The internet has been known since the mid 20th Century and has changed people's lives in how they work, communicate, think, live and work. The very first tweet was sent on March 21st 2006 by the founder of Twitter; Jack Dorsley. It received over 10 000 retweets and 9 000 favorites. This alone shows the global reaction to the idea of Twitter.
Originally Facebook was created for Harvard Collage students, it then became more popular and spread to a national scale (USA) and then to a global scale. Facebook passes 1.23 billion monthly active users, 945 million mobile users, and 757 million daily users. As part of the financial results for its fourth quarter, Facebook today announced a number of new milestones. The social network has now passed 1.23 billion monthly active users.
However we need to look at both sides of the argument; is technology going too far? Some would say yes, people are being more and more open with what they post. This is a potential danger as the world is not getting kinder; sharing personal numbers, details and even images and videos.
Looking at a study by Pew Research, Internet Research on Teens and Social Media Privacy (not targeting this demographic; as I am in this category as well) the study has shown that 91% post a photo of themselves, up from 79% in 2006, 71% post their school name, up from 49%, 71% post the city or town where they live, up from 61%, 53% post their email address, up from 29% and 20% post their cell phone number, up from 2%.
Putting yourself out there with lost of personal details allows people to see into your life; of course people have a choice whether to do this or not. But people have to accept that with great things comes great responsibility (yes I just quoted Spiderman). The idea of it being isolating roots from people using it too much and so their social life, education and relationships suffer. That is when it becomes a real issue.
Overall facts and figures aside, my own opinion (this is where we get into the arty farty literature) is that the internet is amazing. We can interact with people on the the other side of the globe and we can express ourselves. There is no limitation to where the internet can take us, who we will meet and what we can discover. I do not for one minuet think that the internet is a isolating concept because if anything it is connecting people more and more. Globalisation (the spreading of ideas, making the world more connected) would have not developed as much if it was not for the creation of technology; one being the internet. It is when people blow it out of proportion and exploit it and others whilst using it, that is becomes a joke. Having a love for the interned does not mean it is your friend, it is dangerous. Words are as dangerous as actions, 1 word can speak 1 000 000 things.
What is your opinion?
(If you have any requests, questions or inquiries please feel free to tweet me, comment or email me. ALSO I am now on Google+ so you can contact me there as well)
