During the last decade the world has experienced a change that has brought the population into a new lifestyle regarding technology that will never be limited again. The amount of freedom that the Internet allows us is incredible to think about. Talking about our nation’s freedom spreads to the entire world when talking about the use of the Internet. By freedom, I mean that every person can do whatever he or she please over the Internet. They can do homework, use social networking sites, or just for entertainment. Before the Internet, all schoolwork was handwritten and there were no handouts or papers to be typed; they all had to be written or typed on a typewriter. Social networking changed with the Invention of Myspace and Facebook. In the majority of different lifestyles the use of the Internet proves to be a huge factor, whether you’re a businessman always on call, a college student trying to write a paper, or a high school student trying to figure out what your friends are doing for the weekend. The distractions of entertainment on the Internet can overcome the importance of work. If we can stay away from the distractions the Internet can be a strong asset to our lives.
Schoolwork is evidently the most important subject on the minds of people under the age of twenty-three. In the twenty first century, a large portion of schoolwork is done on a computer. No matter what someone is doing on the computer they always go on the Internet. It may be to check or send e-mail, do some research for school, listen to music, or even look up videos on you tube. This to some people is a sign that the Internet is taking over how we do things and what we are thinking. Nicholas Carr states “My mind now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles. Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski.”1 Carr explains how he absolutely loves the Internet in his profession as a writer but has noticed that his thought process has changed just as quickly as he turned to loving the Internet. In most aspects of life the Internet has taken over the place of hard copy literature especially with newspapers. But is this enough to get by on?
Most will say yes to the question, but others feel that there must be a stronger connection for maximum use of the Internet all over the place. For some, the Internet is overwhelming. Many people don’t even know about the distractions of the Internet. They only know of what they need to do which proves that the Internet is enough to get by on as it is. We have already started to make adjustments for those who are in desperate need. For businessmen there are blackberries. The reason people are switching over to a blackberry is because it comes with full Internet access along with the capability to receive and send e-mail from the exact same device. The most convenient aspect of a blackberry is the fact that there are no cords that are needed to plug into. It has complete wireless access. This also has spread to the social network area. This is constantly affecting the communities because we are losing social skills. With the lack of face-to-face social skills our world will collapse.
Text messaging is a gateway to losing speech. Today, many people resort to a text message rather than a phone call. In certain situations people will text message each other while they are in the same room. This shows the lack of communication skills that some of the kids will build if they are constantly using this new Internet technology. But still, do people have enough Internet access? Internet in classrooms still creates problems. The problem comes by deciding if the Internet benefits students more or if it distracts them more. It is very hard to use online sources like OAK and Blackboard without the use of Internet in class. It is a complete benefit to be able to have a full semesters work in front of a student. This is provided over the Internet and has been a huge success for most students. But the problem with the use of Internet in class is the thought that all of the students will spend their time on the Internet playing games or listening to music. This provides much distraction to students and is not beneficial at all in this sense. Along with this is the frustration of a slow Internet connection. While trying to keep up in class the Internet will sometimes lag and students will fall behind very quickly this way. Carr would say that handing out hard copies of everything would be much more beneficial to the students. He states “Immersing myself in a book or a lengthy article used to be easy. My mind would get caught up in the narrative or the turns of the argument, and I’d spend hours strolling through long stretches of prose. That’s rarely the case anymore.”2 It is ultimately up to the person to have strong enough will power to not be distracted by the Internet.
I strongly disagree with Carr’s statement. I feel that the Internet has provided me with much more concentration and discipline while reading. The issue with this is the fact that you cannot enforce students to improve their will power they just have to do it on their own. Over my years in the class room there has always been Facebook, Youtube, and Itunes. The will to learn lies within yourself and if you are off on some other site listening to music or watching videos it is your own fault. If you truly want to learn from a source then you will read it fully and carefully. If students do not want to discipline themselves to read a long book or article they will have to learn to adapt. This is because there is a necessity to do research and to be able to comprehend long topics as you advance in life, especially in the classroom. This concept will also happen in life after school in which if they could not concentrate during school they will simply fail in life as well. While working in the business world, one cannot just veer off and lose focus because they wanted to check their status on Facebook. This type of action would turn into a person being fired, and nobody wants that. If we learn this type of actions as a student they will be very hard to break in the working world.
After all of the distractions of the Internet are passed over, the Internet truly is something that everyone can take advantage of. Yes, Youtube and Facebook are awesome sites and are a main reason for Internet use, but it has more depth than that. Using the web for research is the most convenient and efficient way to do a school project. Without it most of us students would be lost in a world of endless pages of what we feel like is useless knowledge. People of all ages benefit from the Internet proving that the Internet needs to be expanded in several different ways. With strong will power and discipline we can all learn to stay focused on a topic even with all of the distractions on a computer.
Footnotes
1. http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/google
2. http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/google
