Unlike most people these days, I did not grow up with a computer. My parents didn't believe in it. They were pretty old school academics, and preferred that we spent our time reading, playing music, and developing our chess skills instead of playing on the computer all day. In a lot of ways, I am actually grateful for this early experience. I think I have a longer attention span than most of my peers, and I developed some skills that I wouldn't have, had I been playing online video games! And best of all, I really developed an appreciation for the Internet because I couldn't take it for granted when I was growing up. I love having access to search engines, blogs, and Wikipedia. My favorite part of the Internet, however, is streaming audio music.
I actually wasn't exposed to streaming Internet radio until I was in college. I was working at the campus radio station, and was upset that I couldn't hear the shows that my friends were doing from home. You see, I was in a broadcasting dead zone, far away from the small, micro power campus transmitter. When one of my colleagues suggested that I listen to it through streaming audio, I had no idea what he was talking about. He had to explain streaming music audio. We had been broadcasting online the whole time, and I was completely unaware of it!
When he explained it to me, I thought it was the coolest things in the world. He actually laughed at me a little bit, but I didn't care. I used to be a fan of short wave radio when I was younger, and streaming audio gave me all the things I liked about it. I could listen to radio stations from all over the world with ease. And unlike a short wave transmitter, streaming audio would work all the time. I wouldn't get distant, faint signals from across the world, but high quality live transmissions as if I were listening to a local radio station!
Nowadays, I listen to streaming audio almost all the time. I'm not a big fan of streaming audio books, but I listen to live Internet radio whenever I am at home working on the computer, or just hanging out. I suppose it spoiled me – I can't find any radio stations I like in the car because my very favorite ones are halfway around the world!
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