More today than ever before, the internet has become a popular resource for connecting people through online networks. Social networks such as MySpace and Facebook have become widely popular around the world in connecting people from all walks of life. Websites such as these allow for people to keep in touch with existing friends and they also provide the ability to create new contacts as well. Wherever there is access to the internet, social networks are able to provide a digital communication tie to others.

 Facebook began in 2004 on the campus of Harvard, but spread to 2,000 more schools within a year. In 2006, Facebook began allowing high school students and businesses to begin joining the Facebook social network. “More than half (55%) of all of online American youths ages 12-17 use online social networking sites” (Electronic). Social websites such as Facebook have grown rapidly over the past few years. In “2007 Facebook was reported to have more than 21 million registered members generating 1.6 billion page views each day” (The Benefits). For many, logging onto Facebook has become a typical daily routine. It is reported that at least two-thirds of all users log onto Facebook for about 20 minutes everyday (The Benefits). Social networking has many positive effects for its users as well as a few negative effects.

 The positive effects of social networks such as Facebook include its ease of use and its convenience. You can keep in contact with someone much easier and the search utility on Facebook allows you to reconnect with past friends. Anyone with a Facebook profile can be found simply by typing in their name. After finding the person, simply request to add this person as a friend and all the work is done. Even though social networking websites seem like a perfect communication tool, there are multiple negative impacts of using these applications.

 While Facebook profiles often always have user’s pictures, it also has the option for the user to provide more personal information such as their home location, phone number, and class schedule. This information can be used in the wrong manner against an unexpecting victim. It only takes one person with a grudge to turn someone’s life upside down. Someone else who is another potential threat to Facebook users is known as the “Facebook stalker”. The Facebook stalker is someone who becomes obsessed with a particular person and constantly views someone’s profile and pictures just to see what he or she has recently been up to. Generally, this occurs after a girlfriend-boyfriend break up.
 
 Businesses use Facebook as a research tool for looking up employees. This allows employers to take a quick look into the personal life before hiring new workers. This could be a serious downfall during the employment process for students because many college student profiles contain many pictures including things like drinking and smoking. But, students have the ability to restrict access to outside viewers. To stay on the safe side, it is recommended to either take down offensive images or to add restrictive settings. As a student at Ohio State, I have even heard campus career services recommend making changes to our profiles in order to not allow employers to view such things.

 Studies have shown that the majority of Facebook users have a lower GPA than those who do not use it. Facebook can become a major distraction when using the internet. Since it is generally apart of most student’s daily routine, it is easy to become intrigued by additions to others profiles such as new pictures. It is much more exciting to take a look at some pictures from the party last weekend than it is to prepare for the upcoming exams. Facebook has recently decided to include the option of adding integrated applications such as Bumper Sticker, Naughty Gifts, Groups, Graffiti and NCAA March Madness Bracket. There are endless time wasting opportunities such as these on Facebook.

 Facebook is a great way to connect with other people interested in specific topics. “Groups” allow students to join together to make others aware and discuss something in particular. Recently with upcoming presidential election, groups dedicated to a particular candidate have become widely popular. Its way a to show others who you support and a way to show who you do not support. For example, I joined the group “Stop Hillary Clinton: (One Million Strong AGAINST Hillary)” and it currently contains over 905,000 Facebook members. Other types of groups on Facebook include ones called “I love the Mirror Lake Ducks” and “Hell yea I use Coinstar on a regular occasion” which are essentially useless with providing anything valuable.

 MySpace.com and primarily Facebook.com are two websites that are popular with all demographics but are heavily focused towards teenagers and college students. “MySpace and Facebook combined are reported to cover more than 85 percent of all students in high school through college. They are connecting to each other-and not just casual connections but sustainable, global connections for life” (Electronic). As a college student, I have a Facebook profile and I cannot think of anyone my age that does not have their own. Facebook is widely popular as a way of leaving messages with friends and as a way of sharing pictures. It is definitely a popular trend in today’s culture and it is not likely to change anytime soon.

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High school and college students use the internet in some of the same ways as well as in some different ways. Every type of student can use the internet for communication which can result in a way of collaborating on project work, studying for tests, and trading notes. Another major use of the internet is for looking up research material. Before the invention of the internet, students had to use hardcopies of books, newspapers, journals, and encyclopedias. While using hardcopies is still encouraged by teachers and professors, most of these resources are available to students without ever having to leave your chair.

While computers and especially the internet are very useful tools, not everyone has the same opportunities to use such technology. Whether it is factors such as location and availability or factors such as income, age, and race, there is a digital divide that exists. The digital divide refers to those who have access to digital information and those who do not. The digital divide is also implied to those who do not have the sufficient knowledge to use information technologies which can result from a lack of education on how to use them.

Even if families do not have computers and internet access at home, schools are pushing students more than ever to become fluent with information technology. A quote of a high school student in The Digital Disconnect says “our teacher is telling us not to work out of books. She actually requires us to do our stuff on the Internet. There’s this one web site that we usually go to.” Most students have accepted the use of technology, but not all. There are those who struggle to learn and those who have no desire to have technological skills. Although there are people of this nature, society is growing in such a fashion that there is a certain amount of pressure created. This pressure can often drive and sometimes even force people to learn technology.

