Since 1994 when my Dad came home with the fresh 28,800 dial up modem I've been intrigued with everything relating to the internet and how certain people deal with it and how some people abuse it. I'm a little upset we didn't get to touch on the lecture that was missed from the course outline due to the Ekka but I've had a bit of a browse around and asked some of my friends for their take on how the internet has affected their learning and how it's involved with their every day lives.
There are a number of arguments for the internet and the positive effect it has on people's lives and the world in general. The Internet as we know it has allowed us to communicate on an entirely new level with 24/7 news and information and the ability to find out what we want whenever we want. I guess there are arguments for and against social networking but say what you want it's definitely changed the way people can interact with each other , and in a good way in my opinion. From a personal point of view, access to the internet has allowed me to view my interests in a whole new light. A passion for gaming and film is fed online, and fortunately the nerds of the world share my interests feeding me with pages on pages of news, hype and ultra-biased opinions on everything from actors they hate to leaked information ( World of Warcraft expansion? Blizzcon this weekend and a lot will come to light I suppose ) from data mining and "hacking".
I suppose it's only fair to touch of a few reasons why some people aren't so keen on the internet. In our course material we were linked to this news story outlining the security fears that some people ( like the Police ) have regarding the internet. While all sorts of crime occurs on the net whether it's credit card fraud, identity theft or the more traditional "hacking" (I guess generally resulting in theft of some sort?), it strikes me as odd that people would even play with the idea of getting rid of the internet entirely , at least in the form we are accustomed to. People put their information on the internet for other people to see. There are varying degrees to which they do so obviously as you only want certain people to have access to this infomation. The problem arises when those who aren't supposed to have access to this information , gain access to it. The obvious solution is to never put this information out there for these criminals to gain access to, but then everyone would lose this ultra convenient tool everyone has just assumed would be there whenever they want it. How can we have the best of both worlds? Where i can safely buy my Back to the Future action figures from America without fear of some dude in Romania buying a plane ticket with my credit card? And post pictures of my kids swimming at the beach without them winding up on 4chan being chased by pedobear? I don't know but I'm sure there are much smarter men than me getting paid lots of money to find other solutions.
For the moment I guess we will deal with what we have and as far as I see it : If you are willing to put your life on the internet for people to see , or take the risk of ordering things from Nigeria on your Mother's credit card, you deal with the potential consequences of doing so.
We've all been scammed in one way or another online but just like walking through the City on a Wednesday night with no government curfue telling me I have to be sitting at home inside, people just need to use common sense and regular caution when approaching the internet and know what they're putting out there has the potential to be seen by other parties. I guess that begs the argument that certain companies have a duty to protect our information but i might go into that another time because I'm sitting in bed writing this when I should be sitting in my news and politics lecture.
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