I am part of a generation that others would call spoiled. My whole life, the internet has always been a technology available. While our generation grew, so did the speed and capabilities of the internet. Amongst this concurrent growth, I have learned how to most benefit from the internet’s opportunities. My life experience with the internet has led me to understand the many pros and cons, but more importantly to recognize the responsibilities of internet users. It is essential that every user is educated about what the internet provides, and that inevitably it is the user’s choice to control what they browse for online.
At a young age, I enjoyed listening to the modem dial sequence. Unaware that the modem was dialing into our internet service provider until after the modem because obsolete, I instead enjoyed the beeps and hisses that came out of the computer. In late elementary school I began to interact with other friends over the internet with emails, forums, and of course instant messaging. Being an avid Pokémon fan, I wrote and posted fan fiction for others to read and critique. It was a great way to get feedback from other fans across the world, inspiring me to write more while improving as well. In school, our classes would take trips to the computer lab in order to improve our typing skills. It was apparent that the rest of our lives would somehow involve countless hours of keyboard work.
At first I had parent supervision whenever I used the internet, but later I was shielded with the best parental controls and firewalls in general use. Despite the protection, those precautions did not keep me away from the dark areas of the internet. Early on in middle school, I found myself able to subvert parental controls so I would not worry about the timer restrictions set on my computer. This in turn also let the rest of the internet previously held back to crush upon me in a pounding force. Though I had some knowledge of the material out there, I had my first hands-on experiences with internet pornography, harsh violence, and strong language. Though I have mixed feelings about the long term effects of being exposed to such material at the age of twelve, I can conclude that it is impossible to think that one can be sheltered from the internet forever. Even more frightening is that the amount of crude material is exponentially spreading, making it harder for filters to take care of everything. By my later teenage years, the slow dial-up connection was replaced with a DSL network that worked many times faster. Streaming videos and music was something that took seconds instead of handfuls of minutes. This also let file sharing programs and websites to emerge in large numbers. I sometimes found myself caught up participating in such groups, but later became fearful of the consequences happening around me. The copyright holders have made it clear that heavy fines arrive when one commits copyright infringement. At this time, I also joined the wave of blogging. I had been continuing to talk with my friends for hours on instant messenger, but with the revolution of blogging it became much simpler to tell many people at once how I was feeling. This let those who really wanted to talk to me and give advice to simply leave a comment for me to read later.
With age, my topics to discuss with friends were becoming more centralized on relationships. This brought about a social angst that plagues my generation. There have been emerging doctrines concerning relationships about what is good and not good to do over the internet compared to in person. People may be able to be matched up online, but asking someone out on a date is something that must be done in person. Otherwise, it is viewed as being cowardly. On the other hand, long distance relationships are now something more feasible, since each night couples can communicate to each other to split the distance. The problem still stands that anyone can say anything online. In turn, this can drastically alter relationship if one does not take care in what he/she says.
More and more schoolwork was centered on utilizing web resources along with books. It was general knowledge that the internet is not always reliable, but when one used both books and the internet, it could be a powerful tool. Assignments were able to be submitted electronically through an educational portal site. Also, I was able to take two courses virtually. I only met my instructor a few times throughout the semester, but the rest was purely internet reading, testing, and assignment submitting. I took many computer classes. Though most of the material involved programming, we also took time to discuss current events in the computer world and the impacts they were making. Viruses and spyware were becoming a bigger threat than ever. I ran anti-virus software on my computer regularly to keep myself from getting attacked by malicious programs. By the end of my high school career I found myself webmastering a site that appealed to my interests. Run by a member of my church, and I worked to keep the site updated with whatever directions he sends me. I am soon to move into a time where I will be making money for the first time concerning something on the internet. I never participated in online auctioning, and only bought items online instead of selling.
With all points considered, the internet has good and bad material. The truth is that no matter what actions are taken, the internet will stay that way. It is up to our own initiatives to control what we look for online and to be a selective crowd. There are helpful resources out there, but only we ourselves are the best internet filters possible.
