The Internet A World Behind The Screen

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Abalasei Alexandra-Ioana

Professor Pralea Cristian

American Studies, 3rd year

The Internet: A world behind the screens

Humans life has changed. Most of the people have come to cities instead of towns. Kids spend most of their time inside houses eighter watching TV or playing computer and maybe do their homework. Internet is one of the most recent changes in the last two decays. Not surprisingly, the new phenomenon is perhaps one of the greatest inventions of the last century, but unfortunately this occurrence has made some negative impact on our society and children. Teenagers are the most common group of society who can get artificial by the internet. As a matter of fact, internet addiction is a common habit for teenagers which will affects their future, also can have an effect on their social behavior and their education. Teenagers are spending more time on internet with watching movies, gaming, chatting, etc. rather than doing their home work or study for their tests.

The Internet is ubiquitous in everyday life. On the Internet, we search for information, plan trips, read newspapers, articles, communicate with others by making use of e-mail, instant messaging, chat rooms, Internet phone, discussion boards, mailing lists, video conferencing; we listen to music and radio, watch videos, order or purchase by auction different goods, write our own blogs, and contribute to the blogs of others; we meet others, discuss with others, learn to know other people, fall in love, become friends, or develop intimate relations; we maintain contact with others; we protest, access government sites, learn, play games, create knowledge together with others in wikis, share ideas, images, videos; we download software and other digital data, and so forth. On the Internet, we also can feel being lost, disoriented, dissatisfied, scared, bored, stressed, alienated, lonesome, and so forth.

The Internet evolution started back when the first recorded description of the social interactions for communication was established by the Atlantic cable of 1858 to carry instantaneous communications across the ocean for the first time. Although the laying of this first cable was seen as a landmark event in society, it was a technical failure. It only remained in service a few days. Subsequent cables laid in 1866 were completely successful and compared to events like the moon landing of a century later; the cable, remained in use for almost 100 years. In 1957, while responding to the 1866 threat of the cable in general and the success of Sputnik in particular, President Dwight D. Eisenhower created the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) through the Department of Defense. This was done immediately after the Soviet Union's 1957 launch of Sputnik. The Atlantic cable of 1858 and Sputnik of 1957 were two basic milestones on the internet prehistory.

People use the Internet more for pleasure than for other purposes. The most popular reasons they cited for using the Internet were to get information, to communicate with family and friends, and to "enjoy myself". In a study, "The Face of the Web", the Angus Reid Group found that more than 300 million people are using the Internet and 150 million more will do so this year. They also found that 59 percent of the United States population regularly use the Internet, this represents 39 percent of Internet usage worldwide. Although the US is currently the leader in Internet usage, the trend is quickly catching on in many other countries.

The Angus Reid Group study also revealed that adoption rates are very high once users have logged on, people begin using the Internet for many reasons in addition to those that originally made them connect. They have even begun using it as a means of meeting people, there are many sites on which you can enter a "chat room" and talk privately or in a group. This method of communication rules out all non-verbal communication, people can only express themselves with written words. Internet communication forces people to be much more expressive with their writing and leaves much room for interpretation from others. This makes the Internet a very interesting form of communication.

Another good point about the Internet is that it provides e-mail. Electronic mail sends an instant message to someone's inbox at the touch of a button. This has its advantages over postal mail in that it is practically free; no stamp is required. Also attachments can be sent, whereas in postal mail, any files would have to be sent with a disk. It can also be sent to multiple recipients, which would save writing out the letter again and again. It also delivers it instantly cutting out the time taken to deliver it.

The Internet does hold a lot of information but some of it should not really be for public view. There is a site called 192.com where anybody can be searched for and find their full name, address and telephone number, even with clear directions to their house. Some people could abuse this service, for example, in the case of the murder of Jill Dando, it was believed her killer looked up her address on the Internet. The Internet can provide entertainment to the user with interesting sites or online games. There are endless things to do online. You can also "chat" with other users and it can be a place to meet new people.

On the other hand, online chatting also has its own hazards. When one is talking to strangers one does not really know who they are. They can be just anybody pretending to be someone else. Many cases have been reported of child abuse happening this way. There is no way of verifying who the other really is. Many industries have also suffered a loss, especially the music and movie industry. Movies and songs are available for free on the Internet which has affected the sale levels of artists. People make their own cds and sell them. The phone industry has also suffered because more people are making calls through the Internet. There is also a certain loss of privacy because now most people store all their information on the computer and when you connect online, anybody can hack ones computer and get into it. This had already been done with many e-mail inboxes. Sites also have been hacked leading to major mishaps. Sending a virus on the Web has also been another way that people’s computers have been infected.

If we talk about disadvantages of the Internet, there are certain cons and dangers relating to the use of Internet that can be summarized as: Personal Information: If you use the Internet, your personal information such as your name, address, etc. can be accessed by other people. If you use a credit card to shop online, then your credit card information can also be ‘stolen’ which could be akin to giving someone a blank check. Pornography: This is a very serious issue concerning the Internet, especially when it comes to young children. There are thousands of pornographic sites on the Internet that can be easily found and can be a detriment to letting children use the Internet. Spamming: This refers to sending unsolicited e-mails in bulk, which serve no purpose and unnecessarily clog up the entire system. Such illegal activities are frustrating for all Internet users, and so instead of just ignoring it, we should make an effort to try and stop these activities so that using the Internet can become that much safer. Another major disadvantage is that Internet can by addictive, some people just can’t live without it. They have no real friends and when Internet is down they are getting furious; Internet has some opponents but more and more people treats Internet like telephone, or radio.

In "The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains," the technology writer Nicholas G. Carr extends this anxiety to the 21st century. The book begins with a melodramatic flourish, as Carr recounts the pleas of the supercomputer HAL in "2001: A Space Odyssey." The machine is being dismantled, its wires unplugged: "My mind is going, I can feel it." For Carr, the analogy is obvious: the modern mind is like the fictional computer:

"Over the last few years, I’ve had an uncomfortable sense that someone, or something, has been tinkering with my brain, remapping the neural circuitry, reprogramming the memory."

His new book "The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains", argues the latest technology renders us less capable of deep thinking. Nicholas G. Carr found himself so distracted that he couldn't work on the book while staying as connected, as is commonplace.

"I found my inability to concentrate a great disability. So I abandoned my Facebook and Twitter accounts and throttled back on e-mail so I was only checking a couple of times a day rather than every 45 seconds. I found those types of things really did make a difference. […]What we are losing is a whole other set of mental skills, the ones that require not the shifting of our focus but the maintaining of our focus. Contemplation, introspection, reflection -- there is no space or time for those on the Internet. It is pretty clear from the brain science that if you don't exercise particular cognitive skills, you are going to lose them. If you are constantly distracted, you are not going to think in the same way that you would think if you paid attention."

We have come a long way in world-wide technological advancement. Computers are a way of living now but years ago everything was documented on paper and before then on stone. Indeed, the internet hosts an enormous informational base. Technology has made it possible for this information to reach far and wide. It would be almost unheard for the average American to go one day without the internet. By the year of 2000, more than one-half of all American households had personal computers. Today, the number must have tripled (Mary Fitzpatrick: American ways). There is no doubt that the internet serves as an important data base worldwide. However, it is very essential to know about computers and be familiar with World Wide Web. Nothing can be more intimidating than a child knowing more about computers and internet than their parents, and often this is what happens with today's parents who probably know very little about internet than their children.