The creators themselves admit the internet has a lot of problems. One major problem is just how time consuming it is. Many people spend countless hours on their phones or other electronic devices. This is no accident. The internet was designed this way. This is why so many people seem to be addicted to technology. Another major issue with the internet is how we as a customer pays for it. Although the internet is inherently free we pay for it in many ways. One way the internet pays for itself is through the use of ads. Companies make money off what we look at. To more effectively target your interests they search through your data to give you exactly what you want. This is a major problem because these companies go through your private information and use it to target ads to you.
This isn't the only issue that raised. A major problem with the effectiveness of the internet is how it play with your mind. while this is useful for ads it can also be used to get you to dislike things. This could be seen heavily in the 2016 election. There where many scandals involving Russian hacker that would try to help sway the people the vote for trump. Besides the hackers other websites such as Reddit and 4chan where used as a community for hatred and even the creator apologized for their creation. This is the exact opposite of what the internet was supposed to be and is bring out more hate than expected.
I think the article makes some very good points but fails to point out all the success of the internet. Yes technology has its issues but it is not 100 percent evil. For example the internet does spread hate but has also been used to take down many immoral acts that before the internet probably wouldn't get out. My view on the internet is that moderation is key. I believe yes its ok to check what your friends are doing on Instagram everyone in a while but that shouldn't take away from actual human interaction.
I Guess the final question is when does the internet get to the point where the bad weights out the good. For right now I believe the internet here to stay and gives us a valuable resource in many fields not just as entertainment. For instance I am able the right my paper right now and submit it from home. Its these small things that we forget we need the internet for. Without internet you couldn't just google questions and get the answers. How would you be able to try to figure out how to fix something or maybe even find a restaurant near you. The internet is just to valuable to be written off as a negative and I think that we need to look at it objectively and really weight out the details.
-Brenden Dy
i defininitely agree with you on this because a lot of posts have been centered around the bad things about the internet even though there’s a lot of good that comes from it as well. i like how you talked about the small things that the internet does for us and i think a lot of us take that for granted like many other things because it’s become something so accessible and when something is easy to get we expect it all the time and feel entitled to it. you see this with the school wifi because we all know it’s not good but we get frustrated that something isn’t loading fast enough be ausecwere used to having answers just pop up right after we hit search.
ReplyDeletei also like how you said that we need to look at it objectively because a lot of the times we base our views and opinions on our emotions and how we feel but with issues like the internet it’s extremely important to keep it objective and not make it too personal. even though it should be objective the majority of people look at it subjectively and that just creates a bunch of biased statements and problems can’t be solved when bias is present in the conversation.
Going off of Abigail’s example about us feeling entitled to the Internet, our entitlement can also be seen when people are away from their phones or are in places where there is no available signal.
ReplyDeletePeople are so used to having easy access to the Internet at any given time that they become so accustomed to it that when they don’t have access to it they feel as if they are missing something. I know I have felt this way, and when I noticed it I felt disgusted with myself because I had becomes so accustomed and dependent on the Internet always being not even an inch away from my grasp.
I deeply agree with you Brenden in the sense that people are focusing too much on the Internet’s flaws, practically throwing the good parts of it out the window. For example, the summer homework and these articles and podcasts that we have had are so focused on the Internet’s bad traits, hardly touching it’s good ones. I feel as if we need to balance out the negativity with some other books, articles, and podcasts that focus on the Internet’s positive traits instead of just learning about the bad ones.
I completely agree with you Brenden that a lot of us take the internet for granted. Though some things may have been corrupted by the internet, the internet is still a very useful and reliable resource. Over the summer, most of the books we read were about the negatives of technology and the internet, however we didn't stop once to think or talk about the good things the internet does for us everyday. For example, right now while I'm writing my research project, I have used the dictionary on my phone so many times, if it's for the definition or a synonym. There are so many things that we use the internet for, however we've just started to fell, like Abby said "entitled" to it.
ReplyDeleteI also feel as though the internet is a valuable resource and we sometimes take it for granted. In a few years, books and written word will probably become obsolete and we will have nothing else to rely on besides the internet, so why not let it integrate into our lives now? The infiltration of the internet is something we cannot stop no matter how hard the creators of the internet want us to, so I feel like we should all collectively throw our hands up and say, ¨you know what? whatever.¨
ReplyDeleteThen again, I do feel like the internet is a breeding ground for hate, and I think we should have better filters online and on search engines because there are a lot of hateful comments and articles that are online. This then brings up the argument of free speech and the first amendment, so online sites need to be careful not to infringe, making the task of eliminating hateful posts almost impossible.
- Samantha Boyd
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ReplyDeleteI do agree that the Internet is a very valuable resource at this day and age. People can pass information and communicate quicker; however, this isn't to say that we should be completely dependent on it. Now with people wanting everything to be fast-paced, they would want to spend less time thinking to get an answer. Instead they want to know it immediately. Which can be very dangerous. The Internet is full of hatred, and lies, and if we one day decide to follow the wrong people, then we may harm ourselves. One way that we can prevent this is to also have dependency on our own minds instead of what other people are saying online. In my opinion, the internet should be used in moderation.
ReplyDelete-John Cuellar
You makea good point saying haste may cause false information to be spread, which is true. I do, on the other hand, believe we should depend on the internet and technology as a whole. But just because we do, doesn't mean we should put our lives at risk.
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