Merits and Demerits of the Internet Essay

The internet is a socially disruptive technology. It has changed the way we do business, communicate with each other, and even how we view the world in the short amount of time that the public has used it. From its beginning as a project of the Department of Defense to connect its computers together, the Internet is now a resource that most people in the developed world cannot live without. I myself have been affected by the internet. I am one of the 1,114,274,426 people who use the internet in its various forms. Whether by emailing my friends, or ordering a book on Amazon.com, I am a part of the â€Å"internet generation†, the generation of people who grew up with the benefits of the Internet. This paper tries to explore how the Internet has touched my life. I will try to look at both the benefits of the Internet and its drawbacks. Looking at my internet use, I see that there are primarily three ways that I use the internet; for convenience, for information and lastly for the cyber community. Convenience This has got to be the reason most everyday people use the internet, it simply makes things easier. From email to word processing, with the internet, previous tasks that are cumbersome and time-consuming are now performed effortlessly at the click of a mouse. You no longer have to write a letter by hand, affix a stamp, and then mail it afterwards waiting for not minutes but entire days just to send a letter to a friend or colleague. In the amount of time that it takes to read this sentence, I could have forwarded a chain letter to dozens if not hundreds of people in my email address book. Communication through the internet has radically changed the way we live. By the sheer simplicity and ease of sending a letter through email, we probably communicate with each other more and with greater intimacy. It has helped me keep in touch with my family members and friends at home. Even simple messages like trivial requests or a short â€Å"how are you? † reach their destination even half a world a way nearly instantaneously when I press the â€Å"send† button on my email program of choice. Aside from communication, another way that the internet has made lives easier is through electronic commerce or simply e-commerce. From this very chair I am sitting on, I buy my bus tickets, send and receive money through e-banking and even watch movies. I don’t have to move myself out of the house (or even out of this chair) to take care of my basic necessities, leaving me with more time to finish more pressing tasks. Truly, this is a way that the Internet has made my life much easier. On the other hand the internet has not only made my life easier, it has also made the lives of shady characters easier too. It has helped spread junk emails, â€Å"spyware† programs, and even computer viruses through its communication lines. My worst experience with this was a virus I got from a spam email. The virus completely ruined my laptop and made me reinstall the operating system. Even as I did this, the virus had already spread to other email addresses stored in my email address book. Another thing I noticed is that the convenience of the Internet has made me more impatient. For someone who got accustomed to email and e-commerce, I find that waiting even for very short amount of times has already become a difficult exercise for me. Being â€Å"spoiled† by the internet, I now want and expect all things to be done at cyber-speed. A much more serious effect of the Internet’s ease of communication is the creation of a new arena of crime – internet crime. I myself have had no experience with Internet crimes but that is something I don’t want to change in the near future. The convenience of the internet has equally empowered me to do my email and shopping and empowered crooks to perform felonies from credit card fraud to piracy and even identity theft. Information The internet has changed both the way we get access to information and the amount of information we can have access to. Enormous amounts of web pages are born everyday, with equally impressive search engines to quickly comb through these web pages to get the information you want. Personally, I use internet portals such as Yahoo! and Naver as they have almost everything I need, news, entertainment, weather information, dictionaries, study materials etc. Another thing about information on the internet is that unlike traditional media outlets such as newspapers, radio and TV, the internet is a duplex communication channel. The flow of information from traditional outlets only goes one-way, the TV reports on it and I view it. The internet on the other hand empowers me to voice out my opinions and get feedback on these opinions right away. However, not all information on the internet is reliable. The ease of creating a website has made information coming from â€Å"average Joes† look indistinguishable from those of learned academics and authorities. Ease of finding information on the internet has made people unwilling to do research the old way, by going to libraries and referencing known authors and peer-reviewed journals or articles. Now, they are just more likely to take as true the first results that Google or Wikipedia gives out. Also, the internet has given seedy people and organizations a free outlet to promote disreputable activities and information. Hate groups, suicidal organizations, and child pornographers have used the internet to further their agenda and reach more potential victims. I found myself in an embarrassing situation once when I accessed pornography on the internet by accident. The thing with the internet’s ease of providing information is that it makes people think less. It makes us dependent on websites and search engines instead of enforcing our research and information validation skills. It lessens creativity and makes us unable to discern which information is true or false, which fact is correct or incorrect, and what is morally good or bad. The Cyber Community The internet has truly made the world a smaller place as it enabled people to meet more individuals from different backgrounds and different parts of the world. It has created a worldwide meeting place where people could seek out people who share their interests and values. I myself am a member of this community by my blog. My blog allows me to connect to other people just as reading other peoples’ blogs give me a connection and insight into their lives. My blog also satisfies my need desire for recognition by giving me my own personal space to decorate and post my own thoughts to be seen by the world at large. Another nice thing about the cyber community is that unlike the real community, the internet gives its users a blanket of anonymity. This anonymity gives its users the freedom to express their own opinions without fear that it will reflect on them badly. Also, it allows users the freedom to talk things and or problems which could be considered socially embarrassing or taboo. On the other hand, anonymity also empowers people by protecting them from responsibility from wrongdoing. Anyone can read my blog and leave scathing and psychologically damaging comments without revealing who they really are. Also, it makes one think less of others as people are reduced to a few lines of text on a webpage or chat room. Unlike the real community, the cyber community is impersonal and has no intimacy. Another side effect of being part of the cyber community is addiction. I may be guilty of this to some degree. I tend to overuse the internet and in the continual habit of opening internet web pages. You could say that like an addict, I cannot live without the internet. Just like substance abuse, I have grown a dependence on the internet and the cyber community it brings. Conclusion In retrospect, the Internet has really changed the way I lived my life. I am exposed to plenty of empowering technologies that generations of people before me could only dream about. The world is smaller because of it and for the most part better because of it. And it is getting better all the time, newer applications that make life better through the internet are still being made at a rapid pace. On the other hand, the internet is a tool which could also be used for foul deeds. Internet users with shady interests have used the internet to cause harm and promote their foul agenda. As members of the cyber community, one needs to be wary of these things as it may leave one vulnerable to anything from damage to your computer to damaging scrutiny or even more serious crimes like identity theft. In retrospect, is the internet worth it? For me, even with its downsides, the internet is still a blessing to be treasured. It really does make my life easier and allows me to do more things that were unthinkable of even just 50 years ago. One just has to be conscious about how he or she uses the internet. As always, even on the internet, common sense should prevail and one should not forsake traditionally held values such as extending courtesy, doing proper research and others even is one is shielded by anonymity in the cyber community of the internet. References Irvine, Marthat. (2004, December 5). Youth Adopt, Drive Technological Advances. Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 31A. Staples, Brent. (2004, May 29). What Adolescents Miss When We Let Them Grow Up In Cyberspace. 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