I actually thought the assigned Access Science article was quite interesting, probably because I have a better grasp on the topic this week as compared previous weeks. At first, I thought, “Am I really reading an article about the internet?”, but soon realized how much I don’t know about a thing that I use every day. Even defining simple terms such as URL and FTP that I use often showed me how little I actually understand. The complexity, structure, and speed of the internet astounds me – almost as much as the US postal system does. In effect, they are quite similar. Reading this article, especially the part about dial up modems, helped me to realize and appreciate how far we’ve come in the last 10-15 years. I still remember being scolded by my parents for hogging the phone line while I was on the internet, and practically nobody uses dial-up connections anymore because of their relatively slow speed. The thing that most impresses me about the internet is its global connectivity, and the protocol and standards set in every server in order to access the documents.
The second article I read was “Incidence and correlates of pathological Internet use among college students” by J. Morahan-Martin and P. Schumacher. Although we normally look at recent articles to ensure the accuracy of the information they contain, but I thought this article was particularly interesting because it was written over a decade ago, when the use of the internet was just becoming common to everyday people. This study surveyed 277 undergrads, and assessed the impact of the internet on their academic, work or interpersonal problems, distress, tolerance symptoms, and mood changes. They also hypothesized that pathological users would be more lonely and socially awkward. I think this is an interesting hypothesis, mostly because it has been proven true by Craigslist killers, Child molesters, and other predators that have caught media attention due to their internet activity. They found that a lot of people turn to the internet to change their moods when they feel depressed, isolated, or anxious. I think it is interesting to note how large of an impact the internet has had on not just our data exchange abilities, but how it has affected society and the way people behave. Although 277 undergraduate students probably represent a significant variety of personalities to study, I think it would be interesting to look at the affect the access and use of the internet has on people with varying levels of education and life experience. To a certain extent, undergraduate college students represent a small minority of the people who use the internet, especially today.
I think Caroline's post discussing the impact that the internet has on its users regarding social health is an interesting topic that may require further research. I wonder if any studies have been done regarding the affects of internet usage on the developing mind. I also agree with how weird it is now to think about using dial-up when we were younger. I wonder now if anyone still uses dial-up?
ReplyDeleteThe article you read about the social effect study on college student sounds very interesting. Internet social implication is something I am very interested in. One of the articles I read talks about our generation and the “Invasion” of the professional work of our generation. This generation is separated out specifically because of the internet and information availability. We essentially are only the beginning – all of this is still evolving, and already we prefer email and text messaging over phone conversation and in person meeting. I wander what will social culture evolve into 50 years from now (assuming Armageddon does not happen this year). I only hope that human kind will not become socially awkward as a norm due to this wonderful invention.
ReplyDeleteThe second article you read sounds very interesting. I wonder how the authors of the this article would react to what Facebook has done to social media and interactions? I would say that in could be looked at from two stances, on one side people are reaching out to others and staying in contact with people that was not as easy to do before so in a sense I guess it could be said that people are keeping up social interaction. On the other hand the question could be raised, is Facebook really social interaction? Personally I think there are benefits but there are also major drawbacks because it much easier to and safer to make "social interactions" while sitting behind a computer and not really talking to someone face to face.
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