“No
one can possibly know what is about to happen: it is happening, each time, for
the first time, for the only time.” -James Arthur Baldwin
The
quote that I have found above sums up the first time I have ever used the
internet. I had no idea what I was getting myself into at the young age of 12
when I had to beg my parents to let me get an email account. I remember sitting
with my father at our family's old dial up PC trying to come up with an
appropriate email address for a little girl and what parental settings needed
to be locked in, Lkprtlaw was the out come, (abbreviation for Lockport.
LAW=initials) which is still in use today. I was so excited to finally be
trusted enough to go on the internet and play games on the Nickolodeon website
and use instant messenger with my friends from school, look up things online,
and play around with pictures, etc. It was honestly a mind blowing experience that
could only happen that one time for the first time and sharing that experience
with my father makes it even better. At that very moment we had no idea what we
were in for or what exactly the future was going to hold for our future and the
internet.
Flash
forward many, many years and I am still in awe about how far we have come with
the internet and all the fun and exciting things we have the privilege of
doing. The internet alone runs a million times faster than what it used to and
the many ends of the internet are unknown, everything and anything you have
ever wanted to know is on the internet. Email, file transfer, newsgroups,
and online games are only a few things that have progressed over the years. We
can stream all kinds of media, set up podcasts, and webcasts, chat rooms, media
conferencing, there are WIFI cafes so people can be out of their houses and
access the internet. Almost every phone that is bought today has a internet
package on it. I looked up on the internet that "Overall Internet usage
has seen tremendous growth. From 2000 to 2009, the number of Internet users
globally rose from 394 million to 1.858 billion. By 2010, 22 percent of the
world's population had access to computers with 1 billion Google searches every
day, 300 million Internet users reading blogs, and 2 billion videos viewed
daily on YouTube," we are so dependent on this technology for our everyday
living.
If you asked me what I thought my relationship
with the internet would be 11 years later I probably would of told you "not
much." When I was 12 and first started using the internet, it was just to
play around and not do anything important. It’s amazing how much school work
and life work I do online. Now, I don’t know where I would be without the
Internet.
Lauren's title says it all. The internet is something that has become a part of our daily lives for better or for worse. All of us grew up in the 90's, and we know how slow dial-up was. It's amazing to see how far we have come in terms of how the internet affected us. Instead of having internet access in one remote location, you can get online virtually anywhere. This post reminds me of the first time that I had to beg my dad to put internet service on my cellphone. I didn't really need it at the time, but it blew my mind that I was able to connect to the internet wherever I had service. I couldn't imagine my life without internet. I constantly talk to people at work, and it boggles my mind that they don't have internet in their homes. The way we used to do things have drastically changed because of the evolution of the internet. Here are a few things I want to mention; sending and receiving mail, shopping, communicating with others, and compiling research, applying for college and jobs, and even taking classes. Technology has changed all of those previous items and made them more efficient. Instead of waiting for, "You've got mail," you can check multiple email accounts in that same amount of time.
ReplyDeleteI can relate to the first time you used the Internet. When children were first introduced to the Internet parents had their eyes glued to the screens making sure everything was kid friendly. When the Internet first came around none of us really knew what the future held. Just being able to do things we couldn’t do before was enough for our 12-year-old minds. When you say, “Flash forward many, many years and I am still in awe about how far we have come with the internet and all the fun and exciting things we have the privilege of doing,” I agree completely. We are now left with a faster, smarter, and more tech-savvy machine. In addition most phones these days come with available Internet packages. The stats you give about the number of Internet users rising from the year 2000 to 2009 really show how much society as adapted to using the Internet. I also agree with you when you say, “It’s amazing how much school work and life work I do online. Now, I don’t know where I would be without the Internet.” Students these days rely so much on computers and Internet usage. It would be crazy to think about a life without both.
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