Jane Apple
10/17/12
CMJ 100
Jessica Brophy

The Internet; World Domination
There is a time and place where one realizes that the world is one hundred percent different then it was even fifty years ago, because we are now in a “digital age”. Everything we use from our alarm clocks, phones, computers, even the way we read books, is all done with the latest technology. Humans no longer talk or interact, they simply are attached to this digital world, updating their Twitter’s or Facebook status’s, where they can be whoever they want to be. Yes, these things are very entertaining, but because everyone is so connected, it is ruining the way humans interact with each other on a physical and mental level.
The Internet was brought to the attention of most households during the early to mid nineties. The computer was becoming very user friendly at this point with more people learning about interaction design, therefore creating a much easier and more pleasurable experience. People could go online at any time to check things like the weather, updates from their favorite sports teams, and games were being created for little children, therefore this generation born in the early nineties became accustom to how a computer works quickly.
The World Wide Web throughout the last twenty years or so has become so popular, not just because of the information online, but because of how the information is presented. According to those who special in Information Design, data must be presented as information, and is then organized into knowledge, which is then presented more or less as wisdom. For example, if college students at the University of Maine must log onto a website called “Maine Street”. This website has extremely important information in regards to finances, classes, teachers, and personal information. The way this is laid out is horrendous, as it is confusing and glichy. But because there are so many people that their job is to make websites look “pretty”, the internet is much more popular.
People spend about half of their entire day with technological devices. It makes for not much time actually socializing with real people, but rather “real” people online. With everyone being so connected, it makes for a scary outcome of what the upcoming generation will be like, as there people are already getting divorces and fights etc. after reading something on someone’s social media page or text messages. There are good intentions, but most people around the world do not use the internet for just research. If Facebook were a country, it would be the third largest in the world. There are more people who would rather be on social media networks rather than vote for the next president of the United States of America.
The quirky part of the internet is what it has done to most economies. Business’s are selling more and more product online because that is the easiest way for most people to purchase things these days. This is creating less jobs, which even though the company may be doing alright, because they don’t need as many employees physically handy, it makes for an interesting, not-so-great thing for our economy. People need to work, and in order to work, they must have a place TO work.

The industry feeling this the most is the music, because either artists music is being stolen or hacked, or companies who sell the artists music take most of the percentage of music bought. This leaves an artist who works hard for his money rather disappointed, as the artist should deserve the credit of his/her work. CDs are not being purchased because the convenience of being able to purchase music sitting in your bed in your pjs is much more realistic.
It is hard to say what will happen in the future in regards to the internet. One must wait and see what, or how it will change upcoming generations.
Too much internet usage fragments the brain and dissipates concentration so that after a while, one’s ability to spend long, focused hours immersed in a single subject becomes blunted. Information comes pre-digested in small pieces, one grazes on endless ready-meals and snacks of the mind, and the result is mental malnutrition. The internet can also have a pernicious influence on reading because it is full of book-related gossip and chatter which it is fatally easy to waste time that should be spent actually paying close, careful attention to the books themselves, whether writing them or reading them. (Hill)
Susan Hill, author of Howards End is on the Landing, was looking at the pschological aspects of this, almost pointing out that the internet is more of a fantasy land than not. Though the internet has many great qualities, and is used in classrooms for great things around the world, it is the time spent away from the “learning” that most are concerned about.
Overall, it is safe to say that many business and people would not be where they are today without the use of the internet. It has amazing qualities, those like being about to Skype with soldiers over sea’s as an example, but it is the age old saying, “Too much of anything is no good.” The internet is young, and will be used for years until someone comes up with something even better, though that seems quite impossible at the moment, as the internet might never die.