The Internet is used so much today the number of users just continues to increase! I mean if you really think about it how much of your time is spent on the Internet? The traditional ways of getting the news by newspaper and the t.v are not very popular anymore. Why would you go out and buy a newspaper when you can quickly get online and see the lastest updates with the click of a button?

According to Daily Source The. The Growing Impact of the Internet. (2005-2010)
The Internet is by far the primary source for accessing news. The numbers of users continue to increase each year. A total of over thirty million American get news via the Internet. The reliance of the Internet for news is spiking, for example after 9/11 3% of users said their primary source was the Internet. A year and half later with the war in Iraq, 26% of users were using the Internet for access to the news.

After reading this article I don't see media ever becoming a "tradtional" way like newspaper and t.v because I cant even think about what could be quicker and easier then the Internet. The Internet will just become more and more advanced.

Internet Addiction Disorder eh?

Internet Addiction Disorder sounds kinda of funny to me because when I think of a disorder I think about ADD or ADHD something that is wrong with you.

According to Bursten, Julia & Mark Dombeck.Internet Addiction (2004). Internet Addiction Disorder is becoming compulsively dependent upon a particular kind of stimulation to the point where obtaining a steady supply of that stimulation becomes the sole and central focus of their lives. Some “symptoms” to this disorder would be ...

1)thinking about the Internet when offline

2)dishonesty in regard to Internet use

3)sadness or moodiness when offline

4)using the Internet as a distraction.

People actually can get help for this disorder as funny as this whole thing sounds, but with the way media is adavncing and how much you can do on the Internet is really that hard to believe that this is a real disorder?

freedom and information= Internet

Have you ever wondered why people like the Internet so much? Well in this blog on Associated Content,called negative effects of Internet usage written in 2006,There are two reasons why people are addicted to the internet; freedom and information. The internet gives people the privilege to do what they want, say what they want and be who they want. When you go online you can say anything you want, you don’t have be someone who you are not. This article continues to talk about how you can pretty much live your whole life on the internet. People take advantage of the freedom of speech online because no one can find out who you are you can say exactly what you feel when you feel it. The Internet also conceived new ways to commit crimes and expressing hate.

While reading this blog it really made a lot of sense, you can live your whole life on the Internet and be whoever you want and no one can really do anything about.

Luxuries of the Internet

The funny thing about wondering about the effect of the Internet on society is that I am finding all these articles online and I don’t think I would of found such useful information if it wasn’t for the Internet , so it just goes to show you how useful the Internet really is and I honestly don’t know what I would do if I didn’t have the Internet because it makes things so easy!

Speaking of things being easy, Effects of computers and the Internet on society by Gordon Hamilton wrote a very nice piece about how the Internet has made communicating a lot easier by using emails , messaging and webcams. The internet has also helped with searching for information, we used to just have to go through very lengthy books to find what we need, but now with a click of a button we can find exactly what we were searching for without extra information to sort through. Hamilton mentions that Internet may have made things a lot easier, but also has caused a form of isolation. This form of isolation could lead to developing reduce ability to interact with others.

I really like this article because it was short and to the point. It stated the effect of the Internet on people' lives ; good and bad.

What is going to happen in our future?

Have you ever wondered what is going to be next in our future with technology? I mean the possibilities are endless with computers and Internet. The Internet affects us in every way, most importantly with our social lives, our jobs, and our entertainment.

This short article Effects Of Computers and The Internet On Society by Shakti Ghimire makes some valid points I would like to share with you .

1. Going online is the new way to communicate with people. To send an email you type in your message and with a click of a button, the person receives it. This is much faster than mailing something.
2. Internets are going to affect are jobs! A computer can do anything much faster than an person can and with the advancements in media people soon are going to be replaced with computers. The world wants things quick and easy , and computers are the answer to that. There is always consequences to everything. Quick and easy vs your job?
3. Why would you want to manually deal out cards and have to clean them up after? When your computer can deal out cards in a click of a button and you have nothing to clean up. This is exactly why people use computers and the internet for entertainment. You can gamble, place bets on horse races, watch movies and listening to music online.

People can do all of these things without having to get in their car and waste gas by driving around trying to find entertainment. People are content with the fact they have entertainment right there in their homes.

"Behind every silver lining.. There are problems."

