The internet and blogging only means one thing…complications. Hawthorne states that, “In one way or another, here and there, and all around us, the inventions of mankind are fast blotting the picturesque, the poetic, and the beautiful out of human life.” The Internet does change human life, but not for the good. It is the source of our deteriorating society.
Like never before the public is being bombarded by sex, advertising, and unsuitable material and it’s only clicks away, on the internet. The children growing up in this internet frenzy are the ones that will have long lasting effects of: advertising overload, lack of social skills, laziness, and most importantly, the loss of family life. Our country is already faced with the issue of obesity, and yet we encourage people of all ages to use the computer, an activity where you sit and do no physical activity at all. Whatever happened to playing outside, spending time with family, and even reading? Less and less time is being spent with family, now kids are sitting at the computer on the internet for hours. Sitting, starring, and interacting with people with only a click of the mouse. Instead of spending time with family and conversing about everyday events, the world is turning to the internet to talk to strangers. People think that the internet is this wealth of knowledge and that’s why they allow their children to be online for hours. What parents don’t know is how their children are really spending their time online when they are unsupervised. Children are able to access video games, porn, online chats, and even sites that tell you how to make a bomb. The internet has opened the symbolic “can of worms.” In a recent survey, Amárach Consulting found the following results:

Main Negative Aspect of Internet Use %
Access to pornography 44%
Access to unsuitable material/information 18%
Can be exposed to unsuitable people e.g. pedophiles 12%
Anti-social/insular activity 6%
Could spend the time more usefully 6%
Access to violent/hate material 5%
Makes them lazy about doing homework/ school projects 3%
Spend too much time playing games 1%
Too exposed to advertising 1%
Nothing 2%
Base: All parents (n=312)

Even Hawthorne saw the impact of what technology could do, just with a wood stove. He knew life would never be the same, like the good ole days. Now with the internet, we run the risk of having our identity stolen and our private material shared, not to mention the perverts who use the internet to stalk young kids. The internet is changing the next generation for the worse. “The effects will be more perceptible on our children, and the generations that shall succeed them, than on ourselves, the mechanism of whose life may remain unchanged, though its spirit be far other than it was” (Hawthorne 4). Users of the internet may not think there is a problem or that things would change so dramatically, but look how its changes over the past ten years. Hawthorne describes how conventional conversation will be a thing of the past: “The easy gossip-the merry, yet unambitious jest- the lifelong, practical discussion of real matters in a casual way- the soul of truth, which is so often incarnated in a simple fireside word- will disappear from earth” (Hawthorne 4).

Applications for jobs are all online, writing and speaking skills have decreased, and social interaction is becoming less frequent. Chatting online has created its own language, OMG! While all this time is being spent on the internet, the quantity of advertising is overwhelming. Almost every page on the internet has banner advertising or pop ups that get in the way. One thing everyone has experienced is problems with reliability. People have stored their life on to the hard drive, but what happens when your computer crashes or you get a virus from browsing the internet? Vannevar Bush had dreams that “The lawyer has at his touch the associated opinions and decisions of his whole experience, and of the experience of friends and authorities” (Bush 10). With people depending and relying on this machine and internet to store and generate material, something’s bound to go wrong. Spam, viruses, and your hard drive just deciding that it will crash can turn your world upside down. Why would you completely rely on this device?
http://youtube.com/watch?v=buq4EM2BpRM


Works Cited


Amárach Consulting, "Research of Internet Downside Issues." (2001) 1-117. 11 September
2007.

Bush, Vannevar. "As We May Think." The Atlantic Monthly (1945) 1-12. 08 September 2007
.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. "Fire Worship." Mosses from an Old Manse (1846) 1-5.
11 September 2007.