First Web Writing Assignment

The Internet is something that I cannot imagine having to live life without. I use it just about everyday, whether it is surfing the Internet for entertainment purposes or using it for school related purposes. I do not remember exactly when I first got the Internet, but I know it was sometime around 1995. I was too young at the time to remember everything about the first time I encountered the Internet, but what I do remember is that we had dial-up. I am extremely grateful for what I now know as wi-fi (wireless Internet). Having dial-up Internet in today’s society would be a hassle. I remember dial-up as being very frustrating and you could not use the phone and the Internet at the same time.  The earliest encounter with the Internet that I can remember, was towards the end of elementary school and the beginning of middle school. I mostly used it for social purposes then, such as instant messaging (AIM) my friends and playing games. Google was also a fascination of mine at that time. I remember being enamored that one website could give you so much information about such different topics. I had to be supervised for the most part when using the Internet as a child since I was not old enough at the time to have free reign of it. Although, I did try and sneak on it at times, but those lovely parental controls prevented me from doing that. There was certainly inappropriate content on there and still is today.

Once I got to high school, I started to use it for more educational purposes. I started to get assigned research papers and projects and had to use it for that and less for entertainment reasons. I also had a brief encounter with designing and publishing websites for my internship senior year of high school.  Along with those experiences, I discovered email in high school and remember how amazed I was at how convenient it was. Email is one of the only parts of my early encounters with the Internet that I still use today. I even have it on my phone I love it so much. As far as using the Internet for educational purposes, I do not believe I would have survived high school without it. Google and other search engine sights are what I used the most throughout middle and high school when it came to getting information for research papers and other projects. I also discovered Facebook in 10^th grade, but I didn’t use it as much as I do now. That’s largely in part to most of my friends not having it as well.

When it comes to the readings that we have looked at in class, my experiences with the Internet go along more with that of Vannevar Bush. To me, the Internet was an exciting new thing that allowed me to communicate faster with others and be able to do work faster than I would if I didn’t have access to the Internet. Vannevar Bush certainly had big dreams for the way people would communicate as well as other inventors such as Leibnitz, who had a calculating machine that resembles a modern day keyboard. With inventions like theirs, we are able to use the Internet for more education purposes as opposed to the Internet being a negative, anti-social thing.

However, Nathaniel Hawthorne makes some great arguments when it comes to the negative aspects that technology can have on society. As far as the Internet being anti-social, it has the potential to do that. Younger generations that have grown up with the Internet and have never experienced not having it do not know how to interact with others the way older generations that have experienced internet less times do. This could potentially be a threat to society. It reminds of the ad campaign for the Toyota Venza where they compare older generations of being anti-social when the younger girl is sitting at home on her computer while they are out doing activities with friends. This is what society could be like should people start using the Internet more and more.

With that being said, the Internet has the ability to grant us great knowledge. This is very useful when it comes to research and other academic purposes. However, I use the Internet for entertainment purposes most of the time. YouTube, email, and Facebook are something I don’t believe I am going to be giving up any time soon. The Internet is a great invention, but needs to be used in moderation so that it will not have negative consequences on modern society.