Is the Internet a New Form of Public Sphere - Essay Example

Is the Internet a new form of Public Sphere? Internet has become a common in households of today and imperatively its uses have increased drastically. It has become a major commercial as well as a consumer track for public leading them towards the electronic information resources available. A person would rather prefer to visit a web-portal online than going to a nearby store to inquire about the merchandise products of his/her choice or interest. This invention is no more a plot for researchers to communicate and exchange information within their own selves, but also seeks access from the innumerous chunks of available data online or from the ever-accessible super-computers placed at offshore sites. With the addition of newer innovations like Internet 2 and Abilene in the same field the competition to grasp the ‘cash cow’ state in business markets, technically speaking, has risen beyond any pre-set levels. The urge to move ahead is there and will continue to increase in the near future. In the past, the transactions and the business carried out with the Internet was just a new way for the commoner to access all the information he/she may so have wanted whilst sitting in his/her lounge room. But of late, this comfort has become a necessity without which the business seems to go nowhere except to the bottom levels. It has established itself into a quintessential way of interacting with different corporate structures and the people thus directly or indirectly involved with these enterprises and ventures, too. ATMs (Automated Teller Machines) and PBNs (Packet Backbone Networks) are such examples, which have become reality with the passage of time, thus providing an effective interacting mechanism with the business of technology and its facilitation. These technological facets have provided a tremendous amount of boom to the up and coming commercial activities as well as have helped the ISP (Internet Service Providers) business, not to forget the banks who are in total dependence with the belief of having as many ATMs at their offices (at different branches) as possible. Internet traffic is expanding at a very cutthroat speed and if measures to tackle its extension are not taken, then it would be very difficult to equip the companies of today with the new hype of the Next Generation Internet, let alone live up to the required standards of performing smooth transactions and so on in the already available networks. This is only possible if businesses have in focus their vision and mission objectives set in sight of the up and coming potential of the new technologies like Abilene and more like them and then actually putting their same system into the latter’s boots to reap benefits. The developments in the field of networking promise many benefits for the business enterprises and it would not be premature to state that only the companies who adapt themselves to the ever-changing technological needs stand some chance of competing with the ones who are in direct competition with them. The future of Internet 2 is here to stay, as long as it is replaced by one of its own kind, providing for more and better as well as efficient resources. The basic time frame for a particular technology to stay at a certain place is albeit three to five years but if proper means are allotted to the businesses to carry out their activities in close co-operation with the surge of Internet 2 and upcoming technologies, this new “Internet 2” or the Next Generation Internet (NGI) is bound to stay for more than just half a decade, unlike its predecessors, which are there for the taking. Millions of computer users worldwide every year lose invaluable data and information at the hands of stolen means employed by anyone sitting on a workstation thousands of miles away from the host node. Computer privacy is one such aspect on which the researchers in the same field are working their best at. Certain ways are being devised all around the globe to ascertain the manner in which computer data can be kept secret from the people who are not authorized to seek it. Internet privacy of late has become a serious issue that should be tackled with immediate effect. There are many issues at stake with respect to computer privacy such as the authority to create standards regarding the usage of personal data on one’s machine as well as the right to decide how information should be manipulated and used by the consumer. No body in this whole big world owns the Internet. It is the Internet’s power that, according to some, is due to lack of censorship. It would not be wrong to state that if someone starts controlling the Internet, then this very censorship will be lost and there would be all kinds of problems for its users worldwide. Just about everyone can use the Internet as well as create a web page or a site that can target to each and every individual in the world. It is very vast and it has no range. It is very important for a computer user to identify the difference between the good and the bad. There is positive marketing on the Internet through which consumers can easily purchase certain products but the majority of the online world is filled with spam and irrelevant stuff, which only creates hindrances for the commoner when he/she is hooked on to the Internet. These should be kept away at all costs and must not be replied back in any fashion whatsoever. People must be careful when performing online transactions on the net because no one knows that on the other side a crook is sitting to grab someone’s credit card number and other significant information. One should always trust his/her feelings and should not carry out business when he/she thinks that something is fishy in all the dealing. Fraud as well as theft must be reported to the relevant authorities so as to curb the effects of being deceitfully attacked by someone anonymous. People should be vigilant enough to know as to when and how certain dealing should be undertaken and under what circumstances. In the case of downloading stuff from the Internet, a computer user must check the file that whether it has come from a known source and if it is proven correct, then the particular mail should be scanned before it is opened. Anti-virus software is employed in scanning this sort of material and it is a must in the world of computers today. An online web site is something with which people can interact with others, instantaneously. They are the apparent form of interaction within the World Wide Web circles and quite rightly so because they create an air of communication with all and sundry. These communities seem to notice about the customers’ attitudes through the interaction thus achieved. The people running the business are responsible for making the community look better and user-friendlier as their business is in direct proportion with the success of the respective web