Merits and Demerits of the Internet Essay

The meshing is a socially disruptive technology. It has changed the elan we do business, communicate with each other, and counterbalance how we view the homo in the short amount of time that the public has workd it. From its beginning as a project of the Department of Defense to connect its computers together, the Internet is instantaneously a resource that most bulk in the developed world cannot live with forbidden. I myself move back aim been affected by the lucre. I am one of the 1,114,274,426 people who use the profits in its various forms. Whether by e-mailing my adorers, or ordering a book on Amazon.com, I am a part of the net income 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 picture to look at both the benefits of the Internet and its drawbacks. Looking at my meshwork use, I see that there are primarily three ship course that I use the earnings for convenience, for learning and lastly for the cyber alliance. Convenience This has got to be the reason most everyday people use the internet, it simply runs functions easier.From electronic mail to word processing, with the internet, previous tasks that are cumbersome and time-consuming are today performed effortlessly at the click of a mouse. You no longer pull in to write a letter by hand, affix a stamp, and thence mail it afterwards time lag for not minutes exclusively consummate days just to send a letter to a friend or colleague. In the amount of time that it portion outs to read this sentence, I could have forwarded a chain letter to dozens if not hundreds of people in my email wield book. Communication finished the internet has radically changed the way we live.By the sheer simplicity and tranquilize of sending a letter through email, we probably communicate with each other to a greater extent and with greater intimacy. It has helped me keep in touch with my fa mily members and friends at home. Even simple messages the likes of trivial requests or a short how are you? delve their finish hitherto half a world a way intimately instantaneously when I press the send button on my email program of choice. Aside from communication, another way that the internet has make 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 obtain money through e-banking and heretofore watch movies. I dont 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 make my life ofttimes easier. On the other hand the internet has not tho do my life easier, it has also made the lives of shady characters easier too. It has helped spread junk emails, spyware programs, and even computer viruses through its communication lines.My worst exp erience 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 hold out a difficult exercise for me. Being spoiled by the internet, I now want and expect all things to be done at cyber-speed.A much more serious effect of the Internets ease of communication is the creation of a new arena of law-breaking internet crime. I myself have had no experience with Internet crimes but that is something I dont want to change in the adjoining future. The convenience of the internet has equally empowered me to do my email and obtain and empowered crooks to perform felonies from credit card fraud to pir acy and even identity theft. Information The internet has changed both the way we get coming to information and the amount of information we can have access to. colossal amounts of wind vane 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 around 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 in formation coming from 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 divergence to libraries and referencing kn accept 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 white-seeded people and organizations a free outlet to promote disreputable activities and information. Hate groups, dangerous organizations, and child pornographers have used the internet to further their agenda and reach more potential victims. I found myself in an embarrassing postal service once when I accessed pornography on the internet by accident. The thing with the internets 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 g overnance 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 society The internet has truly made the world a smaller go in as it enabled people to meet more individuals from different backgrounds and different part 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 federation by my intercommunicate. 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 namelessness. This anonymity gives its users t he license to express their own opinions without fear that it will reflect on them badly.Also, it allows users the granting immunity 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 function from wrongdoing. Anyone can read my blog and leave scathing and psychologically alter 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 overutilisation 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 shopping center abuse, I have grown a dependence on the internet and t he 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 acquire 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 postulate to be wary of these things as it may leave one open 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 ea sier 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 crow 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. gather Worth Star-Telegram, 31A. Staples, Brent. (2004, May 29). What Adolescents Miss When We Let Them Grow Up In Cyberspace. New York Times, , A24. Leiner, Barry M. , et. al.. (n. d. ). A Brief History of the Internet. In Internet Society.Retrieved April 22, 2007, from http//www. isoc. org/internet/history/brief. shtml. Internet innovationStats. com. (March 19, 2007). Internet Usage Statistics The Big Picture. In Internet World Stats. Retrieved April 22, 2007, from http//www. internetworldstats . com/stats. htm. Levine, John R. , Baroudi, Carol. , & Young, Margaret Levine. (2000). The Internet for Dummies 7th edition. Foster City CA IDG Books.