire feature article but just get this; if a Nigerian businessman offers to send you 100,000 dollars to spend on yourself and give the rest to charity, go ahead and give them your bank account details and watch them work their afrosinema magic on it!
4. Social media: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Flickr, Instagram, Google+, the dead and buried Myspace are just some of the more popular social networking sites. Don’t worry, you don’t have to be in all of them, unless of course your job demands it i.e. celebrity, social media manager, UhuRuto, Peter Kenneth e.t.c. or you’re an attention craving limelight seeker and facebook just can’t contain you. There are the basic rules: Quevin ‘Di Maria’ Qirui with a Manchester United Jersey as your profile picture is a big no. Kevin Kirui with a nice photo of you in your Manchester United Jersey is a thumbs up. Do not, under any circumstances upload 5 selfies in a row. And if you took them with your 2mp low end smartphone camera please spare us the horror! It’s nice to know you’re on your way home for the holidays; it is however irritating when you constantly update us on everything about your journey and even worse when you like your own status. I know it’s a lot of don’ts and caveats but that’s just the way it is. There is more but maybe later, in another feature article.
5. E-commerce: e-bay, Alibaba and closer home the ever popular OLX. Use them people, use them. They free, convenient and they expose your goods/ services to millions of potential customers! There is simply no better way! And for the more daring businesses, you can advertise on Google (pay per click), Facebook and such!
6. Online jobs: Yes they do exist and a good number of smart Kenyans are earning good money from them. Not the ‘Work at home mum earning $7,526 per month working just 4 hours a day’ type. The legitimate writing jobs, software development, graphic design and other services.
7. Google: did you know that google is now an officially accepted English word? And it means exactly what you think it does.
Verb: google goo-gul
1. (computing) search the internet (for information) using the Google search engine
“He googled the woman he had met at the party”; “My children are googling all day”
Noun: Google goo-gul
1. A widely used search engine that uses text-matching techniques to find web pages that are important and relevant to a user’s search
Derived forms: googled, googles, Googles, googling
So google away people! You will discover a world of wonder and you will come to realize that google is the smartest friend around!
atonui 