The Internet has dramatically changed over the years, which has impacted our lives in mostly good but some bad ways. In listening to the lecture about the history of the internet, I have observed that even in the recent years the internet has changed many things in the world. I shall discuss two examples of how the internet technology has changed my life for the better, and for the worse.
When I started high school I would use the computer, for school work, research, and AOL instant messenger. I can remember when I used to work out I would have a huge walkman, a small portable CD player with headphones attached. When I got my own computer as a sophomore, it was around the time where Mac had just created the ipod, so I got an ipod mini with my new computer. This expanded my horizon of music so much, I got to experience music in a whole new way, viewing it all in a library, rather than searching through a stack of CD's to find what I want to listen to. I discovered the art of "shuffle" in which I would have no idea what song was playing, and it could be any of my 300 songs in my library -- the suspense was very exciting. Getting an ipod and being able to search songs on the internet and even find lyrics to these songs online made me a very happy person and I can proudly say has changed my life for the better. Now I look back and think I do not know how I survived without downloading songs everyday and being able to know everything about them through research on the web. If I hear a song I like all I have to do to find it is type a few lyrics on google and the song will come up, it is pretty amazing.
Although I do love what I am about to talk down about, face book has changed my life for the worse. This new online community that Harvard kids created a couple years ago is beginning to take over the world. It all started at Harvard, then moved a couple other universities - until now as it is nation wide, even allowing high schoolers to join in. I began using face book when I was a junior in high school, just after I had gotten sick of my space. My my space is now deleted, however I do not think I would be able to live a day without logging onto face book. It is pretty sad that I am addicted to a website, where all you do is view your friends pictures and write on each others walls. It is funny because we have always had community web shots and AOL instant messenger, which is basically the same thing as face book just on different windows, but for some reason when all of these different applications form together, it is like society just entered into a whole new universe. Face book has its good qualities, a great way to communicate with those you cannot talk to or see in person, but it also has its downsides, the art of stalking people through looking at pictures, being so addicted that you check your face book every hour on the hour to see if you have received any new notifications. I do love logging onto face book to see what is going on in my little world, however the hours wasted on face book I feel could be used to expand my horizon, outside of the computer screen.
So as technology of the internet expands, more and more people will use the internet and sooner or later, pretty much everything will be accessible through the internet, if it isn't already.