communities. Websites, of late, have been represented as ones, which form the model of Internet commerce. Drawing up of critical arguments, narratives and emblematic strategies, which formed a basic unit of business texts, were also a part of online communities in the past. It was thought once that online communities – newsgroups, chat sessions were made for a way to seek business, numerous people from outlying and distant areas would catch the bandwagon and share their thoughts and ideas in order to interact with the business in one way or the other. Such an optimistic belief was shared among the circles of web prophets. The answer to this sanguine approach was one of a ‘yes’ and another of a ‘no’. Positive in the sense that people could post their own reviews, convey the finer points what the company does not know about the business and above all, get instant feedback from the market, the consumers, retailers and the like. It was a one-to-one relationship if seen from the constructive perspective. Negative points were summed up in the losses incurred on the company’s part whereby these message boards and the like did not help the business from any fiscal outlook. Many big companies like Microsoft and others have been facing barriers as concerns with the interaction between the employees who are spread in different locations. These companies were in the need to put up such a system, which could eliminate excessive and undue business travels and easily provide for interaction and more so straightforward communication between the people. Thus, collaboration software was devised and put forthwith and has been going on for a number of years ever since. The collaboration software like Usenet services and others accounted for targeted markets in the field of manufacturing, supply-chain management and product development, not to forget sales and marketing. These types of software do not usually work in every kind of workplace and within every other system. Actually, it is one thing fitting these into the old system and another to make people change the way they work in the business world of today and interact and communicate with everyone concerned. These services are providing the most benefits in the real-time online dealings of the business and this is one factor, which takes lead over all others, at least in the business corporations. The first and foremost point, which has to be taken care of, is whether an online web site is beneficial from the business standpoint or not. Every now and then, a major transformation is occurring in the world of business which entices the corporate heads to change their way of doing business, and in some instances to redo the business altogether after dumping the former one. The benefits attached with it are in profusion. These websites can provide for online shopping with delivery of the bought items made to customers’ homes. Customer services have been the forte of online websites whereby help and guidance along with online assistance is provided to the people who want to seek help for their products or investments. Internet makes sure that there is exposure to larger audiences and different classes of people can easily be achieved by targeting the main elements that their psyche is most easy to hit upon. A normal user or a web portal looks at Internet magazines, television technological channels as well as reads newspapers and columns that attract his hunger for gaining more and more. Exposure is created by giving advertisements in all these media elements with a particular level of frequency, reach and impact. Broader exposure is also created by using hoardings, billboards, sign posts on roads, in hotels, outsides casinos and clubs as well as on the pavements, in the mall, anywhere at all. Also alliances can be developed over time that assist a company in joining hands with partner companies and at times with the competitors as well that would eventually boost the trade and benefit the customers and the technological geeks. With the advent of computer age and the Internet, everything seems to have gone the digital way. People have started using the Internet for most of their day to day activities, which could best be avoided in person like visiting a nearby outlet or picking food from the nearby restaurant for supper. Many food items have also been put on sale courtesy the Internet which has really increased their demand as not only a particular geographic region is attracted towards it but also the world market gets to know about the different products that are in the offering every now and then. A number of different writers have approached the changes in technology as well as their effects on the common man in their day to day lives with both positive and negative attitudes. This has presented to us the dual nature of technology as well as provided an insight as to how much a man in the world of today is influenced by it and not to forget the dependence of the very same on even the minimalist of our activities day in day out. We aim to discuss different writers here who have had different and varied viewpoints in the wake of the ever changing technology, relationships between humans and nature and the significance of being a human itself. To start with Henry Adams, he approaches both the medieval Christianity as well as the modern technology with a bit of cynicism and disbelief but somehow or the other he has arrived at a conclusion that basically looks at both with respect in their own eras. It is no doubt quite a revelation to understand that through his studies of Gothic architecture with its spires that ought to reach the heavens with medieval philosophy and its importance on God’s will, Henry Adams has pretty much acquired an admiration and a sense of positive reception for the significance of the Church in the lives of medieval Christians. When one thinks of him being a historian, he takes the stance for the pertinent successions that pretty much narrate one thing or the other that is related with mankind. Dulce et Decorum Est has a somewhat bitter and mocking tenor as penned down by Wilfred Owens as it basically aims at facilitating the frequent changes that are present in rhythm that more or less make Owens doubly atmospheric nonetheless. He uses the idea of death to his advantage in this piece of work but his example aims at serving quite a number of varied purposes in the poem. Wilfred Owen has used a vivid example where he has sorrowfully explained the death caused by a gas attack as it more or less exposes to one and all that the war is an ugly, atrocious and a hateful business. Therefore, in Dulce et Decorum Est, Wilfred Owen has sketched the war as being the embodiment of hell itself and the juxtaposition of the devil against the gassed man. Furthermore, for Samuel Lilly the change in the technological world holds more of an effect rather than as one that brings about a cause for that