The Sunday Times wrote an article about the death of the Internet and it immediately caught my attention.
According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), about 85% of all available URLs have been used up and by 2011, there will be no more left. This means that the Internet is filling up. I suppose that I have been naive enough to believe that the Internet could never end. I was wrong.
In a world that has become so dependent on the World Wide Web, it is terrifying to imagine the chaos that could break out if the Internet ran out of room for information. Would all technology fail? Would people be blinded from world issues? There are thousands of outcomes that could result from the end of the Internet and I am unable to think of any that would be productive.
There are so many wasteful websites floating around on the Internet that could be turned into something informative and useful so, in my opinion, those websites should be shut down and dedicated to more important resources.
Mark Harris, the author of the article, writes that the end of the Internet could be a good thing because it would relieve people of the constant burden of thinking about our failing economy. I disagree. How else would people know how to budget their money or what was happening to the stock market? We need to be informed about our economy, even if it is depressing and failing. We need the Internet and the end of the it will bring turmoil and disaster.
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article4271879.ece
Monday, April 13, 2009
50 Most Powerful Blogs
The 50 Most Powerful Blogs website attempts to prove that blogs have soared in popularity and can affect people's opinions and views.
Gossip, news, opinion- they all are out there. I think that blogs can have a negative and positive effect. Gossip blogs, for example, are a waste of space. I understand that people want to know what their favorite celebrity is up to or what the latest scandal is, but come on, gossip blogs can be full of lies and rumors.
Personal blogs rank right up there with gossip blogs. Do we really need a play-by-play about how someone woke up and then walked the dog? No, that is what Facebook or MySpace or Xanga is for. Blogs should be used for sharing news and important information that has an effect on us.
News blogs, on the other hand, might be one of the greatest inventions of the Internet. They allow people to seek out things that matter to them and to hear other people's views on the subject rather than just the journalist who wrote the article in the paper that day. A group with the same views can converse from all parts of the world and allow an international perspective, which is sometimes an enlightening and refreshing experience.
I realize that blogs are free of gate-keepers and all the rules that have dragged newspapers so far into the gutter are eliminated when anyone can write about topics regarding the government or economics or anything of the sort, but maybe there should be certain expectations and rules. Maybe gossip blogs and personal blogs should be eliminated to relieve social blogging of useless nonsense.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/mar/09/blogs
Gossip, news, opinion- they all are out there. I think that blogs can have a negative and positive effect. Gossip blogs, for example, are a waste of space. I understand that people want to know what their favorite celebrity is up to or what the latest scandal is, but come on, gossip blogs can be full of lies and rumors.
Personal blogs rank right up there with gossip blogs. Do we really need a play-by-play about how someone woke up and then walked the dog? No, that is what Facebook or MySpace or Xanga is for. Blogs should be used for sharing news and important information that has an effect on us.
News blogs, on the other hand, might be one of the greatest inventions of the Internet. They allow people to seek out things that matter to them and to hear other people's views on the subject rather than just the journalist who wrote the article in the paper that day. A group with the same views can converse from all parts of the world and allow an international perspective, which is sometimes an enlightening and refreshing experience.
I realize that blogs are free of gate-keepers and all the rules that have dragged newspapers so far into the gutter are eliminated when anyone can write about topics regarding the government or economics or anything of the sort, but maybe there should be certain expectations and rules. Maybe gossip blogs and personal blogs should be eliminated to relieve social blogging of useless nonsense.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/mar/09/blogs
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Vermont legalizes gay marriage
Vermont legalized gay marriage on Tuesday. It is refreshing to see that our country is, however slowly, deterring away from the black and white image that marriage should be between a man and a woman.
Honestly, who is it hurting if two men or two women get married? No one. In our "free country," I do not understand why a homosexual couple cannot partake in the same happiness as a heterosexual couple. A marriage is about love and faithfulness and banning two people from legally sharing their life together is completely contradictory to what our society is supposed to be.
Hopefully, Vermont's coming out with same-sex marriage will set into a motion a much needed change for other states. Perhaps New York will be next in line. The "Big Apple" recognizes same-sex marriage preformed elsewhere but bans the actual ceremony to take place within its borders. I suppose it makes sense to allow a gay or lesbian couple to display their legal union publicly in a state that bans a wedding. Well, it does not.
We are living in a new era where social norms are expanding and, actually, social norms rarely exist.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
