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The Future of Internet
Pew Internet Project gave out the results of another interesting study. In September 2004 they conducted online interviews with non-random sample of 1, 286 technology experts, scholars and social analysts (from affiliations like Harvard, MIT, Yale, IBM, AOL, Intel, Oracle, Google and some more) about the future of Internet. Mostly, they agreed that by 2014 internet will increase the size of people’s social networks far beyond what has traditionally been the case. Two thirds of them agreed that at least one devastating attack will occur within next ten years on the network information infrastructure. Half of them believed in future of copying and distributing digital product freely thru anonymous peer-to-peer networks. The also pointed out the growing surveillance by democratic governments and by authoritarian regimes due to increasing number of computing devices embedded in nearly every aspect of our lives.
And according to those experts, blogs will bring a dramatic change to the news and publishing worlds as blogs supplant the public’s attention to traditional media.
I try to imagine what would happen if tomorrow I woke up and there was no internet. Hmmmm, I would rather not have this situation to deal with. That would be just awful:))). Am I net-addict? Or net-holic? Do I feel insecure while offline? Intriguing questions, which I find hard to answer honestly, even only to myself. I know am a net-addict. Whatever that includes. At home, my laptop is constantly connected to cable, whether I actually am behind it or not. But I like the possibility of … I like to have all options open. With being signed on to Skype, Gaim (IM application) and x-chat I feel like my room is not bounded only to four walls but rather has all windows open to outside world, way beyond Ljubljana and Slovenia. It is something special about maintaining relationships with friends and colleagues online by overcoming time and physical distances. Information technology is turning into relationship technology:))). The form of online communication that I prefer least is certainly email. I find it so hard to sit down and write an email. I think email, even tho it deserves all credits for what it does make possible for me, is kind of retro. It’s the old way of communication, writing letters has been always at our disposal. Well, it did take a bit more time and effort to actually get it sent and received, but I don’t see anything so new in it. I think what puts me off a bit is its non-real time nature. I prefer synchronous communication to asynchronous. I prefer to be in real time interaction with people. Of course, there are situations where email is the only suitable form of communication. But …. there is one thing I don’t fancy so much. Webcams. I hear people praising them for all their benefits and I honestly believe they are very useful but I couldn’t use one myself. I see it as some kind of distortion of reality. Ops, which reality? Online or offline? I don’t divide these two. Now I got completely carried away with all this communication blah blah. Anyway, I would have troubles to get used to live without internet. And big ones, I guess. I don’t have any problem going away for a few weeks and not get online, but for good - that would be one sad thing to get used to.
By Nana | January 12, 2005 | Topics: Research, Tech |