Over the course of my life, the list of “My Favorite Top 5 Most Important Things Ever” hasn’t changed much. The top 4 things has always been the same:
- Family
- Friends
- Sleep
- Food (this might actually be a tie for third place)
Entry number 5, despite its lower ranking of importance, is actually unique from all others. Because it is the only one that’s changing, it sort of serves as an indicator of what phase my life is in.
- When I was an infant, was probably getting my diaper changed (I can’t do anything by myself-phase).
- When I was five, it was my Lego collection (I need something to play with at all times-phase).
- When I was thirteen, it was playing basketball (I need to hang out with my friends-phase).
- During high school, it was grades (I need to succeed in life-phase).
- Nowadays, it’s the internet.
But the internet is a strange thing. I can’t think of a specific phase I’m going through that can be described by my internet obsession. If anything, I’d say that it combines the variations of my past phases into one. Let’s analyze it one by one.
- (I can’t do anything by myself-phase): Obviously now I’m infinitely more self-sufficient than a baby, but there are things I can’t do without the internet. It’s funny how the introduction of the internet greatly empowered us, yet now we feel helpless without it. Is it acceptable for us to become so dependent on it?
- (I need something to play with at all times-phase): At least for my generation, there seems to be only two options whenever you’re bored: browsing the web or fiddling with your phone. Either way, it’s clear that we resort to the internet whenever there is a downtime.
- (I need to hang out with my friends-phase): Social media. No one sends you a formal invitation anymore unless it’s a wedding. Now we just get a Facebook notification saying, “xxxx has invited you to yyyyy.”
- (I need to succeed in life-phase): LinkedIn. Need I say more?
Maybe I’m analyzing needless things. I’m actually digressing too much from what I originally wanted to talk about. All I wanted to say was that I love the internet. So no matter what I say from now on, just remember: I’m not hating.
All that aside, I HATE the internet. I hate that I can’t live without it. I hate that internet has become an irreplaceable part of my life. But what I hate the most is that my life has become a part of the internet. You know what I mean. So much of our lives are recorded on the internet, and whether we like it or not, those information is there to stay. The worst part is, a lot of this information is public. Which means that if someone wants to dig up some embarrassing moments from your past, they probably will be able to find something. Just imagine the presidential campaigns in a few decades. Instead of debating the candidates’ political stances, they’ll probably be busy asking each other why there is a picture of them holding a can of beer when they were under 21.
I know there are some people that support such transparency, and I understand their reasoning. But I still cannot bring myself to expose my vulnerabilities to the world. It’s not like I have full control of everything that’s posted online about me. What if my friend’s friend posted a picture that I’m in, but wouldn’t want to share. There’s a possibility that I would never know that picture is online for people to see. It’s not that I care about what strangers think about me after looking through my photos (okay, maybe I do a little bit), but if that picture comes to bite me in the ass later on, obviously I would be angry.
So one of the two things need to happen. We need to increase privacy of someone’s online identity, or we need to grow as a society and accept that everyone’s going to have an embarrassing or vulgar moment recorded in the eternal time-space of the internet. Personally, I rather not wait and go with the former.
Intro. to Multimedia Comp SP14 
(I’m commenting on this as make-up work. Don’t worry, I’d still comment on it)
I really like the layout and content of your post! It was very interesting that you talked about your opinions about the Internet based on the phases of your life. Since students are getting computer classes in school as early as second grade, I think the phase in people’s lives when they turn to computers as a main form on entertainment will be sooner and sooner.
I too think that we need to increase Internet personal privacy. However, when some services are free, that usually means they are that way because companies are taking our information and using it to profit.