In ancient times, people who had knowledge that others lacked had profound power and influence in society.
With the coming of writing, ability to write gave writers like novelists, poets and journalists advantage over non-writers.
Writers had the advantage of commenting on society flaunting their knowledge liberally, a chance that was denied other non-writer mortals.
In case of newspapers, only a few writers dominated the content of a publication flaunting their opinion with little opportunity for feedback from readers.
Readers were usually given a say through letters to the editor or a complaint on being misrepresented.
Even for electronic media the scenario was largely the same with a few talk hosts becoming household names.
Now the coming of the internet has demystified this once hallowed role of writers extending it to multitudes of other ‘Gentiles.’
The role of the Internet and the social media in our society is awesome especially in fuelling debate, feedback and by simply giving a voice to anybody who is cyberly connected.
News and information is now travelling all over the world at lightning speed, gunned by the multiplier effect of dissemination on Face book and Twitter.
The older generation which was born before we heard of the animal called internet has no choice but to learn or left behind looking like a duiker caught in the headlights of an oncoming vehicle with full beam.
The internet cyberly connects you to the world defying all geographical limitations.
It is something magical that has come upon the scene transforming the world at the tapping of the fingers.
Suddenly everybody is tweeting multiple times per hour as information filters in through what seemed to be infinite sources.
For once, a few words on Twitter could get information on a Minister like the former Commerce Minister Miles Sampa who has resigned or how the black American Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson is faring.
The internet can also afford you information on stories like Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe reading a speech he had read earlier or a self-styled prophet who slapped a congregant in church to exorcise evil spirits from him.
The internet has also enabled commoners like us to communicate with public figures on Twitter and Facebook.
In this way, we have learned that there are new and infinitely rewarding ways of connecting with each other.
The main achievement is that this is a new empowerment that has enabled power of free expression and random access to both people and information once out of bounds for many.
It did not seem to matter; every Zambian now has found a liberating outlet for their angst and frustration against an institution or individuals.
Whether we like it or not, the Internet will continue to shape our world relentlessly. In the age of the Internet, new paradigms become tired clichés in nanoseconds.
Face book is becoming the new Microsoft with energetic and more visionary upstarts yapping at her knees.
For the writer and the reader, life is good.
Some people are on Twitter, Face book, Yahoo Messenger, the BlackBerry Messenger, etc not to talk of blogs. I have a lot to tell you.
I am not so much of a cyber citizens since I read lots of books (the book is dying by the way, but the book will outlive me and I intend to be around for a few more years).
However, I recognise the power of the internet in making the world a cyber global village.
Yesterday it was books and other written materials. Now it is the internet. Chinua Achebe and several African writers used the book, the Internet of the time, to tell us stories.
Today, the Internet is the new book; write your stories on it… Don’t just read a book that has no hot link to another world. Read. Just read. Click away, you have no choice. Welcome to the real world.
The Internet is the new nation and one can only ignore it at his or her own peril.
On the Internet, compassion knows no boundaries even as pain and hurt seep through fences to maim the brave. It is often said that there is a digital divide.
That is certainly one way of looking at a world that can seem to offer only a half-empty glass most days.
In addition to the physical touch and solace of loved ones, the Internet is now our town crier of choice, moving buckets of comfort to and from Babylon. And the Internet is the bank of choice helping to ferry resources to those in need.
The Internet is fast shaping up to be the community of choice for writers of African extraction, the best publishing house for our stories, a place that struts our stories as the sum of our lived lives, not as a single story. The Internet lives.
As a writer I am most grateful to the Internet for helping me connect with other souls and for helping to put even more meaning into my restless life.
What would I do differently? I don’t know really, I don’t allow regrets to live rent-free in my head. I live and live well. The Internet  lives.