This morning as I readied myself to go to my marketing research class, I had a realization about myself: I had personally been chasing the internet as something I could build and control from the technical aspect. The utility I was trying to create for myself was the complete opposite of why I got a website when I was ten years old.

For my ten year old self, it was all about creating value for others–the value of providing a website with better content about dragons. Then as my knowledge broadened, I entered the technical side in order to deliver the information in better format, designing and coding pages when HTML was still the largest part of a webpage. At this point my value priority shifted inward and I tried to give myself utility as a coder. The problem being I wasn’t disciplined enough to stay current with languages and coding trends. I had a breadth of knowledge about the field, but never any depth–depth being the factor that drives utility.

Which brings me back to preparing for my marketing class. We were going to be talking about how technology has created abilities to market and research. I recalled my ten year old self trying to explain to my eye doctor why he should have a website (the year was 1999) and how it could serve his patrons. He toyed with the idea and I even showed him how to set up the page, but it never really got off the ground. (Back to the present) At this point in my thought process, I realized that while I had been gravitating away from the technical aspect of the web for over a year, I had finally re-grasped what was so intuitive for me ten years ago–I enjoyed creating something valuable to and for others. I liked the marketing aspect of the web.

The sad part for me is that everyone knows having web presence is necessary today. It drives business. What can still be capitalized on is where the companies place their presence, how they interact with customers/potential customers online, and how well their online image meshes with the rest of their appearance. This still needs to be taught.

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