My name is Ryan Karran and I am a first year student college student studying Computer Information Systems at New York City College of Technology. One factor that has really shaped me into the person I have become is the internet. The internet has impacted not only myself but all of society in both positive and negative ways. Some believe that the internet has made users lazy and very dependent. Others believe that the internet gives people resources that help to ease their daily lives. I find it to be both an interesting and useful tool that should have its limitations. Most tasks that people perform using the internet that impacts me are browsing social media, watching movies/playing games, and simply researching topics.
Social media has been really active in my life when it comes to consuming time. Social media has given people, like myself, a way to make friends easily and has opened up new opportunities for people that are socially or physically impaired to build relationships. I always found myself to be quite antisocial or nervous around people so social media has been a big role in my social life. It didn’t really help me to actually make friends but it really helped me with my communication skills. An example of this is when I use Facebook to comment under posts or even privately message them.
Unfortunately social media has also made me grammatically illiterate. I noticed that as I began writing essays or taking notes, I started to spell things wrong such as the way I would normally write things to my friends. For example when I would write “I’m” it changed into “im” or my “because” became “cuz.” I also noticed that my handwriting had really begun to degrade since I was used to typing and texting. I was so used to keeping my phone around me that I didn’t notice when I shouldn’t be using it. It was made known to me when my mom pointed it out while I was eating dinner at the table. From then on I decided not to give it social media the attention I craved for but to limit it to only two hours a day. In our society today, most of us teenagers put in a large amount of time browsing through Instagram or texting friends. Instead we can be doing something productive like learning to cook or exercising.
One form the internet took that really impacted me is entertainment through apps such as Candy Crush, Flappy Birds, Talking Tom, and Piano Tiles. They were meant for amusement or something to do with your free time but some people play it too often which ends up at their disadvantage. Every morning when I woke up, the first thing I would do is unlock my phone and play a quick game of Hearthstone. I also later became a Netflix addict in which I didn’t want to leave the house to do anything. This caused me to become a really lazy couch potato. Although it kept me entertained, I felt as if my days were getting shorter so I decided to try and take up some new hobbies. Today I learned to reduce my Netflix time to at most 3 hours a day.
Even though it proved to be a big distraction, I don’t regret it. I would only resort to watching Netflix or playing games when I have nothing else to do so it was the only way to spend my time at that moment. I wouldn’t go as far as to say that TV shows and games are educational or beneficial but they certainly are relaxing and require little effort. They help me to relax and sometimes even help me to fall asleep. Most nights I usually can’t even fall asleep without watching TV. Some games such as Hearthstone or Clash of Clans introduce needs for strategy and patience. For example, in Hearthstone you are required to beat your opponent using a specific set of cards you have. Perhaps some cards work better with others or perhaps you should wait another turn to play a card that you have in your hand. Playing games such as Hearthstone helped me to develop my analytical and problem solving skills along with learning not to be so hasty.
The last and most important role the internet has played in my life is for education purposes. Throughout my high school and junior high experience, I’ve been assigned research papers, online readings, and even educational videos so the browsing the internet was a must for me along with most other students. The internet consist of most if not all the information in the world. I find this to be the most useful resource provided to us because it not only saves us time and money but simplifies terms in a way that even elementary school students can understand. The use of internet is being implemented everywhere even in classrooms so I believe I will continue to use the internet as a source of information throughout my college experience as well as my professional career.
Although the internet was proven to be a great and reliable source of information for me, I found myself reluctant to pick up a book and read. Things were always much easier to just read it from a monitor or my phone so I never found a need to actually pick up a book. Today, most things come in a digital form so it saves the need to have to walk around with a physical copy. This way you can read from any device an open it from wherever you are whether it be your phone, tablet, or computer. In my opinion, this is a double sided blade meaning that it’s both beneficial and in a way harmful. I do prefer reading articles online rather than reading the newspaper or magazines, however staring at my monitor or even phone for long hours is unhealthy and has caused me a lot of my eyesight. Some have negative opinions while some have positive. Either way, if society today is implementing it into their lives, you’d better get used to it because eventually it will become common.
Stephen Hawking once said, “We are all now connected by the Internet, like neurons in a giant brain.” This really caught my attention because after reading this, I began to notice how dependent society is on the internet today. This problem may not seem so bad at first but the more I think about it, the more I realize the possible problems that could occur. Not only I but most of our society rely on the internet so heavily that if something were to happen in which we would have to rely on the old ways, it would be quite very difficult. The only solution that I could think of was to not be so reliant on technology itself which can also prove to be challenging in our society today.
I find myself relying on the internet because I use it so often. It’s part of my daily routine and may continue to be for a long time. I also plan to use it throughout my professional life as I’m sitting in front of a computer all day. I can conclude that the internet impacts me in both positive and negative ways but I’ve found a way to limit myself in the time consuming aspects of the negative ways. I’ve grown very dependent on the internet in that it makes my life easier especially when it comes to research and my social life. I also find it to be a huge time consumer but also a necessary stress reliever in the form of entertainment. Through the internet people can now find jobs, purchase items without leaving the comfort of their homes, and even socialize. This creates new opportunities for all of us and inspires a sense innovation.
