What Did We Do Before the Internet?

There are many examples I can cite that supports the fact that before the Internet life was a lot more difficult.

The major one that comes to mind is contacting the Canadian Government or any Government for that matter.

We are delighted to be living here in Ajijic, Lake Chapala and part of what makes us delighted is that with the Internet we can contact anyone anywhere in an instant.

In the past relying on snail mail was spotty at best and trying to contact the Government to ask a question, get a form, or follow up on your income tax return was nigh on impossible

Today I received my mail from Canada and a form that I was waiting for was not included in the package.  As it is due next month panic immediately set in.

First I notified my people in Canada who forward my mail to me that I was waiting for a certain letter and could they please contact immediately upon receiving it.  I started to worry as this form has never been late so perhaps it was lost.  Unfortuneately, lost mail does happen from Canada to Mexico.  Not often, thankfully, but it does happen nonetheless.

I then thought maybe I could contact the Government and get the necessary form scanned and emailed to me.  If I was able to find the right person to ask about this they most likely would have offered to resend the form as they do not email.

Then it hit me – Google!  You don’t even need to know the URL of the deparment you wish to contact just type in the name of the department and all the possibilities come up from which you can choose.

It offered a form search option which i clicked on forthwith.  You will need to know either the name of number of the form which you type in and sure enough up pops the required form in printable pdf format.

Then it is just a question of printing out the form filling it in and mailing it to the address which is also included in the pdf format.

What could have been a potential disaster (our Government does not seem to care for lateness) turned out to be a couple of clicks on my computer and disaster was diverted.

There are many who say that computers and technology in general have ruined our lives but when it come to getting something done that otherwise could have taken weeks if not months I cannot imagine what we did before the Internet.