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The Internet - For Better or Worse

Has The Internet Changed Your Life? It's Changed Mine!
By Michelle Roy
Expiry Corporation Staff Writer
April 2001

I remember the first time I ever logged on to the Internet. It was 1994, I was in Grade 11 and was doing a work placement with a company called The Bridges Initiatives (bridges.com). My employer was explaining to me how their product (then cd-rom based) worked and how the Internet would play an integral part in allowing businesses to "get their message across".

The very first website I visited was NASA's. I followed a few links, and learned a little about the space center but did not completely grasp the enormity of what I was doing and how I was getting the information.

On the flip side, my computer has had to ward off viruses, I've gotten Email after junk Email about get-rich-quick schemes and other scams; can never really tell if someone in a chat room or discussion board is really who they say they are (especially since I know I've harmlessly pretended to be someone else); and I've unintentionally come across my fair share of pornography (teen, same-sex, and even child photos sometimes pop up as advertisements when you think you are visiting a rather innocent website).

I have one email account strictly for "junk mail". Anytime a website asks for my email address I give them my "junk" address. This email account gets about 50 pieces of junk a day - no thanks! I don't need a magic diet pill, a fake University degree, or to find the love of my life. And quite frankly, I shouldn't really need the extra email account in the first place! The Internet's not all fun and games, that's for sure! According to me: pop up ads are annoying; free usually means $$; never open an email from someone you don't know if you aren't expecting it; and always, Always, ALWAYS, read the fine print.

However, the Internet has opened our minds to technology and helps to expediate the ever-shrinking world. A friend teaching English in Japan is only an Email or Instant Message away. Photos and videos can be uploaded to a website in real-time which makes keeping-in-touch easier than if we lived next door, without Internet.

We can shop at stores around the world, research companies before we make our purchases, meet new friends, and find all sorts of information from how to make that special recipe (try allrecipes.com) to the answer to your son's math question (askjeeves.com). People are planning weddings (ultimatewedding.com is a good site) and funerals online (funeralplan.com); they're posting and reading diary entries (an example is opendiary.com), watching Internet television (wwitv.com); and much, much more.

Yes, there have been bumps along the way. Sites shut down (pets.com), packages have not always been shipped on time (in 1999 eToys had troubles getting toys to kids for Christmas morning), and there are people online who often claim to be something they are not - but the same things happen in the offline world.

More and more people are surfing the Internet everyday. 72.3 % of Americans have Internet Access and that number continues to grow each year. Whether we like it or not, the Internet has become a part of living in North America.

Some may argue, however, that the Internet has fed on the consumer culture that we already live in. We've become more impatient and choosy than we were before the Internet. And for good reason when we can get whatever we want in a matter of moments, depending on our Internet connection speed! The Internet satisfies our North American-Consumer-Culture-Want for instant gratification, shopping, making money, and meeting new people, for better or for worse, and from the looks of things, it's only getting bigger.

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