Always on, always bad?

As I start to research the topic for “always on” on the internet, I find it funny that I keep get interrupted by ads and random videos automatically playing that are trying to gain my attention. I remember the days when a lot of websites didn’t have any video or pop up ads. Let’s take YouTube for example. I remember years ago when you would go to YouTube and simply play your video without seeing one single ad or be interrupted by a commercial before viewing your video. I would assume that most of us end up skipping or exited out of the ads the moment we see them because we find them annoying. But the real reason a lot of popular websites have developed this marketing strategy over the years is because us humans have developed this second nature of always ‘wanting’ to be on the internet!

As we discussed in class I came to realize that we are literally always on the internet whether we are aware of it or not. As I type this blog using the internet on the computer along with checking my social media on my smartphone while streaming music through Pandora, I will constantly be using internet just to complete one task through out my day. Not saying all of my internet use is needed, but it’s easily accessible so therefore  I will naturally want use it. But taking that a step a further into our use of internet, I never realized how many much we use the internet for.

There are many uses for the internet in today’s world. With doing some research on Before It Was News , I have came to a personally conclusion to the 4 things we really need internet for:

1. Research

In today’s world if we want to figure anything out we rely on the internet. We have all at least said or heard someone say the phrase “Google it”. Personally from remembering years back when dial up was the only way to get online, its crazy that technology has advanced so much that we can connect to the internet instantly. I feel that researching on the internet has done nothing but greater good for us. If I remember correctly back from the Schoolhouse Rock! days, “KNOWLEDGE IS POWER!”, and knowledge is exactly what we can get anytime of the day from the internet. Now a lot people may be skeptical to if the stuff online is correct, but just research your research is also possible.

2. Social

After dial up was replaced there came websites like Xanga, AIM, that one Myspace website, and Facebook. I was first introduced to Facebook my freshmen year of high school and my mind was BLOWN! I could quickly connect to the internet and instantly hop onto a online social network of thousands of people. From that day I have always been in love with the internet and how social it allows us to be with each other. Honestly without the internet I don’t think I would be the same person. As crazy or sad as that sounds, I feel like a lot of people throughout my life have got to me know me a lot better through social media. Also not to mention the fact love is found on the internet. Not just your typical Facebook stalking session, but marriages! According to New York Daily News, one-third of marriages have met online through social media and online dating sites. Personally I think that is awesome that fact we can use the internet to match two people of the similar interests resulting into a family. Also we can communicate with companies for searching for jobs. I have yet to go job hunting  seriously but I can only imagine how this has changed for the better for both the job hunter and companies.

3. Financial

If you haven’t already done so, you will one time in your life organize or make a transaction of money on the internet. Anyone that has been through college in the past decade has more than likely paid their bills or took out loans through the internet. I can confidently say that handling any type of financials through the internet has made everything 14 times easier….not 10, 14 times! Anything from online banking to online shopping on any type of device, the internet has turned our money into cyber currency. It’s weird to think that we probably have never physically seen the majority of the money we have spent.  Even though there can be concerns of online theft, personally I am confident with my bank online and how I spend my money online.

4. Leisure/Entertainment

I chose leisure and entertainment because it’s basically the only downfall when we think of how our internet is used…and abused. Even though a lot of us spend majority of our free time online in someway, it still provides good use to people. Whether we want to play video games online or YouTube the not so funny cat videos, somewhere someone is using internet to entertain themselves. I don’t necessarily agree with how we all use the internet for free time, but the internet is public which means everyone has the right to use it how they wish.

(Video above is by DNews)