How the Internet Has Both Improved and Ruined Ours Lives Simultaneously

These days you never have to be alone or bored, but is that such a good thing? In this article we are going to look at the reasons why the internet is both a good and bad thing.

Social Networking

When you think about it, social networking sites are a funny idea. They bring people together, but they also keep them apart. Thanks to sites like Facebook and MySpace, it's now possible to very quickly get hundreds of "friends". This may make you feel good on the surface, but it's a very shallow form of friendship. Nobody can possibly have 500 friends. It's just not possible. I'm not even sure I even KNOW that many people, never mind actually being friends with them.

However, it's possible to use these social networking sites just to keep in touch with real friends and family, instead of adding everyone you possibly can. This is great, if it means you can keep in touch with family who are far away, or if it means you can easily organise social events with your actual friends. However, there is a bad side to this, because the more time you spend chatting online with your friends, the less time you actually spend with them in person.

A World of Information

The internet is like the biggest library that has ever existed. I'm not going to quote some huge number here, like it's the equivalent of a library full of more books than the whole Universe could fit. I'm not going to do this for one very simple reason: I can't be bothered. It's far too much effort. Go and research that yourself.

And that's exactly my point. The internet is like EVERYTHING at our fingertips. All information immediately available. But locked within that truly amazing fact is what also makes it bad: it makes us lazy, and it gives us short attention spans. We're no longer content to browse a library full of books, pick out a book, and then read that book. Now we jump instantly from one micro-fact to another. This huge virtual library is at the constant beck and call of our ADHD mind's every fleeting whim.

Cat piano YouTube video, David Hasselhoff wikipedia, pictures of midgets. All this within the space of 5 minutes. You wouldn't find all that in the same bookshelf in your local library.

Entertainment at Your Fingertips

There are no two ways about it, YouTube has changed the way we are entertained. Now you can get clips of virtually anything that you want, whether it's old comedy shows from the 70's, American drama shows from the 80's, or your favourite music videos.

However, the down-side of this is that it's another way that the internet has reduced our attention spans. We're no longer content to sit through half-hour programmes, never mind full 90-minute films. We want just the best bits, and we want them now!

This means that in this day and age, you're never going to be bored, because there's always something online to entertain you. It also means you're never really going to feel truly fulfilled, because your whole life involves sitting in a chair staring at a screen like some kind of electronic component plugged into the matrix.