The internet is an amazing thing. We can find more information than we could ever comprehend just by opening up our browser. In fact, we could find more information than we could ever want. The question that a lot of people are raising nowadays is, is the internet more bad than good??
I love the internet. I don't how I could possibly survive without it, but I do question sometimes about how much good and how much harm it is doing to our society. I have been fascinated by the internet since it first came out. I still remember logging onto AOL for the first time and the first time I got an E-mail (granted it was junk mail, but I was still excited). There was a never ending world on the internet and I could just keep clicking through and finding more and more things! Of course, I was only allowed on the internet for a half hour at a time because being on the internet meant that we couldn't receive phone calls, and with dial-up connection that meant that I never got very far. But I was young and in awe of everything that was on there. The funny part is that this was before the internet was what it is today, there wasn't all of the shopping, videos, social networking and all of the things we had today... it was just the internet... and that was fine by me...
I look back at those days and laugh. I remember creating my first website when I was probably 11 or 12 years old and working on it whenever I was allowed on the internet. I put hours into that site, uploading images and linking to my favorite sites (most of them game sites or websites about llamas [don't ask]). I was so proud of that site even though I knew that no one went to it. I was out there, finally part of this amazing world. Anyone could find my site and they could follow my links and enjoy all of the things that I enjoy. I had arrived and I had no worries about safety or security on the web. I used to play games and chat in chat rooms with no fear of anything, who could touch me on the internet?? This is one of the reasons I can look back and laugh.
I see the internet a little bit differently now. I don't know for sure whether it was the internet that changed or whether I just grew up. Now you can't search Google images for pictures of flowers without getting porn, no matter how high you set the filters. You can't really trust what you read because you are never too sure who wrote it. There seems to be danger lurking at every site you go to… Identity theft, sexual prowlers, hackers, lies, viruses, trojans... who knows what could happen with that next click.
I worry about the younger generation, the kids that are on the internet but don't understand the dangers that are out there. I was there once, and no one could touch me... that is until I was in a chat room and some creeper asked if I wanted to "cyber"... I didn't even know what it was, but I knew from the feeling in the pit of my stomach that it was not something I was supposed to do... Needless to say that was pretty much the end of my chat room days and the end of me feeling safe and protected on the internet. But kids make mistakes and I worry that with how many dangers are out there now and how many more will come these younger kids are in a lot of danger.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
When I read this I felt like I was re-living my internet experiences. Unfortunately, my house still has good ol' AOL (PLEASE, Time Warner, come to rural America) and going home and checking my e-mail is such a pain I usually don't bother. The internet certainly has changed from when I was young, and it's continuously changing. I share your concern about younger generations who might not be able to tell the "good" from the "bad" as easily as we do because what they see is just second nature. I think it's more important than ever for parents to step up to the internet. While I hated my Mom looking at my MySpace when I was younger, it kept me from doing things that I knew I shouldn't do. While parents shouldn't be overbearing and should give their kids some freedom, we have to remember that this freedom comes with a price to those who overstep.
ReplyDeleteWow, I sound like a mom. Thank Gog I'm not going to have kids for years!
I agree. I think parents need to play an active role in what their kids are doing on the Internet. After all I can't imagine a parent letting a kid wandering the street without keeping an eye on them, so why would they let them wander the information super highway (tacky, I know!) without watching out for them? I know when I was younger I didn't know much about the dangers on the Internet, and I can't imagine that today's youth are that much more aware than our generation was.
ReplyDelete