 With the many positive effects of using the internet for research come negative aspects as well. Even with the decreased prices of computers over the years, they still are expensive to some families. The cost of the internet, while relatively cheap, can still be over a family’s spending budget. These are factors that are hard to escape when referring to the digital divide. As prices continually fall, the distance of the digital divide between low-income families and those who can afford these technologies decreases.

While it has been found that current college students have good study habits, they are easily distracted. The internet is a great source of information, but the vast amount of content online can be very distracting. With the internet being such a strong research source for people who were born in the 80’s and 90’s, people of this generation often use the internet for other aspects as well. These aspects include popular applications such as instant messaging, Facebook and MySpace. Along with social interactions, the internet can facilitate nearly any hobby. With things like this at a fingertip away, internet users can quickly become distracted. The internet provides a wealth of access to things other than simply education purposes. It is a strong source of other content such as entertainment and music.
 
 Computers provided with word processing software such as Microsoft Word help in a student’s paper writing ability. Software such as this is easy to use, but it is highly recommended to have good typing skills because this alleviates a lot of time. Typed papers are easier for students to edit and easier for teachers to grade. Word processing software has replaced traditional typewriters. But along with typed papers comes the ability to plagiarize. Plagiarism has become a major problem due to the “cut/paste” tools provided. Although, while students can simply copy stolen content from the web and hand it in as their own, teachers now have software that can track plagiarism. Other forms of cheating can also be found on the internet. Students are capable of downloading “solution manuals” off the internet which can help in subjects such as math. Cheating has slightly been facilitated by the internet but it is the student who needs to learn how to use technology for the right reasons.

 Although there are positive and negative impacts from the internet, the positive ones far outweigh the negatives. The internet has become the student’s friend because of its relative ease and vast library of content. It has taken much of the pain out of research papers, but it has also created more “out of the classroom” homework assignments such as online quizzes. As the digital divide decreases, more and more people will become fluent with information technology. Although this will take time, we live in a society that makes computers and the internet a part of life. These technologies are becoming a necessary skill to have for many jobs and it can make daily life more enjoyable.

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For your boring Tuesday work day, take a look at some interesting technology facts.

Recent Facts about Internet Usage:

1. Among teens in the United States, 76.4% use the internet atleast once a month. This figure is expected to increase to 87.1% by 2011. (eMarketer)
2. 86.6% of Internet users spend more than 6 hours per week online.
3. Peer-to-peer services are expected to generate ISPs about $28 billion during the next 5 years. (Insight Research Corp.)
4. Two-thrids of American Internet users shop online.
5. Online advertising is $21 billion dollar business in the United States.
6. Two-thirds of all homes in the U.S. have a broadband Internet connection.
7. In 2007, Facebook.com was given an estimated value of $15 billion dollars!

Historical Tech Facts:

1. The URL: http://akebono.stanford.edu/ used to be the original home of Yahoo!
2. Domain registration was free until the National Science Foundation decided to change this on September 14th, 1995.
3. In 1993, Boeing was the first to discover the Y2K problem.
4. Lee Stein invented the first online electronic bank in 1994 entitled, “First Virtual Holdings”.
5. The first Internet Service Provider (ISP) was CompuServe which is now under control of AOL Time Warner.

For any internet user, search engines are apart of daily life. Obviously, Google is the current powerhouse of all search engines, but it was not always this way. At the start of the search engine movement, huge companies were not creating search engines but rather college students were.

The first tool for searching the Internet was called “Archie”. It was created by Alan Emtage, a McGill University student in 1990. Archie was a program that downloaded a listing of all files located on public anonymous File Transfer Protocals (FTP). The list was generated into a searchable database for users to access.

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The history of domain names is an interesting and unique one.  The first domain to ever be registered online occurred over 20 YEARS ago!  Symbolics.com is credited with the first domain name.  After a quick Whois check, the domain was registered on March 15, 1985.

In 1984-1984, the DNS was created and the first top level domains were .com, .org, .edu, .gov, .mil and ccTLD’s.

The first of firsts for the domain industry:
First .com - symbolics.com
First .edu’s - cmu.edu, purdue.edu, rice.edu, ucla.edu (April of 1985)
First .gov - css.gov (June of 1985)
First .org - mitre.org (July of 1985)

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Among different forms of communication; including newspapers, magazines and television, the internet has by far made the biggest impact in the smallest amount of time.  During the mid-1990’s, the internet was spreading like a virus around the world.

By 1997, most the world’s nations were connected to the World Wide Web.  In comparison to the spread of the internet, it took 38 years for radio broadcasts to reach an audience of 50 million, 13 years for television, but only 4 years for the internet to reach such an audience.  In 1995, there were roughly 20 million internet users worldwide, and by 2000 there 400 million users.