was sitting on what my roommate and I refer to as our “love shack”; a twin sized mattress surrounded with a million silky silver and black pillows trying to come up with something new to blog about when I decided to enter www.google.com into my browser. Whenever I need to find something, Google is my go to website. You can find anything you want on Google, and even things you don’t care to know. My favorite part about Google is the decorations that the have so that you know something’s going on, for example fireworks made out of the letters on the Fourth of July, or pumpkins to signify Halloween. But, today instead of some national holiday or event, Google was decorated with the number 10 and a birthday cake. I was taken aback by this change in layout and hoped that Google had not given up on its quirky but perfect designs. I scrolled down to read that Google was celebrating its 10th birthday. I immediately asked myself how it was possible for something that was never “born” to celebrate birthdays? No one I know celebrates the 4th birthday of a calculator they used through out high school.
I then started thinking about birthdays in general. There are some birthdays in history that everyone knows about and celebrates such as Jesus’s birthday, December 25th. The only birthdays I know that are celebrated are those of family members or close friends. But, here Google is, my favorite website, asking me to celebrate with them. It’s not like we could throw a birthday party for a computer program. So why even equate the word birthday with non-animate objects. Why wouldn’t Google say that it’s their 10th anniversary like schools and organizations do? I’ve always been one who loved birthdays and all that they entail. The waking up early and opening presents, getting cards and hugs from friends close by. But Google can’t receive hugs.
I guess we can just be grateful that Google has made it for ten years. I know that without it half of my high school papers would have been impossible. So I feel more than happy congratulating google.com on its success but feel like something is being taken from the special celebration that a birthday entails. In my opinion, if you never had a birth and aren’t living you shouldn’t celebrate a birthday. So, with my irritation I closed my google.com browser and will try and use it again tomorrow, hopefully the decorations on the homepage won’t be celebrating Google’s 10th year 1 day birthday because then I’ll have to refrain from using my once favorite website.
1 comment:
I think you are over-reacting to Google's use of the word "birthday." Come on, Google is using it metaphorically and well, yes, for commercial purposes. But the real news is about the Googlization of the world. As you say, it's revolutionized how you write your papers, but think of what else it has affected. It's changed our world just like television did.
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