The internet and its impact on our social life
Q. 1. What types of websites are popular among your generation?
Answer: Being a person of the young generation, who have either finished their studies or have just started their careers, I would say that websites on news, job postings, social networking, entertainment industry, sports and e-commerce are probably the most popular among our generation. However, job sites probably would top them all because there is a huge number of unemployed youth in my country, and they just like to surf through those websites in order to improve their opportunities to land on a new job or better job. E-commerce websites don’t fall very far behind the job sites because they also attract a lot of young visitors for obvious reasons. Finally, social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter are hugely popular among those youths.
Q. 2. Is using the internet a social or solitary activity? Why?
Answer: In my humble opinion, I would say that it is a solitary activity for many because people don’t really need or are “required” to interact with other people in their society in order to use the internet. Besides, when somebody is using the internet, he or she is usually busy finding some information or looking at something on their screens. Therefore, even if there are other people around him/her, he or she doesn’t exactly pay much attention to them in order to make it a “social” thing. However, if we consider the purpose or function of social networking websites, they are often meant to help us connect more people and become more social by bringing friends and relatives together and letting people find like-minded people over the internet so that they can meet and work for a common cause.
Q. 3. How has the internet changed social behaviour?
Answer: The use of the internet has significantly changed our social behaviours and attitude. Today, we spend more time on surfing on the internet, talking with some people with probably some “false” names on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, while completely forgetting to have even a casual conversation with friends and families around us. As a result, we are “isolating” ourselves more and more from the “realities” around us. Besides, since some people are glued to the internet for long hours, they don’t really feel like going out to enjoy the normal thing in life which is actually causing “depression” in many of the internet users.
However, there is a completely different side of the use of the internet which connects friends and relatives and give people a common platform to raise their voice or share information for good. A year ago, our local administrator decided to build a factory near our neighbourhood and many people learned about it via the internet. They shared their thoughts and finally met to protest it personally. I see this event as a great example of how the internet can strengthen our social relationship and bring good things to society.
Q. 4. Should companies check job applicants’ online profiles? Why/ Why not?
Answer: Yes, I think that companies should check job applicants’ online profiles in order to get a better understanding of the prospective applicants’ lifestyles and behaviour pattern. But, it is also important for companies not to make any decisions, based solely on what they see or find on their online profiles, simply because they may be just some of the “glimpse” of moments on some special occasions. Besides, just because somebody does something on the internet (unless it is absolutely stupid and offensive), it doesn’t necessarily mean that he or she will do the same thing at works.
Q. 5. What will be the next big development online?
Answer: I am not an internet or technology expert, but I think that the next big development online will be the ability to connect computers, smartphones, TV, fridges, and other electronic devices and gadgets through the cloud networks. Besides, I also think that all televisions, computers and smartphones in the future will have an internet connection in them. In other words, as soon as we power on these devices, the internet connection will be running automatically in them without the need of doing anything extra to connect with internet. So who will pay for the internet? Well, the companies, manufacturing these devices, will. Besides, AI (Artificial Intelligence) will do most of the things for us like ordering items online for us or sending an email we need to send.
Q. 6. How has the internet changed the way we communicate with others?
Answer: The internet has very significantly changed the way we communicate with others. In fact, it has made communication easier and faster, especially, when sending or receiving a huge amount of data and information. Besides, the internet has made communication very affordable too as we can write messages or letter as large as we can and then send them to our friends and families by using emails without spending virtually anything. Finally, it has made communication very “personalized” also. In fact, we can view anybody live on camera, while also talking to them at the same time, no matter if we live a world apart from each other.
