Despite the fact that the internet was invented nearly 40 years ago it has become one of the most widespread technologies in the world. It is used in nearly all spheres of human activities starting from communication, entrepreneurship, working platform and others. The aim of this paper is therefore to describe how I started using Internet. In my descriptions I will narrate the whole process of obtaining Internet proficiency. Moreover, I will talk about some personal problems connected with new skill.
I studied in Kazakh-Turkish high school for gifted boys, which is located in my hometown, Aktobe. This school is a well-known educational organization that focuses on teaching technical subjects in depth. This implied that most of my classmates were passionate about physics, mathematics, engineering and IT technologies. At that time internet was quite popular around the world. However, it usually requires some time for a technology to be spread in Kazakhstan owing to the fact that innovations reach my country with a slight delay. For that reason when I enrolled into my school I was not familiar with the opportunities that were available for Internet users. My classmates have made such opportunities real for me, since they were the ones who taught me all nuances. Due to the reason that quite a range of activities can be done through the Internet, I want to narrate my personal experience of acquiring a technology in three main steps.
Firstly, I am going to discuss using the Internet for communication. The primary skill I have acquired in the area was learning how to create an email. Writing emails resemble writing letters a lot. It has just one crucial difference that time spent to send a usual letter is far longer. Therefore I preferred to use emails in order to communicate with people. However, email is not the only way to get an access to your friend living overseas. When one has his or her own email address it is possible to create an account in social networking sites. I have created my personal profile in russian prototype of “My space”. With this simple knowledge new horizons were opened to me. I could find almost everyone of my age by simply logging in and typing their name in “Search” field. These meant that I was able to make friends from different countries and chat with them online in case they were available. Moreover, I had an access to their photos and videos, mobile telephone numbers, and their interests. This implied that I could easily become friends since I knew their tastes and preferences. One could easily find lots of friends in my friendliest, some of them I did not even know in reality.
Many people use social networking sites in order to create false image of their personality. To some extent it probably happens due to the lack of confidence so that by being different person one expresses his or her opinion and visions of the world more freely. It is also possible that by embellishing their life people become personalities that have qualities they actually dream to acquire in reality. Actually, I found this very interesting in that one may change his/her personal details including names any time he/she wishes. However, hiding identity cannot go on for a long period of time because in one way or another, people will get to know you through the communication process. Actually, it is through social networks that the real identity of an individual in terms of the way he/she thinks becomes known to others. It is usually interesting to know the views of people from different countries on particular issues. Even though one may not meet some of the friend in the social networks, they are of great important because from them, one can learn a lot of thing that may improve the way one perceives things in life.
The second stage of my Internet conquest is learning how to use it for my studies. The process was a part of my studies at school. I used to conduct student research in senior class. My mentor has taught me how to use search engines starting from relatively simple ones such as Google, Yahoo and ending up with more comprehensive databases. Generally, it can say that the internet was very crucial when I was undertaking my project. I was able to access information from the internet through various sites. I was able to evaluate the information from various sites to ensure that quality information is what I would use to complete my project. The internet has actually made learning easy in that one can get all the information needed to complete a research paper easily. What one has to do however is to ensure the source of the information is reliable and valuable. In any case, all the sources are important in one way or another.
Finally, I want to discuss the Internet as a venue for online shopping. Due to fact that it was quite inconvenient to do e-shopping in my hometown, I learned these skill only when I came to United States. Since I already knew how to use Internet for search at that time, acquiring literacy in the online shopping was not a big problem to me. I find it as a very convenient way to purchase wide range of products. I can buy closes, order food delivery, electronics and many others. I can say that online shopping has saved the time of many individuals. one does not need to move to shopping centers to find out what is being sold there. Instead, it is possible to get all the information about what wants to buys from the internet. By this, one saves the time of shopping and moving to the shopping centers to buy the products they want.
Even though there are many benefits that I have obtained from the internet, I have found out that there are many problems that are associated to it. In the first place, social networks can waste ones time. This is due to the fact that these networks can ever be accessed through the mobile phones. As a result, many students, me included use the networks even when in class. Therefore the learning process is usually interrupted and this may cause poor performance in school. Cheating in examinations increased in our school when the use of internet spread. Students could easily get answers from the internet in their phones. It is therefore important to control the use of mobile phones in class to ensure equality education in our country.
Many youths of my age have been affected negatively due to the use of internet to search for pornographic materials. It is through self control and the advices from my parents that I was able to avoid the use of internet for purposes that can negatively impact me in my life. Generally it is important to guide the youths on the use of internet so that they can be aware of the dangers that are associated by its use. It is accepted that the internet is of great important and it is not possible to control its use. However, proper guide should be available to the youths and other people using it.
Work cited.
Katz, James E, and Ronald E. Rice. Social Consequences of Internet Use: Access, Involvement, and Interaction. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 2002. Print.
