I woke up this morning made some coffee and immediately got on the Internet. I checked my e-mail, tweeted and Skyped my best friend all before I got dressed. Have social media and the World Wide Web become more of a necessity than an indulgence.
Our generation (Generation X/Y) and the ones below us feel entitled to all the Internet offers. E-mail and texting are no longer fast enough and if a web page doesn’t load, well that is just unacceptable. The invention of websites such as Hulu and YouTube created an anti-commercial viewership and watching a short advertisement before a video is “annoying.”
After the invention and wide usage of e-mail a snowball effect happened. Being able to communicate with friends, get your message to consumers and share ideas with colleges around the world was the “gateway drug” of sorts.
Today we have applications not only for computers but for our phones as well. With Skype and Facetime we can not only talk, but see who we are talking to. The application Hey Tell has turned voicemail into a thing of the past. You can now turn your mobile device into a walkie- talkie. Twitter, Facebook, Linked In, Blogger and Flicker are just some of the Social Media sites that not only work on laptops but on Smartphones as well.
Is all this technology taking over our lives? When you sit in a classroom you can look around the room and see people on their laptops checking out Facebook or Twitter. Go to any restaurant and you can see families not even talking, just playing on their mobile phones. Some people spend fourty hours a month checking the news, social media and browsing the Web. Are they obsessed? Actually according to a recent study from ComSCORE that’s the new average time spend surfing the Internet.
The Internet also helps us connect. It is easier for small businesses to become global, companies to get feedback and friends to stay in touch. Response times via the internet are becoming less and less, helping keep us dependent on the services it offers.
When the cold weather was to much for The Electric Reliability Council of Texas
to handle, blackouts occurred. People (myself included) did not know what to do with themselves with no internet or TV to occupy their time. That was until I remembered my phone! Alas, I was saved and could connect with fellow North Texans to complain about the weather.
Has all this technology taken over our lives, or is it just improving the way we communicate? To me it is a little bit of both. I can’t wait to see what future technology has in store for us.
http://www.comscoredatamine.com/2011/01/average-time-spent-online-per-u-s-visitor-in-2010/
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