The rise of the Internet and its increasing degree of ubiquity raises some very troubling questions about its effects on our society. One cannot deny its usefulness as a tool of communication and information transfer, but its problems might outweigh its strengths. While I use the Internet several hours a day (to the extent that I am almost addicted to it), I must admit the pitfalls of this very useful, if possibly detrimental, tool. It must also be mentioned that those things that are so useful about the Internet are those that are the most rarely used; besides college students who are writing last-minute papers, there are probably very few people who really take advantage of the vast amount of information that the Internet makes available at the click of a mouse. While the Internet is not an incredibly new technology when one looks at its history, we are still discovering new uses as well as long-term effects on our society. People tend to communicate as much, if not more, on the Internet than they do face-to-face, placing more of a strain on “normal” human contact. It is a beast that more than likely cannot be put back in its cage; rather, we must discover how it can be most useful and alter our already-formed bad habits.
In 1945, Vannevar Bush imagined a great mechanical information-sharing and storing device that he titled the “memex.” The Information Age had not yet begun (or was in its nascent stages) when Bush dreamed up this idea, and yet he was still dizzied by the vast amount of information one would have to sort through, especially as a scientist. He wanted to make a glorified photocopier or microfiche machine that would “scan” information and store it on miniature punch cards. Then he dreamed up a way of tracking useful searches made by previous researchers (Google and Wikipedia borrowed this idea) so that one would not have to wade through the piles of useless information one might find by searching library-catalogue style. Little would Bush know that he thought up the first search engine (he could have gotten an amazing patent on that idea if he had been born a generation or two later).
Bush was a scientific researcher, so of course he would have been immensely interested in the recording, filing, and sharing of information (1995). This kind of thing is what people often cite when trying to prove that the Internet is not (all) bad. Of course, it cannot be denied that Bush’s dream of a massive amount of information-sharing occurs every second; according to a Google search, a new website is created every 4-8 seconds (and while this information may be apocryphal, it is not surprising). What are most of these sites, though? Are they truly informational websites, or are they other, seemingly useless, things such as pornography or a teenager’s fan Geocities website for a television show? When most of us sit down to a computer with the Internet, are we trying to send, store, and receive useful information? My basic routine, repeated several times a day, is to check my school and personal e-mails, check my blog, take a pass over Facebook, and look at a couple of web comics. The only thing Bush may have deemed useful is the exchange of information through e-mail between my professors and I or between my boss and I; everything else is time-wasting entertainment. We mostly use the Internet as a wonderful way to waste time rather than an amazing tool for research.
The other main use for the Internet is communication. I have venerated the Internet in the past because it allows me to keep in touch with people I have not seen in years. As a teenager, I spent even more time online than I do now talking to friends, far and near, over AOL Instant Messenger. I was able to save myself from that awful netspeak (e.g. lol, rofl, ttyl, imho, etc.), but I know many who are older than I that do use such acronyms. Having arguments without being able to see a person’s face or hear the inflection in their words is incredibly interesting and difficult. Our way of communicating over the Internet is vastly different from how we (used to) communicate face-to-face; I had to teach my mother the difference, which is somewhat subtle, but it can make all the difference. The Internet has affected how many people communicate with one another in person. My friends who spend a good deal of time in front of their computers relate differently to people when they are face-to-face; it creates the sort of social awkwardness that we now associate with “computer geeks.”
But perhaps far worse from altering how we communicate with people, it alters how much we communicate with people. This is similar to Nathaniel Hawthorne’s problem with the wood-burning stove. Hawthorne worries that without the fireplace bringing (forcing?) people together, people will lose the sense of community that he treasures. Well, the stove might not have done this, but the Internet is furthering this doomsday scenario. At this time, we have four people and four computers in my house spread across three rooms. The majority of our time is spent on the computer (mostly on the Internet). Because of this, the majority of our time is spent apart from one another. We have a house full of friends, but we do not talk that often. It is like the wood stove, allowing people to remain apart from one another, only it is perhaps more insidious because the immobility of some of the computers in fact forces us to be apart if we wish to use them. When some of our out-of-town friends come to visit, it is not uncommon to find three or more of us sitting side-by-side on our laptops doing separate things and not talking to each other much at all. While the Internet allows for greater sharing of information and more wide-spread communication, we must ask what the quality of our communication is and what it is doing to our immediate relationships.
When Vannevar Bush was dreaming up his great memex, he could not have anticipated the turn that this comparable great thing has taken. The Internet has vast amounts of information that people are sharing, but the cynic and realist in me finds it hard to believe that very much of this information is “useful” information. I know my generation well; we use the Internet for anything but information. We use it to waste time and to “communicate.” Our communication skills are diminishing with our increased use of the Internet. Despite my (newly-developed) negative opinion of the Internet, I doubt I will change my habits. Once you have gone down such a road, it is difficult to turn back. Now we must find a way to move forward without further detriment to our society.
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