Battle for the Soul of the Internet
Without initially checking the date for this article, it was really easy to figure out that it was written a while ago. While the casual references to O.J. Simpson and the TV show Roseanne might have given it away, the fresh tone of the article set the Internet up as if it was still a novelty and on its way to becoming bigger. Well it certainly became a great deal more popular. However, the article describes the primary users of the internet as college students, hackers, or government employees. While all three of these demographics are still using the Internet, the Net has spread to users of all types. Many different people are now using the Internet for many different purposes which is the result of convergence and the Internet’s increasing capabilities. While there is still plenty of pornography online, there are now many kid-friendly sites that parents can direct their children to and even censoring capabilities through programs such as Net Nanny. Spammers and hackers are still a major problem; however there are spam filters and security programs and patches constantly being tweaked to keep internet sites spam free and secure.
Online news networks are becoming increasingly more popular as more people get their news from the Internet. There is even talk of the newspaper becoming obsolete. Also, during the time this article was written the Internet was primarily used by men, the percentage of women using the Internet has definitely increased since then. The article predicts that Internet users will stay within select domains and communities and never venture out into more public spaces. What sites and communities Internet users visit are usually divided up by their interests, but there are a few seemingly ‘universal’ sites that a generous amount of people use such as Google, YouTube, and Facebook. Even now Internet users are growing in number and the capabilities and sophistication of the Internet and the computers it runs on are increasing. However, there are gloomier predictions such as the guess that the internet will soon run out of websites to use. I suppose only time will reveal the fate of the Internet, though with the increasing usefulness of the Internet I’m confident we can work to combat any problems endangering it.
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