A majority of people have the advantage of having the Internet and pretty much looking at and for anything they want. The internet is the most convenient way for “Schoolchildren to receive help with homework, investors can keep track of stocks, sports scores and statistics are just a click away for fans. These are but a few of the myriad ways people use the Internet.”
But according to the article The Internet: Boon or Detriment to Society? By Rob Purdy on the other hand “Behind every silver lining” “there are several problems associated with the Internet. It allegedly opens the world to everyone, regardless of race, creed, sex, etc. But despite lowering costs of necessary technological equipment and the advent of Web TV, not everyone can afford to go online.”

Another problem it mentions is being “addicted” , its called "Internet Addiction Disorder." Dr. Goldberg said IAD is not a recognized medical addiction like alcoholism, but "more like an out-of-control behavior that threatens to overwhelm the addict's normal life."

The place where I got this information is kinda an old article, but it sounds like it has valid information in it.

Internet Relationships

Since lately I have wondered about how the internet impacts people, I have been finding the most interesting articles. I found this one article called Personal Relationships: On and off the Internet by Jeffrey Boase and Barry Wellma. It talks about how having the internet can have advantages and disadvantages with being able to talk to people on-line instead of face to face.

For instance:
(1) As internet communication is largely distance-independent in use and cost, it may
support more interactions with a greater number of spatially dispersed network members.

(2) The asynchronous nature of the internet, in which senders and receivers of messages
do not have to be online simultaneously, also supports interactions at great distances and
among people with different temporal rhythms.

(3) The rapidity of internet interactions as compared to intermittent face-to-face meetings
and phone calls may foster a high velocity of interpersonal exchange, sometimes ill-
considered.

(4) The reduced social presence of the internet may limit its ability to support emotional,
nuanced and complex interactions.

(5) The text-only nature of almost all internet messages can reduce perceived hierarchies
as gender, social class, ethnicity, age, etc are less visible.

(6) The absence of direct visual or audio feedback in internet exchanges may encourage
more extreme forms of communication, sometimes called flaming. People may input
messages to the screen that they would never say to another person palpably present in
person or on the telephone.

(7) The ability of email to be forwarded to others supports transitive, indirect contact, as
when messages get sent to friends of friends. This aids the exchange of information that
cuts across group boundaries. Such crosscutting ties link and integrate social groups,
increasing societal connectivity.

(8) The ability of internet messages to be sent to many people simultaneously allows
people to remain in contact with multiple social circles.

(9) The internet’s velocity, transitivity and multiple message characteristics indirectly
connect the wired world in six steps or less. Yet, there is significant decoupling in social
networks. Hence, information diffuses rapidly through computer-supported social
networks, but neither universally nor uniformly.


You think this is interesting, this is only the beginning of what they talk about. If you want to read more! CLICK HERE

Could people live without internet?

I have realized that being a college student now, I have spent a lot more time on the internet then I have ever before in my life. The internet is a very useful tool and if we didn’t have the internet, the libraries would be a lot more popular. Then I started thinking that actually now a days a lot of people use the internet much more, like for emails, looking at news, to look up pretty much anything. This was really interesting to me, so I decided to look around and find out really how much people use the internet.

I found this article called INTERNET AND SOCIETY:A PRELIMINARY REPORT by
Norman H. Nie and Lutz Erbring. The paragraph below is pretty much a summary with questions that they answer throughout the article

“Over the last five years, the revolution in information technology (IT) has resulted in innovations that are having increasingly visible effects on the life of the average American. These developments affect not only how people work, but where they work, how much they work, or with whom they interact face to face or electronically. Will future workers continue to share physical proximity with their colleagues, or work largely alone wedded to digital devices with occasional electronic mail or voice communication? What will these changes mean for social trust and social life beyond the family? Will the growing trend of working at home with the aid of IT help strengthen the family or add to the intrusion of the workplace into the home? Will it reduce the hours people work, or increase them by infusing work into every sphere of life,
devouring leisure-time and family-life? And how will the Internet affect the role and use of the
traditional media?”

Is the Internet destroying the society?

The other day I stumbled upon an interesting article. This article was titled Social Capital and Information Technology by Marleen Huysman and Voler Wulf.

This article talks about the positive and negative effects of the Internet on people's lives. Some positives it mentions is that its a fast and an enexpensve way to communicate with people. The internet gives people a way to be involved in groups and pursue their interest. One of the negative effects it has on people, is it draws them away from thier family and social lives.

These are just one negative and positive it has within the article, but as I was reading the whole thing it really made a lot of sense and made you realize that the Internet has its disadvantages and advantges on the society. It was really interesting to read about.