Is this the new way of the world???
The year is 2008, it is not unusual to hear someone speak of an online "friend" they have. A person they have never met, but feel very close to. Never seeing the person in the flesh, but feeling very comfortable with this individual. What happen to meeting people the good, old fashion way... IN PERSON?!
Going back about fifteen to eighteen years ago, depending solely on the Internet was unheard of. Around this time period people actually went to the library and read books, magazines, and newspapers. Now, everything is done on the Internet. When students have to do research papers, they research most of the information online. When students need to speak with a classmate because they need the homework assignment, they contact their peer through email or instant message. When people are bored and feeling the need to speak someone, they go to a chat room via Internet. It seems like the world has gone completely insane. Is the human race lacking social skills?
In Europe, 169 million people are online a day. The users spend about twelve hours per week; 5.5 days per week. In the United States, over 200 million people are online per day. Statistics are showing that the average person is spending more time in front of a computer screen rather than a television set. Three hours per day is used on the computer, most pertains to work related and the rest is leisure.
It's beginning to seem as if people are living their entire life through the Internet. Instead of going to a department store, many people rather shop for clothing or household items online. People even get music from the Internet. They either download free music from websites, like limewire or purchase music from websites, such as rhapsody or itunes. Pretty soon, Cd's and DVDs will no longer exist stores.
People are using the Internet for everything. People do online banking as well as pay their bills online.
All these things that the Internet is capable of amazes me, but the thing that puzzles me the most is the way people connect with STRANGERS online. It is so interesting that everyone knows that in cyberspace anyone can create whoever they want to be, but still continue to befriend strangers online. There have been many of cases where people have become missing and the last person they were in communication with was someone they met on Myspace two weeks ago.
The Millennial generation cannot seem to live without facebook or myspace. On these sites, people have hundreds of "friends"; in the real world they may only really know fifty of them, if that many. You could call someone your facebook friend and when you see this person in person you never utter a word. This is a bit weird to me. Does this imply that the only true thing that you have in common is the Internet relationship??? The only thing stranger than that is people finding their one "true love" through a dating website, like eHarmony or matchmaker.
Things seem to be a lot different than they are now. The Internet seems to be making people more lazy and less social. The Internet is the new way of the world.
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Sources:
~John Markoff " Internet Use Said to Cut into TV Viewing and Socializing" Dec. 29, 2007 www.nytimes.com
~Bogdan Popa "People Can't Live Without Internet" Dec.6, 2007 www.news.softpedia.com/news
~Jessica Vitak "Are We Becoming Too Dependent on the Internet?" Nov 19, 2007 www.gnovisjournal.org
~Pictures: www.google.com