In this age of internet, gifted people can draw society's attention instantly. In the 1920s and early 1930s the radio was the wonderful medium that could instantly reach the farthest corner of the world. And people having special talents could demonstrate their abilities before millions of people at once. But the medium was centrally-run from a remote location. The person showing her/his talents could not get the audience's feedback then and there. Neither could the members of the audience interact with the presenter of the show instantly. It was a one-way channel of communication between the demonstrator of the special ability and the audience. After television entered the scene in the 1950s, the audience could now hear and see the presenter at the same time. But like radio, being centrally operated from a distant station, the medium was still basically one-way. The audience could not interact with the presenter, nor could the person showing her/his talent get the audience's feedback during the show without, however, the help of a third medium of communication, the telephone. Even so, the entire arrangement remained centrally administered and unidirectional. A member of the audience could not reach the person doing the show without the intervention of the event's conductor. But the situation radically changed a quarter century ago, in 1993, when the internet came on the scene. Now such shows can be performed online and the audience can hear, see and react instantly with the performer and the performer can also do the same with any member of the audience. But this is just one side of the story.
In fact, the internet is not merely a vehicle to do the job of a television or theatre hall entertaining an audience. Now any individual from any place can demonstrate her/his talent and get any other person, a select group or, if she/he is an international celebrity, the entire world as the audience.
Social media platforms like the facebook, Twitter, Instagram and various application software, or apps, are instances of two-way mediums through which any person with an idea can share with a global audience.
At the same time, the internet or the Web is itself a source of a sea of information and knowledge which can be accessed instantly using more than a hundred search engines including the Google and the Yahoo.
Children with a scientific bent of mind have been surfing the web to both gain knowledge about the subjects they like and share it with the audience of their choice. Many young innovators in science, technology, business, social work etc have been able to make a name for themselves overnight.
Time magazine's Kid of the Year for 2020, 15 years old Gitanjali Rao is one such wunderkind (wonder kid) from Colorado, USA. She got her recognition as a water testing scientist for inventing a mobile device that can detect the level of lead contamination in water in 2017 when she was 11 and a seventh grader. 'Appalled' by the suffering and deaths caused by lead poisoning of piped water in Flint, Michigan and 'unimpressed' at the 'slow and unreliable' method her engineer parents at their Lone Tree municipality home in Colorado were using to measure lead level in water, she decided that she should do something. She searched for a way out on the web and stumbled upon a new technology at the material science page of the MIT. She then started her research and finally came up with mobile-mounted device that when dipped in water can instantly tell if it contains lead. She was named America's top young scientist in that year (2017).
Last year she made it to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list. She has also designed a mobile app and web tool that uses artificial intelligence to detect early signs of cyberbullying.
Gitanjali is lucky to have a privileged background. Nevertheless, she represents a generation that is full of such potential wunderkinds. Children of less privileged backgrounds in Asia and Africa can also perform similar feats. They only need the required support and the opportunity-unlimited access to the internet.
sfalim.ds@gmail.com