The internet surely has given humanity a giant leap forward in the way we interact with one another and
gather information. From its humble beginnings in 1958, all thanks to the Soviet Union’s launch of
Sputnik a year earlier, the United States looked for a way to get information across vast distances faster
in fear that the Russians could launch weapons from space making the time it took to detonate on U.S .
territory much shorter. The response time needed to be instantaneous.
So DARPA was formed – Defense Advanced Research Project Agency. Eleven years later in 1969 the first
instant message was sent between UCLA and Stanford Universities. The interaction that took place
between those two colleges via computers gave birth to today’s internet. It was not until 1990 that the
National Science Foundation took over management of DARPA’s work and in 1992 it went public for
every citizen of the world to use. Not just the United States.
Ten years later social networking websites were born with Friendster.com and LinkedIn.com being the
first in 2002. Followed by Myspace.com in 2003, Facebook.com in 2004 and Twitter.com in 2006 to
name a few. Now the world could easily connect with one another and share personal information in
seconds. Although emailing had been available for a decade prior to these social networks, emailing
could only carry words and pictures in letter form and only those that were addressed could see.
Social networks now made it easy to capture a large audience all at once. Everyone was in the know at
the same time. A few clicks of the keyboard and they could find any and all information about any
subject or person they desired.
This new phenomenon was not without its shortcomings though. The negative implications were
apparent from the first day. Computer hacking, identity theft, unwanted personal information for the
world to see and computer viruses to name a few. But the real downside is often overlooked and
ignored. This new found speed of information, easily accessed from the comfort of your home, has
actually hindered us than helped us. Ready information a click away is wonderful, but it has de-
humanized us to the point that humanity stands to lose its humility. We are removing ourselves from
the face to face interaction that we needed to have before the internet came into being. Staring blankly
at a cold screen and running our fingers across an uncaring keyboard has made us callas and cold
hearted to our fellow man. The interface we had with one another before online chat rooms and social
networking became such an integral part of our lives meant that we had to take into consideration the
feelings of the person we were corresponding with. Now we stare at an unfeeling and uncaring monitor
and envision the person we are chatting with is the same as that screen. Instead of hello my name is
Arty, it has become Arty_123 is online.
Politeness and civility may very well have died the day we first scrolled the cursor over that username
and password box.
gather information. From its humble beginnings in 1958, all thanks to the Soviet Union’s launch of
Sputnik a year earlier, the United States looked for a way to get information across vast distances faster
in fear that the Russians could launch weapons from space making the time it took to detonate on U.S .
territory much shorter. The response time needed to be instantaneous.
So DARPA was formed – Defense Advanced Research Project Agency. Eleven years later in 1969 the first
instant message was sent between UCLA and Stanford Universities. The interaction that took place
between those two colleges via computers gave birth to today’s internet. It was not until 1990 that the
National Science Foundation took over management of DARPA’s work and in 1992 it went public for
every citizen of the world to use. Not just the United States.
Ten years later social networking websites were born with Friendster.com and LinkedIn.com being the
first in 2002. Followed by Myspace.com in 2003, Facebook.com in 2004 and Twitter.com in 2006 to
name a few. Now the world could easily connect with one another and share personal information in
seconds. Although emailing had been available for a decade prior to these social networks, emailing
could only carry words and pictures in letter form and only those that were addressed could see.
Social networks now made it easy to capture a large audience all at once. Everyone was in the know at
the same time. A few clicks of the keyboard and they could find any and all information about any
subject or person they desired.
This new phenomenon was not without its shortcomings though. The negative implications were
apparent from the first day. Computer hacking, identity theft, unwanted personal information for the
world to see and computer viruses to name a few. But the real downside is often overlooked and
ignored. This new found speed of information, easily accessed from the comfort of your home, has
actually hindered us than helped us. Ready information a click away is wonderful, but it has de-
humanized us to the point that humanity stands to lose its humility. We are removing ourselves from
the face to face interaction that we needed to have before the internet came into being. Staring blankly
at a cold screen and running our fingers across an uncaring keyboard has made us callas and cold
hearted to our fellow man. The interface we had with one another before online chat rooms and social
networking became such an integral part of our lives meant that we had to take into consideration the
feelings of the person we were corresponding with. Now we stare at an unfeeling and uncaring monitor
and envision the person we are chatting with is the same as that screen. Instead of hello my name is
Arty, it has become Arty_123 is online.
Politeness and civility may very well have died the day we first scrolled the cursor over that username
and password box.
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