2nd draft

Does the internet have or future or will it ultimately end in demise?

Since the internets birth in 1969, originally used for the U.S. Department of Defences Advance Research Projects Agency (ARPA) when they used a small network of high-speed supercomputers called ARPNET which could withstand military attack, the main purpose being researchers and scientists sharing computer facilities but ultimately ended in news and personal messages. Through out the 70’s and 80’s ARPNET was accommodating for a wider range of computers, which finally in 1989 was incorporated into the National Science Foundations own computer network becoming the Internet.

On internetworldstats.com in December 31 2000 there were 360,985,492 internet users world wide and in 2009 the estimate was around 6,767,805,208 with a 380.3% increase. This increase in popularity could be blamed on the creation of the World Wide Web (WWW) which we knows as web sites, containing pages of text and graphics. These web sites became educational, personal and commercial. The best examples and the most popular are Youtube and Facebook. Facebook today has over 400 million active users according to Facebook statistics, while Youtube has 100 million viewers with 14.8 billion online videos in January 2009.

As the Internet grows so does the wealth of information being sent and received grows as well. Facebook users openly supply their personal information to exhibit on their profile, Name, Age and their current location to your relationship status and religious views which all can be seen without the privacy tools. Facebook has over 3 billions photos uploaded to the site each month, this content is covered by intellectual property rights which when uploaded you give them permission to use your content. This agreement ends when you delete your picture or your account but if the picture has been shared with others and they have not deleted it, it will remain.

Paragraph 3 and 4 - The wealth of information that passes through computers.
How we openly give out personal information for the www to see.
The lack of anonymity and mystery with online users.
How Governments, Businesses and other Agencies utilise the internet to find and share information.

On the other end of the scale, the Internet is place where we can learn, watch and create. With Youtube and other video blogging networks like Vimeo gives the opportunity to broadcast either themselves, or other sorts of video media, onto the internet. Not only can people post their own media, but they can search for virtually anything, from music videos to lessons on how to put makeup on a certain way, or a video clip from a TV show. With these capabilities just a mouse clip away, youtube can keep someone entertained for hours. This can have positive and negative effects. When looking for useful information youtube can be incredibly helpful; however, inappropriate material can appear just like in any other search engine. Caution must be used with younger children on this site, but this isn’t anything new to parents.

Paragraph 5 and 6 - The positive end of the wealth of information, for example entertainment and education.
How the life of the mind is an important one and the internet can help this, rather than social life and how this can be replaced by online communities.
How this can ultimately lead to addiction on par with alcoholism, drug abuse, gambling and eating disorders.
The deterioration of social, academic, financial and occupational life.

Paragraph 7 - Weigh up pros and cons. My own opinion. Predict the future of the internet.