The Internet currently does have
several attributes that encourage thinking
about it as a democratic medium. Part of this can be traced to the design
principles that were established early in its evolution. The lack of centralized control
suggests to many people that censorship or other attempts at control will be thwarted. Other
attributes are a result of social design in the early days, the strongly
libertarian support for free speech, the sharing culture that permeated nearly all aspects of Internet use, and the
outright prohibition on commercial use by the National
Science Foundation, for example. The Internet's most
significant contribution was the idea of unmediated many-to-many communication
on a large scale, through newsgroups, chat rooms, MUDs, and many
other modes. This type of communication ignored the boundaries established with
broadcast media, such as newspapers or radio, and with one-to-one media, such as letters or landline telephones. Finally, because Internet is a massive digital network
with open standards, universal and inexpensive access to a wide variety of
communication media and models could actually be attained.[8]
They
may have over-estimated the transformative power of their favorite technology,
but their projections were modest compared to many that came afterwards.
According to a whole new genre of Internet hype, networking was a change
comparable in significance to the Industrial Revolution and would soon
transform every aspect of our daily lives. Cities would be depopulated as
people retreated to electronic cottages in the woods. Government as we know it
would be replaced by continuous electronic plebiscites. Artificial
intelligences would learn our preferences and control the mechanical world
around us without our having to lift a finger. Even sex would be transformed
through remote access to virtual partners.
Complaints
about the Internet are similar to complaints about television broadcasting and
in fact it seems that bad experience with the latter has shaped negative
expectations about the former. Recall that television promised a “global
village” in which new solidarities would arise from easy access to information
about other peoples and their problems. It is true that lots of information
circulates on the evening news but the consequences of broadcasting are not
entirely benign. It is also used for propaganda and to influence lifestyle
choices. Aldous Huxley published Brave New World in the early 1930s,
only a few years after the first commercial radio broadcasts, but already his
dystopian vision of a totally manipulated public captured the very real threat.
Many social critics seem to have concluded that technical mediation as such leads
to mass alienation. Can the Internet be squeezed into this same pattern? I do
not believe so.
The
difference between television and the Internet is a consequence of their
different technical structures. In broadcasting a single source sends out
messages to a mass audience. The Internet enables reciprocal communication
among small groups. The members of these groups both receive and emit
information. There is a return here to the normal pattern of human
communication in which listening and speaking roles alternate rather than being
distributed exclusively to one or another interlocutor.
What
is missing in the critics’ account is any sense of the great victory
represented by ordinary human communication on the Internet. There is a long
history of communication technologies introduced for broadcasting or purely
official usages that ended up as instruments of informal human interaction. The
telephone, for example, was originally intended for serious business
conversation. When women appropriated it to organize the social life of their
families, engineers complained bitterly about the waste of their beautiful
instrument. Even more surprising, the telephone was at first imagined as a
broadcasting technology. In the early days, several companies distributed live musical
performance to subscribers. In France the Théâtrophone company thrived until
1920 broadcasting operas (Bertho, 1984: 80-81).
The
negative part of this internet is that many people used it to view porn sites
that's why those sites are doing well economic activities. From google many
important files are found which are important to our daily life. If you need
any material or document you can search in google. If there is no google it
will be point to think how the user gets the information about different topic.
But in such way it gives merit things it has equally negative thing. Many
crimes are happened through it like cyber crime, hacking, sex videos scandal.
The main purpose of this topic is that how we utilize the internet in our
behavioral life. Some people get's popular through hacking the important sites
of different countries like Julias Ashanz who threat the world leaking the
important files from weakileaks. Such files can be found which shows the wrong
way of the life. Internet in which level it provides facilities creating threat
and challenges in same level. The
lower cost of information exchange on the Internet, as well as the high level
of reach that the content potentially has, makes the Internet an attractive
medium for political information, particularly amongst social interest groups
and parties with lower budgets.
For example, environmental or social
issue groups may find the Internet an easier mechanism to increase awareness of
their issues, as compared to traditional media outlets, such as television or
newspapers, which require heavy financial investment. Due to all these factors,
the Internet has the potential to take over certain traditional media of
political communication, such as the telephone, the television, newspapers and
the radio. The civil society has gradually moved into the online world.[16]
Novel tools are being developed that
are aimed at empowering bloggers, webmasters and owners of other social media,
with the effect of moving from a strictly informational use of the
Internet to using the Internet as a means of social organization not
requiring top-down action. Action triggers, for
instance, are a novel concept designed to allow webmasters to mobilize their
viewers into action without the need for leadership. These tools are also
utilized worldwide: for example, India is developing an effective blogosphere
that allows internet users to state their thoughts and opinions.[17]
There many advantages to using the internet such as:
Email.
E-mail is an online correspondence system. With e-mail you can send and receive instant electronic messages, which works like writing letters. Your messages are delivered instantly to people anywhere in the world, unlike traditional mail that takes a lot of time. Email is now an essential communication tools in business. It is also excellent for keeping in touch with family and friends. The advantages to email is that it is free ( no charge per use) when compared to telephone, fax and postal services.
Information.
The Internet is a virtual treasure trove of information. Any kind of information on any topic under the sun is available on the Internet. The ‘search engines’ on the Internet can help you to find data on any subject that you need.
There is a huge amount of information available on the internet for just about every subject known to man, ranging from government law and services, trade fairs and conferences, market information, new ideas and technical support.
Services.
Many services are now provided on the internet such as online banking, job seeking and applications, and hotel reservations. Often these services are not available off-line or cost more.
Buy or sell products.
The internet is a very effective way to buy and sell products all over the world. Along with getting information on the Internet, you can also shop online. There are many online stores and sites that can be used to look for products as well as buy them using your credit card. You do not need to leave your house and can do all your shopping from the convenience of your home.
Communities.
Communities of all types have sprung up on the internet. Its a great way to meet up with people of similar interest and discuss common issues.
Online Chat:
There are many ‘chat rooms’ on the web that can be accessed to meet new people, make new friends, as well as to stay in touch with old friends.
Downloading Software:
This is one of the most happening and fun things to do via the Internet. You can download innumerable, games, music, videos, movies, and a host of other entertainment software from the Internet, most of which are free.
Disadvantages of the Internet:-
There are certain cons and dangers relating to the use of Internet that can be summarized as:
Personal Information:
If you use the Internet, your personal information such as your name, address, etc. can be accessed by other people. If you use a credit card to shop online, then your credit card information can also be ‘stolen’ which could be akin to giving someone a blank check.
Pornography:
This is a very serious issue concerning the Internet, especially when it comes to young children. There are thousands of pornographic sites on the Internet that can be easily found and can be a detriment to letting children use the Internet.
Spamming:
This refers to sending unsolicited e-mails in bulk, which serve no purpose and unnecessarily clog up the entire system.
Such illegal activities are frustrating for all Internet users, and so instead of just ignoring it, we should make an effort to try and stop these activities so that using the Internet can become that much safer. That said, the advantages of the Internet far outweigh the disadvantages, and millions of people each day benefit from using the Internet for work and for pleasure.
thank u for this :)
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