With the advent of internet and web technology there are many innovations taking place. According to an article by Bill Gates in 2000 entitled “enter generation i”, he predicted this generation to be that which cannot do without internet and web technology. Generation I is the internet generation where the full potential of the internet will be experienced. Bill gates states that generation I “will have no memory of life without the Net”. Generation I was expected to be a generation that has advanced technology.
With the internet, there are many changes in fields such as business, education, scientific. Business has been taken to new heights with applications of high speed and large storage capacity. Virtual organizations where no physical build exist are a reality today where anyone can set up an online business right from their homes. Businesses are also not limited to the geographical location because the world is now a global village. The businesses are the major beneficiaries of the internet generation in all dimensions. It is easy to set up an online shop to sell goods and services in areas that could not have been possible without the internet. Advertisement is another aspect of the benefits of this generation. In the past, business who wanted to increase sales and market share had to buy advertising space and airtime in the print media and television. It was very expensive and only targeted middle and upper class people while products were of all classes. Currently the use of micro blogging such as Facebook and twitter has made it easier for advertisers to reach their targeted audience easily than print media. Apart from the internet being free for advertisers, it is also interactive where target market can give their views on the product or services or the ads.
Customer services is another important aspect of the internet generation. The past generations relied on face to face interaction with the customer’s service personnel which changed to use of call centres to have customers services. It is now possible for a customer to interact with the sales representatives using the web based applications such as Skype, Google plus, twitter, Facebook among other social media. Telecommuters are those employees who work from home. Because of the internet applications, workers do not need to be in the office to accomplish their tasks. This has resulted into low demand of office space and reduced expenditure on the employees. It has also resulted into hiring experts who could have been expensive or not possible to hire because of the geographical barriers. Experts can work from any part of the world using the high speed technological tools.
Bill Gates predicted that the internet generation will have better teaching and learning environment. He pointed out that internet access in learning institution will ensure that there is quick sharing of information in the community. Technological advancement in education is enormous, not only has it resulted into fast sharing of information but also new learning modes. Because of the internet it is now possible to have online classes and study from home. International institutions can now offer their teaching services to other students abroad without worrying about the geographical distance. Online libraries are another technological advancement realized in the internet generation. In the past decades, students and researchers had to physically visit the library in order to access information and materials. It is now possible to access information from different libraries by a click of a mouse. Students do not need to fight for limited library resources such as the seating space and books because electronic copies can be shared and be used by many users concurrently.
Researchers are also great beneficiaries of the internet technology. Researchers in the past years used to go out in the field and meet people with hardcopy papers in collecting data. The information was then analyzed using slow methods that could not even handle complex research work. Currently researchers not need necessarily to go out in the field to carry out research because online tools such as social media can be used to get respondents. Online paid surveys are also used to carry research and return respondents are paid a small fee. Big companies are gathering information through an online survey on how to improve on their products with going out in the field. It is now easier with huge storage devices and data warehousing tools to have a more accurate prediction of an organization. Scientific researchers have also been able to advance their studies because of technological advancement.
Although the internet as many advantages and a lot of positive things to talk about, there is an increasing danger with its use and innovations. The kids of generation I are becoming more sophisticated than any other generation. Sophisticated in this context is they are being negatively influenced by the internet than before. It is becoming a social problem that kids cannot communicate and interact with each other well because they are more used to machines than humans. This has resulted into broken parent-child relationship because kids trust internet than their parents. It is a fact that many kids in generation I will seek the opinion on the internet about what they will ware, eat, shop and personal issues than their parents or close friends .
Social interaction and child play is more computers oriented than it was in the past. Playing violent video games and expose to pornographic materials at an early age has become a norm in many nations. The quality of education and culture of reading has reduced drastically in generation I than before. Many young people are going through education systems but they are not able to read or they are not skilled enough to face the work market. It has prompted organizations to incur extra cost in training professionals because their time in school was more spend on social media and other internet activities than learning.
It is becoming a more serious challenge for governments to regulate and deal with criminal activities. Many youths who are talented in computer skills are turning into criminals because using a computer to carry out a crime such as fraud is ‘safe’ and seems easier than robbery. The resend revolutions in the Arab countries have been attributed to social media. Internet generation is going to bring up more revolution not only for a good course bad also for ill-intentions. There are many tools which can be downloaded and used to hack or access financial institutions without any problem. The internet generation has its banking systems and money transfer systems in electronic form; this is riskier because committing a fraud of billions of shillings is easier electronically than physical carrying of hard cash . War on terror has also suffered a major blow because of technological advancement. Technology has resulted into the design of small weapons and bombs that cannot be detected easily. Availability of terror materials on the internet and tutorials on how to make homemade explosives is on the increase in these generations than before. There is a great danger of overreliance on the internet in all sectors of life. Governments are now digitizing and going on e-services, institutions such as banks, hospitals and other critical institutions. A simple failure in the system will cause havoc in generations I and all activities will be paralyzed.
Bibliography
Gates, Bill. Microsoft News Center: Enter "Generation I". March 2000. 22 August 2013 <https://www.microsoft.com/presspass/ofnote/03-00instructor.mspx>.
Zeevi, Daniel. Kids of the Internet Generation vs. Everybody Else [INFOGRAPHIC]. 10 July 2013. 22 August 2013 <http://dashburst.com/infographic/kids-internet-generation/>.
