Wired... or should that be Weird? (Societal Impact of the Internet)

Member Name: The Duke

Product:	Societal Impact of the Internet
Date:	29/09/01 (134 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Things are easier, More knowledge at out fingertips

Disadvantages: Stadard of English is dropping?, Social skills being lost?

The world is getting smaller. Not literally, mind you, but over the last hundred or two hundred years technological advances have helped people both travel to and stay in contact with their friends and relatives.

Long ago, people were considered unreachable if they lived over twenty miles away, but the introduction of railways, buses and cars made the travelling of these distances a lot easier. As time went on, more and more people were able to afford to travel in these ways. The introduction of, first of all, long distance air travel, followed by “cheap” long distance air travel means that no matter where you are in the world, you’re usually no more than twenty-four hours flying time away from anywhere.

Communications are exactly the same – before you had to rely on the post office to deliver your letter or parcel, and even then they were quite slow and unreliable at best. Now you can fax or even phone almost anywhere in the world. With time differences permitting, you can pick up your phone and call your loved ones at a relatively cheap cost.

Television has also reduced the size of our planet, especially in recent years. We have become accustomed to watch programmes from foreign countries regularly. These different cultures are rubbing off on our own as we adopt fashions and trends from other countries.

Even walking down your High Street, you can’t help but notice the amount of foreign companies that have a presence on not only our shores, but to a larger extent, those that are not entirely similar to the USA/UK style of western culture – McDonalds, Gap, Pizza Hut, Benetton etc.

What does this mean? It means the world is becoming a smaller place. People in America are dressing in a similar way to those in UK, Germany, Italy, Australia, Hong Kong, Japan or New Zealand. Kids in these countries are listening to the same music, watching the same television programmes and enjoying the same
movies and hobbies.

How does the Internet figure into this?

Well, since the introduction of the Internet to the general public we can see another shrinking of the size of the planet, but the Internet offers other benefits too.

For starters, information is again more readily available than in any time in the past. It has been said that you can find anything you want on the Internet and that it’s just a matter of knowing where to look, or what questions to ask.

Now, you don’t need access to a range of encyclopaedias, or a public library to gain knowledge as it’s all available from the comfort of the seat in front of your nearest Internet capable computer. With the advent of cheap Internet, especially here and in the USA, this knowledge is now available to those who previously couldn’t afford the books etc. to further their knowledge.

Importantly, in the same way that television now broadcasts ideas all over the world, we see the Internet as a way of sharing information and ideas. From the very small, like an individual posting their own web site sharing information of their family and friends to those same people all over the world, to universities and companies posting important, groundbreaking research.

These same companies have large web sites offering their products and services to all who can access their web site. More often than not, on the same site, the companies offer details on employment opportunities which they might have available. Again, this means you could end up working anywhere in the world. Seeing as this opportunity is open to a lot more people, again, you find that people are starting to think more in global terms than simply in terms of their own sphere of influence.

It’s no use for a company just to sell to the locals – it is practically compulsory these days to have some sort of Internet presence, even as a source of information, but also as a p
ossible selling point where transactions can be made outside of the normal working hours.

From what I can see (and this is not fact, but an observation of mine) English is becoming more and more popular across the World Wide Web as page authors try to get their thoughts to as wide an audience as possible. Does this mean that more and more people are speaking English? Will the Internet end up promoting English as the global language?

Another part of the Internet, that of Internet relay Chat (or IRC, for short) has also brought about a more social side of being online. Chat rooms, containing many people are now open to ordinary people. Without the stress associated with actually meeting people face to face, many people have formed friendships and relationships with others all over the world. I know of a few people who have conducted online relationships with differing degrees of success. The form of contact can also be used to spread news quickly. Indeed, IRC first took off in a big way back in the days of the Gulf War at the start of the 90s. Many people found it a better way to get more reliable information, quicker than watching CNN or any other news service. Indeed, during September 11th, I was on IRC chatting to friends in America when the attack happened, and was able to tune into the news services as it was being announced here in the UK. Are there any other methods that you are aware of that would enable you to make friends with many people all over the world?

The advent of instant messengers (IM) means that you can “chat” to people in real time. This follows on from the IRC methods, and generally is used for keeping track of family or friends rather than be confronted with hordes of faceless strangers.

Does this method of faceless contact make our children grow up earlier? There are scare stories circulating of people preying on the younger and more innocent by pretending to be what they aren’t, and forcin
g kids to grow up to be more cynical and suspicious?

While I personally don’t think that the Internet is any more dangerous than the real world (whatever Coronation Street might say), I am concerned about the standard of English that both the Internet (and mobile phones) seems to be producing. While using sub-standard English and spelling is good enough for IRC and IM because of the real time element or message length, all too often I see this language filter through to other things like e-mails or even opinions here on dooyoo.

E-mail is also helping people stay in contact. As a student, with loads of friends around the world, there are not too many days when I don’t get a message from someone in another country. It’s not just foreign people who benefit. People now find it a lot easier to send out a few lines in an e-mail in 5 minutes rather than sit and spend 45 minutes writing out the same thing by hand, and then going to all the trouble of going to a post box to post it. So, you find yourself keeping in contact with people who might not have bothered if it wasn’t for the Internet.

It’s not all about staying in contact though. The type and amount of information on offer means that people no longer can think of just themselves, but have to start thinking on a larger scale.

The Internet, while encouraging lost distance contact, can also be said to be replacing more local, face-to-face contact. First of all, online shopping means to don’t have to leave your house for much – books, CDs, weekly shopping, clothes and even gifts can all be bought online with only a small fee for delivery. Other modern communications, as well as the Internet means that a lot more people are capable of working from home and do so.

I read a few years ago that most relationships started as a result of meeting someone at work, or during weekend socialising (I assume this meant the pub), and if people are s
tarting to work from home, what could this mean as far as personal relationships are concerned? I don’t think we’ll ever get to a point where all social contact goes out the window, but should we be concerned that people are not getting some proper social skills from personal contact? Being able to meet people for the first time without asking “asl” (age, sex and location – a greeting which is becoming more and more popular in chat rooms as people seem to be unable, or even unwilling, to chat with anyone without knowing these facts first), for example, or simply being able to hold a conversation and be able to use body language etc. properly.

So, there you have it. Some of the effects I think the Internet has had on our society - some good, some not so good. The Internet is becoming more and more popular as more people become interested enough in it, and as the Internet evolves, it cannot fail to have an increasing effect on our society. Whether this is a good or a bad thing is up to us as we move onwards to a more online orientated lifestyle.

[Edited to fix a few spelling mistakes]

Summary: