There are always concerns about new technology. In your view, what are the possible benefits and problems attached to the Internet?

There are always concerns about new technology. In your view, what are the possible benefits and problems attached to the Internet? 

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New technology has been increasing over the years as institutions are getting more ideas about how to develop their brands and products which is part of this new and digital media topic. New media refers to on-demand access to content anytime, anywhere, on any digital device, as well as interactive user feedback, and creative participation. Another aspect of new media is the real-time generation of new, unregulated content. New media deals with the issue of things being new.

The possible benefits of the internet are that the use of the Internet offers a variety of benefits to everyone who is willing to use it. The enormous amount of information available and the many uses one can have through the internet have made it the most valuable tool in various settings of a person’s life. The Internet has an enormous amount of publications added on it every day and it’s evolving as the most powerful source of information. Also, use of the Internet has made jobs easier and oversimplified tasks that would take an enormous amount of time before. The internet is used by both the people and the institutions; this refers to Pareto’s law as 80% of the media is controlled by 20% of the institutions/companies. This for example links with Google as Google owns many things on the internet such as blogger, android, g mail and also YouTube. Brigges & burkes argue that the internet is “the most important medium of the twentieth century” which shows how popular the internet is. According to my research A fifth of the world’s population can now go on-line. That figure that has risen worldwide from just 25 million in 1995 to 1.4 billon today. This shows how the internet has risen due to the number of users on it every day.

Other possible benefits of the new technology are that it helps students gain more knowledge and have easy access to books and the new via internet. For example people are able to access free books to read online which a good thing is as it keeps them entertained and educated at the same time. This helps them gain knowledge as the internet also has access to other educational sites such as 'bite size' where people are able to teach/test themselves which is a huge benefit as all the resources that you can get from shops are available on the internet. As the years have gone past companies such as iTunes and android have created such apps that help people to revise from their mobile phones which Is a huge advantage as 80% of those apps have been created by 20% of the institutions out their which is benefiting everyone. Furthermore E-mail is an online correspondence system. With e-mail you can send and receive instant electronic messages, which work like writing letters. Your messages are delivered instantly to people anywhere in the world, unlike traditional mail that takes a lot of time. The Internet is a virtual treasure trove of information. Any kind of information on any topic under the sun is available on the Internet. The ‘search engines’ on the Internet can help you to find data on any subject that you need. Along with getting information on the Internet, you can also shop online. There are many online stores and sites such as ‘eBay & amazon’ that can be used to look for products as well as buy them using your credit card. You do not need to leave your house and can do all your shopping from the convenience of your home.

On the other hand even if people would argue that there are many benefits of the internet there are also negatives as the internet is not always right. Because unlike print media, the accuracy of much of the information published on-line is not subject to proof reading or editorial checking. This leads to many errors being published and sometimes incorrect information is deliberately posted in order to mislead or deceive. Even a website that is perceived as being trustworthy like Wikipedia can contain serious errors. Sherry Turker also disagreed with the internet being useful as one of her book called 'alone together' had showed how people have been isolated from each other due to the internet as people have been sitting in their rooms on the internet forgetting about the real life out there. Another disadvantage of the internet is that it gets school students distracted by their school work as we all know that new and digital media has been expanding with new social networking sites to use such as 'snap chat' and 'instagram' it has had a negative effect as most people have been seen on those apps specially as they are downloaded on their mobile phone. Also as over 50% people have access to twitter due to see what is going on around the world there are still facts that argue that 80% of the tweets on twitter is created by 20% of the people and those people get their information from other people which show that half the information out there is not facts. Also If you use the Internet, your personal information such as your name, address, etc. can be accessed by other people. If you use a credit card to shop online, then your credit card information can also be ‘stolen’ which could be akin to giving someone a blank check. Pornography is a very serious issue concerning the Internet, especially when it comes to young children. There are thousands of pornographic sites on the Internet that can be easily found and can be a detriment to letting children use the Internet. ‘One study of web searches found that approximately one in six queries to search engines were about sex in 1997, but by 2001 the figure had fallen to one in 12. 

Even though people argue about the new and digital media distracting people i believe it is a great way to build up people’s confidence as some people may feel safer on the internet then they do in real life as this way people are able to express themselves. For example Facebook is an on-line social networking service.  Facebook was founded in February 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg. Facebook now allows anyone who claims to be at least 13 years old to become a registered user of the website. This shows how Facebook allows people to share what they are doing with the world and have new friends. There are also other sites out there such as blogger and MySpace which allow people to share their own views and make comments to posts which show the 'freedom' side of the world as in real life some people are band from giving their opinions on things whereas the internet can sometimes had your identity letting you get involved with news forums etc. and take part in discussions. An article showed how people have been leaking information about people which is a positive for us as we would know what is happening and how the goverment is doing behind our backs. However i would still argue that 'freedom' will then not be a case of how people describe the internet as. This is because everything people do is being watched by the police or either the government which shows how peoples privacy has been interrupted. 

this piece of statistics shows what people do on the internet and i can see how only 5% of people spend time playing games on-line and this is due to the new and digital media increasing over time due to more things being developed such as social networking sites and news stories being updated which has distracted people as people are taking part in on-line discussions. However in a way i believe that taking part in debates helps you be more confident as this would come in use when taking part in actual discussions.