Memories of the Internet

The first time I experienced using the internet was about the same time I began using computers and that was in elementary school.  I was in fifth grade and our class would visit the computer lab weekly.  Ever since then computers and the internet have come a long way and have stayed in my life.  When we started using the internet in school I really had no idea what it was or exactly how it worked.  In fact I was occupied with figuring out just how to use the computer itself than what it was made for.  We started using computers in the classroom to take quizzes on books we had read as a part of the Accelerated Reader program.  The first program I learned how to use for the internet was called Netscape Navigator and it was the first internet browser I used.  We would use Netscape to search for sites that would have assignments we would have to complete.  I remember “navigating” on the internet was a not so fast process.  Most computers were linked in using a dial up connection, like the first computer in our house.  Snail speed would be an understatement if you were to compare it the internet connection speeds today.  Speed isn’t the only improvements that have been made to computers.  I remember the computers we used were big bulky Apple P.C.s.  Nowadays computers are half the size of their original versions.  I loved playing games on computers, to me they were much like video games and I am a huge fan of those but I began appreciating computers more as I started using the internet more.  Not long after we started using computers in school my family decided to put one in our home.  We started out using a dial up connection and I remember how slow it was to wait for a single page to load on a site.  Since dial up involved a land line, people would have to wait their turn to send or receive phone calls.  My brother was older than me and more familiar with computers.  I remember he was big into downloading music as this was also around the time mp3 players launched so he was a chronic user of Napster.  I never downloaded any music but I did use the program before it was shutdown.  I began understanding the internet’s functions more and more.  People were getting their music from computers and people began communicating with their computers.  Email and instant messenger were catching on fast and I was realizing how important the internet was growing to be.  For the most part I thought the internet was pretty neat.  In a way it was fascinating and that remains true today.  I could see that the world was moving in that direction so I had a positive opinion about the internet.  I did not see the internet as a something that was detrimental to society like that of Hawthorne.  I guess I would have to say I understood the internet more similarly to the way Bush envisioned it.  I did notice that some parents of my friends would not allow us to be on the computer continuously.  I loved being outside when I was younger but I did see the similar negative effect that computers share with televisions. I admit computers and the internet effected how much time I spent doing everything else.  I noticed in high school with the introduction of Myspace and Facebook that more and more people were spending time on the internet and again I was doing it too.  I would say that when I got to college I observed an extreme shift on how much time peers and myself included were spending on the internet.  Part of the reason was due to using the internet for academic purposes and the other large part was due to the popularity of social media.  Personally I disliked how much time I was spending on the internet surfing Facebook.  Time spent combined with other issues I have with Facebook make me proud to say I do not have an account anymore.  I agree that the internet is capable of potentially being developed and used for the wrong reasons.  Certainly nowadays much of the internet is devoted to entertainment purposes, but at the same time communication with people via computers has improved dramatically in the past decade and is continuing to make great strides.  I do find this along with the abundance of information on the web to be a good example of how useful the internet can be.  Technology is here to stay and I am interested to see what will come next. 

-Andy