Internet: a gift to my generation

The internet is a result of some visionary thinking by people in the early 1960’s who saw great potential in allowing computers to share information. Since then the internet had grown tremendously and had doubled in size such that in the year 2000 over 420 million computers had joined the league. In 2006 more than one billion users were recorded, while the expectation is that the 2 billion mark will be reached by 2011.

This wonderful invention expands its wing into the heart of young people and deeply eats into Universities, organizations, companies, governments in a way that nothing can be done without its knowledge. It increasingly affects the way we live. This mighty universe became a small place because of the things we do on the internet like online banking, shopping, surfing, businesses and so forth.

Nowadays, the internet influences young people to extend that most of them spent a lot of time surfing the Net. To some the internet is a place to study for exams or do homework, shopping and recreation. Some other it keeps everyone informed. It is a wonderful resource for information about diseases, world news, parenting tips, and many other things. It provides a vast library of knowledge. We literally have the world at our fingertips. Anything can be research at any time, day and night. The internet is worldwide and therefore people are introduced to other culture, beliefs, history, and geography.

Before we became over overwhelmed by the invention of the internet, let’s not forget the negative affects it is having on us. We must understand that the internet is a double edged sword that can harm its users the same way it help them. It’s estimated that 18% of students do their research in the library, whereas 82% prefer using the internet which shows how lazy we are. And excessive sitting in front of the computer screen can harm people’s eyes. Other diseases such as headache, stomachache and back pain are result from exposure to computers. The Internet separate us from the real world leading to poor communications, poor spellings and poor writing skills among the young people because they are far away from family meeting and there is no face to face conversation anymore. Online predators are always out preying on young people who will give away their personal information.

The internet may be flooded with information, but this does not necessary mean it’s a reliable source of information. I cannot count the number of times my friends has come up with information that contains incorrect facts from the sites that have been created by unqualified person on the topic in question. “About 86% of information found on the internet is simply made up”, says an anonymous Public Relations student of Cape Peninsula University of Technology. “Beside improving our knowledge and offering games and short videos I think that the internet increasingly affects in bad people physically and emotionally” continued the Public Relations student. Enjoy internet but . .