matter. He is an economic historian and thinks pretty much on the lines that make him one of those to think from the positive side for a moment or two. He further on narrates that his theory is backed up by his commitment towards the development of the steam engine that came all of a sudden and told all and sundry about the need to upgrade the traditional means of transport in the olden times and then in the present era, it really has benefited one and all and no one can deny this fact. The needs have expanded and so has time decreased for people who have to hustle and bustle between cities, countries and no matter where they desire to go day in day out. Sherry Turkle has spoken of losing contact with each other and she means direct contact because of the presence of the World Wide Web, the Internet as we have come to know it as. In no doubt, according to Sherry Turkle, technology has enabled one and all to even now see the other person you are speaking to but only if one has the luxury to do the very same. According to the writer, not everyone is lucky enough to buy videos and movies, even though they are available in a huge manner. The technology has helped the people to start thinking like a machine than anything else. It has also helped people to think in many different and varied ways. Therefore, according to the writer the human aspect as well as his or her interaction with nature has somewhat diminished into one of a virtual world where people meet online and interact with each other in a virtual world. Sherry Tuckle has for that reason suggested that this gap is closing between people but it has profound effects on their lives not to forget the harmful ones on their bodies with the transfer of fatal rays courtesy the computer monitors as well as disabilities in people who are glued to the screens nearly twenty four hours a day in their quest for attaining what they think is the passage to move ahead. ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ penned down by Erich Maria Remarque might just be the state-of-the-art anti-war film and not just for the Great War only but it has taken note of all the wars. The writer has made the most powerful of statements concerning the World War I by the generation that actually took part in it and fought it. Unlike the movie itself, the novel has directly combated without the scenes of Pauls (a character) pre-war life. He has pondered about his schoolmasters that the idea related with authority, which they used to represent was more or less linked in one’s minds with a greater insight as well as a more humanitarian understanding and a similar form of an intellect. The tale has brought to the fore what really Paul experienced as a result of the on going and persistent war. It had a lasting impression on his mind where he was taken for hostage, though not in the war itself, but from an emotional viewpoint. This left an indelible imprint on his mind and he was not normal all the same again. It all started when he visited one of his friends, Kemmerich who was on the death bed in the hospital. He and his friends console him as well as Muller, one of Paul’s friends asks for the patient’s boots as he was certain that the latter would eventually die so it would be better to have one of his possessions with him. This story shows the manner in which Paul has experienced all the harsh realities of the war itself as well as seen what needs to be the right way in which life must be passed by all and sundry and more so by the people who are either fighting for a cause or combating in different fields of life. He comes across as a person who tries to understand things and the realities and basics behind which are not so open to be witnessed by one and all. Thus this makes him feel agitated but at the same time, he also becomes stronger from an emotional standpoint as he has the other side of the picture for him to see and learn a lesson from. The way in which he sees the killings that are happening on a daily basis around him leaves an impression that he is not very happy with what has been taking place. The humanitarian point therefore cannot be denied its due place in the story as penned down by the writer. According to John R Searle, human consciousness basically takes its roots from the biological processes in spite of the outside input that one could for that matter argue the same with parenting as it will be the outside input to say the least. On the other hand, computers are made, programmed as well as run by humans alone and cannot do much on their own. They simply do not have the capacity and the skill in them to execute commands and give orders to some other human being or a machine as a matter of fact. Therefore, it is true that a computer would never of its own accord grow or develop realization and understanding. Humans would have to program such a feature into the hardware of the computer by their own. A computer, according to the writer cannot do this on its own. Hence the writer sums this debate suggesting that the computers are no better than one’s own wisdom of understanding and knowledge as to how the brain might produce consciousness in the first place. All the issues and topics raised by these writers have meanings embedded within them that one can understand in the light of an article by Ray Kurzweil which aims to focus on the ‘Law of Accelerating Returns’. In this essay, the writer has suggested that the technological changes that have taken place with the passage of time has been exponential than anything else and it has also discusses the tremendous potential of growth that is expected to occur, say in the next decade or so. He has tied up his feelings, thoughts and words in line with what the six writers mentioned above with their works and viewpoints have brought up, not to forget their immense understanding and knowledge of their respective subjects and experiences that are par with none other. Thus, by all accounts, Internet has changed the manner in which public life is usually viewed in the current times. There is so much more to Internet than the naked eye can see and predict for the coming eras. Internet has revolutionized the whole society and its bearings can be seen left, right and center. The different undertakings of the Internet that have been raised in this paper are something to write home about and will continue to provide benefits to all and sundry in the future. All said and done, the plus points of having Internet within the regimes of public life is surely an enticing proposition, however the drawbacks and opposite claims cannot be discarded off by any stretch of imagination. BIBLIOGRAPHY Wheen, A W May. (1976). All Quiet on the Western Front Royal, Robert. (1999). The Virgin and the Dynamo: Use and Abuse of Religion in Environmental Debates Soby, Morten. (1993). Possessed by Virtual Reality Walley. (2000). The Fate of the Public Internet Word Count: 3,572 Read More