Internet Mediation in Everyday Experiences and its Implications - Essay Example

Internet Mediation in Everyday Experiences and its Implications The development of internet has made the lives of many people in the globe much easier because it can be used to do many of the tasks which previously required tedious physical activity. Internet can be used to make business transactions, banking, and socializing, something which was not possible only a few decades ago. It has become the main source, for many, of mediation between individuals in their daily lives and this has not only increased the level of interactions between people from different parts of the world, but it has also enabled the development of the virtual world. Internet is one of the most significant developments of the modern world mainly because it affects the lives of almost everybody worldwide. It is fast becoming a major source of information with many people relying on it to get news from all over the world, for research, to do market research and make purchases and to keep in touch with one another over great distances. Social networking has developed on the internet and it has become big business for those who run these companies since they not only charge people to pay to advertise on their websites, but there are some which have developed the inclination to sell the personal information of their users to other commercial companies. One of the greatest influences of internet has been at the domestic level where individual and family lives have come to change because of it. It is a fact that many politicians and businesses have come to embrace the internet in order to enhance their images to the public. This has ensured that internet has become a place where political forums can be run. Politicians use internet for their campaigns because it has many users and these people are able to easily access the message which the politicians are trying to pass across (Levin 2002, p.80). The need to go to political rallies has been nullified by the development of internet and this has ensured that people prefer staying at home during campaign periods. Furthermore, because of the great amount of information it contains concerning diverse issues in society, internet has ensured that individuals have a clearer perception of the political issues that are being discussed by the politicians (Dassbach 1999, p.339). Therefore, internet has become a medium for political discussions among people in the comfort of their homes. The everyday experiences that can be found in the news are now discussed in the various forums that are available on the internet, and because of this, individuals have now become more politically aware than those in previous generations. Businesses on the other hand are using internet not only for the purpose of advertising their products but also for transactions between them and their customers (November 2009, p.640). The internet has become a medium for individuals to learn more concerning products and if they like the products, then they are able to make purchases online (Cagliano et al 2003, p.1143). This has ensured that individuals do not have to go directly to stores to make a study of products before buying them. In fact, one would go as far as to say that the internet has taken over the role of mediator between individuals and the outside world since more and more transactions are being conducted through it (Jaruwachirathanakul and Fink 2005, p.295). One of the greatest developments in the past decade on internet has been the creation and expansion of social networking all over the world. Social networking sites have, over the past decade, developed on the internet and these have come to have an immense influence on the lives of the people who subscribe to them. These networks have become so influential that quite a large number of people globally use them, especially the younger generations. It is not uncommon to find individuals being available on their respective social networks, for example Facebook, for a whole day. Even children, who would in previous years have been considered too young, have subscribed to social networks (Soeters and van Schaik 2006, p.31). Social networks have made interaction between people in different parts of the world easier, because there is no longer any need to have physical contact for communication to take place. Instead, they have made communication virtual, with more people subscribing to the use of social network sites to communicate every day (Morley 2006, p.22). Social networks have effectively ensured that the need for human beings to socialize has been satisfied, as well as enabled those individuals who use them to be able to communicate with large numbers of people at the same time. Social networking has become the norm today, even in the domestic scene where one will find that even individuals living in the same house communicate through these internet sites. Social networking sites have not only managed to fulfill the need for individuals to communicate with one another, but they have also created a situation where physical interaction is no longer necessary for communication. While this may be helpful for some, for others, it has led to the development of emotional distance between people living under the same roof, say parents and their children (Lemor 2006, p.168). Children have become so engrossed in social networking that their daily interactions with their parents have become minimal. In addition, the development of social networking has made the means of these children to communicate impersonal, since one cannot transmit one’s emotions through the internet (Park, et al 2008, p.895). However, despite this, social networks have created an unprecedented forum for people of all ages to interact and share ideas and information, which is something positive. Therefore internet has ensured that children in the current age are becoming mature faster than those in previous generations, with the ability to decide what they want at an early stage in their lives. Development and growth of information on the internet has been sped up through the development of free tools to do so not only by social networking sites, but also in other websites as well, which need to get public opinion on various matters. Individuals have come to share not only their personal information and experiences, but also other information that many have found useful. Since internet is currently available in many homes, it has made it easier for individuals to conduct their research. School going children no longer have to go to the library in order to conduct their researches and instead, they can get all the information they need from their home computers. In addition, individual no longer have to go to work because, with an internet connection, it has become easier for them to work from home (McClay 40). This has seen a change in the lifestyles of some people who have brought their outside lives into the home. The availability of internet has created a situation where individuals no longer need to leave their houses unless it is extremely urgent to do so (Liddy 1996, p.76). Internet has also become the main means through which the latest news is received as well as the most up to date information can be found and this has contributed to their growing popularity (Sagan and Leighton 2010, p.119). While this may be the case, the internet has also created an overload of information which many individuals have found extremely difficult to keep up with. However, this cannot be considered to be a problem because the internet has, for the first time in human history, made available an unprecedented amount of information which has provided individuals with the knowledge of how to conduct their daily lives (Peterson and Merino 2003, p.99). The information from the internet has become so influential that it has affected the lives of many of its users across the world. The latest trends, for example, have their source on the internet and through it; trends which originate in far off places have come to be adopted by people in the rest of the globe (Moores 2003, p.5). The internet has come to have an immense influence on the type of food that people eat. Food companies have recognized this influence and have come to invest heavily on advertising through it. Among the companies which have the greatest influence, through their internet advertising campaigns are fast food companies, whose customers have increased since they started these online adverts (Hayashi et al 2009, p.1221). Since the beginning of the use of the internet for advertising, fast food has become a part of the daily lives of many people, especially in the United States, and, in fact, it can be said that it would be exceedingly difficult for quite a number of these people, to do without it. Fast food restaurants can be found almost everywhere in the United States, and these serve diverse types of food, usually based on the local demand for them. The amount of advertising that has been put online by many companies has made it easier for individuals to have access to fast food, and in fact, because of this, many individuals have ceased to cook in their own homes or do it rarely (Phau and Sui 200, p.105). Fast food restaurants tend to spend a lot of money on advertising their products online, and each of their adverts has a target in the market. Some of some of these adverts are aimed at children, others at teenagers, and some at those people who work for long hours and have no time to cook their own meals. Since the fast food companies have realized that all the above groups have access to the internet, their advertising tactics online have ensured that the fast food industry has continued to thrive. People have, through the internet, grown to be extremely familiar with the different brands of fast food and many have come to identify with them (Livingstone 2007, p.17). While this can be considered to be advantageous by many of those people who consume fast food, its consumption is not without health risks to those who consume it. Online fast food advertising has ensured the increased consumption of this foods and this has created a health problem in the society, in the form of obesity and problems with weight, especially among children (Jain 2010, p.425). Access to the internet has come to be considered a basic right for all individuals in the world, and because of this, many countries are doing their best to ensure that this access is made universal. The internet can now be found in the home, many families and individuals striving to have access to it. Children have, for the first time, since its creation, been allowed almost unrestricted access to the internet and this has helped a great deal in their mental development. However, it has been found that the amount of time that children spend on the internet has been found to be detrimental to their mental development because it has made them become too lazy to be creative. This is because of the fact that the internet has almost all types of information that children require, and this has reduced their ability to think independently, often relying on online sources of information (Fortson et al 2007, p.137). Studies conducted show that children who spend too much time online tend to have low scores in the tests they are given in school. Furthermore, it has been found that many children who spend most of their time online are not able to concentrate one matter at a time and because of this, they tend to swiftly shift from one subject to another. Without focus, these children risk not being able to cultivate the social skills necessary to thrive in the world. This has become a tragic trend among the children of today because children have come to rely more on information of others that they are not able to cultivate the skills they need to create more information. Access to the internet may be a basic right for these children, but this access needs to be restricted because otherwise, children might end up stagnating in their mental development. It is also a fact that those children who spend most of their time online are at a high risk of developing obesity, which is fast becoming a problem among them (Subrahmanyam et al 2000, p.124). While the internet may be useful for individuals, it should not be made a main priority, especially for children, and these have to be encouraged to take part in physical exercise to maintain their health. The development of the internet and its widespread use has ensured that there is plenty of personal information concerning individuals online. People, whether intentionally or unintentionally, have developed a tendency to put their personal information on the internet and this information can be used for malicious purposes (Bateman et al 2011, p.78). In this 21st century whereby use of computers and networks associated with them has become a norm, there has developed problems concerning internet security not only at the workplace, but also in the home. Internet security has become an important factor to be considered for individuals to be able to protect themselves from malicious people and software from the internet. Most of the threats to the internet users at home originating from the internet are regularly deliberate, having been established by people with mischievous intent. It has therefore become essential for individuals to take measures to ensure that they protect themselves, especially their privacy, from cyber attacks. It has been found that some of the viruses which originate from the internet are so severe that they possess the capacity to delete entire computer operating systems. To counter this, it has now become commonplace for people to purchase antivirus software to protect themselves from internet attacks (Dong-Her et al 2004, p.613). Since most individuals conduct their banking transactions online, they have become vulnerable to attack from people who would use their personal banking information to defraud them of their money. Cyber security, especially on home computers, has become such a great concern that plenty of money is invested by individuals on software to keep this threat at bay. The development of the internet has led to the great dependency on it by individuals for information, because most of the information that is being searched for is always found instantly online. This has created a circumstance where the internet has become a more relied on source for research, among individuals, that books have started to be placed in the background (Johnson 2003, p.24). There has always been the fear that reliance of technology such as the internet will inevitably lead to the extinction of books from the world because it is the source of plenty of information. However, despite the large reserves of information within it, the internet does not have the qualities which books have because most of the information gotten from it is often instant and shallow. The internet does not allow individuals to think about the information which they have just received, as books do. It can further be said that the lack of independent thought due to the absence of books is likely to put the human race into a dark age of intellectual stagnation. Because of the existence of the internet in many homes, it has become a rare sight indeed to find individuals reading books. In fact, books are rare sights in homes, and the fascination which many people had in them is slowly waning as the internet continues to develop into the sole source of information in the world. In conclusion, it can be said that the internet is a technology which has become an inseparable part of life today, and it has come to affect the lives of many individuals. The internet has led to many changes from the way people lived only a few decades ago. The internet has become the main source of influence on the way people conduct their domestic lives since it has enabled them to have access to a large data base of information which influences the way they eat, socialize, and behave around one another. The internet has allowed individuals to mix their work lives and their home lives since they can now be able to work from home, without any need to go to their offices. The internet has also come to change the lives of children, because where before they had to go to the library to study and conduct research, they can now do all that in their own homes through the internet, which has become an inexhaustible source of information for them. 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