The virtual revolution: good or bad?

In 1991 the World Wide Web opened its doors. Tim Berners-Lee, the founder of the web, wanted to create a graphic information system where people could find information and where services were offered. During the 1990s, it was estimated that the Internet grew by 100 percent per year. Nowadays most of us cannot imagine a world without it. More than 1.7 milliard people all over the world are using Internet. The world has rapidly changed to an online culture where people tend to leave the real world for a virtual world. Does the new access to information and people, enrich our humanity?

Baroness Susan Greenfield is a neuroscientist at Oxford University. She believes that once a human brain is exposed to an environment where actions do not have consequences, it can stay in a fantasized state. However according to a study of the MacArthur Foundation, teenagers who use the Web frequently have higher social skills and have the ability to learn more about topics in which they are not familiar.

A research team of 28 people conducted interviews with over 800 young people and their parents. Over 5000 hours were spent on both one-on-one interviews and focus group to find out more about teenagers and their use of Facebook, MySpace, Youtube and many other social network sites.

The results acknowledged two categories in which teens are engaged with Internet:

• Friendship-driven
• Interest-driven

Other findings are:

• There is a generation gap in how youth and adults view the value of online activity.
• Youth are navigating complex social and technical worlds by participating online.
• Young people are motivated to learn from their peers online.
• Most youth are not taking full advantage of the learning opportunities of the Internet.

This proves that the use of Internet can have a positive influence on teenagers’ way of thinking.

Due to the Internet there is been a shift in thinking. While people used to think linearly they now start to think more associative. Meaning that people changed from getting information from one source and reading it extensively to darting from subject to another due to the huge amount of information that is available on the Internet.

These days you might think people know small bit of a lot of things but tend not to know a lot about one subject. This is not necessarily true. It mostly depends on the education you receive while growing up. Books, articles and other written information are better accessible due to the fact of Internet. While people needed to look certain facts up in a huge encyclopedia, we now have the ability to search for it in a faster and easier way.

According to a report from market study firm IDC, people are more likely to use media they grew up with. Older respondents consume newspapers, TV and magazines while younger people prefer the Internet above the more traditional media.

There are a lot of people who link computer problems to Internet problems. Because of the huge use of the Internet, more and more people are spending hours and hours in front of their computer. This can cause some serious damage:

• Some people become more and more antisocial (living virtually).
• A wrong type of chair can create a lower back pain.
• Typing can create a neck pain.
• Focusing to long on the monitor can cause eye pain.
• ...

So, is the use of Internet dangerous? It’s disputable. When you live on the Internet, there is a possibility you will have some problems, but if you can find a good balance between the hours spending on the Internet and your real life, Internet is something which we can learn from.

The World Wide Web gives us the opportunity to learn more and more about all kind of subjects, day after day. How could you not love this?!

BBC (2009) ‘The virtual Revolution: Homo Interneticus (online video)

Dalrymple J., Macworld (2008) ‘Consumers spending more time online – PC world ’http://www.pcworld.com/article/142656/consumers_spending_more_time_online.html

The MacArthur Foundation (2006) ‘Latest news – Digital learning’ http://digitallearning.macfound.org/site/c.enJLKQNlFiG/b.2029199/k.94AC/Latest_News.htm

Mokey K., Digital Trends (2008) ‘Spending time online good for teens’ http://www.digitaltrends.com/lifestyle/spending-time-online-good-for-teens/

Miniwatts Marketing Group (2001 – 2010) ‘World Internet users and population stats’ http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm