I just realized how small the world is... and it's all because of the net. Imagine yourself connecting real-time with people from Russia, the States, Europe, Africa, the mid-East, Asia, or anywhere in the world. I'm talking about the world anyway. Who knows, the future might open up the possibility of connecting with space.
Visit friendster and you're opening yourself up to the chance of meeting people even out the country where you belong. Open up a multiply account and you're also opening up a bridge to the people around the globe once you get to have anything in common with them through web-searches. A person may be able to get to know people from the farthest side of the country in a completely different walk of life through these kind of internet services. These tools can also be used to open up connections with people that they've never met before.
No matter how advantageous these may be, they'll always have a side-effect. People may use these tools as weapons to wreak terror. Persons with evil intentions may snoop and grab personal information from others. They may also steal them and use them as their own. These issues, to top that off, are even left without any security. Up to date, there are no written laws that protect people who use the internet from fraudulent schemes and issues on privacy. People mark the net-space as a public domain and they can do anything they want. Anything may also mean everything evil as long as people want to do it. There are no such laws.
Freedom of speech is a right that gets abused. It is also a right, when expressed, that occasionally puts people in danger. People may black-list and hunt down people that they hate. When a person makes a statement about something controversial, even a personal and private one, he or she is in great danger of being dropped by immediate connections. Issues of trust and integrity also surface out. What people may say can be controlled by others. Instead of being a place for releasing one's thoughts and expressing one's self, it becomes a place of imminent peril.
As far as some people are concerned, the internet can be a venue for personal destruction. Today, the internet controls the life of some individuals. It can also be their end. It affects people that much today. It honestly is safe to say that the internet itself is a lifestyle. Who knows when it will do the same to a larger number of people? A lot of people might actually have it as a part of their daily routine -- from checking their emails, social networking accounts, and et cetera, they're definitely hooked by an invisible strong-binding string of addiction, and in more soft core terms, of necessity. People might see tomorrow more and more third-world and heavily poverty-stricken countries arise and embrace this trend and generation. The internet may also soon be a major part of the people's personal social lives, if not totally replacing it.
The internet is a slum, a wild and dangerous place. Only those who know how to take care of their selves will be able to make it through and not be taken advantage of. People who use the net, an exponentially-growing number, must also educate themselves and acquaint themselves very well with the environment so that they can be able to survive that kind of world. They must learn how to safeguard themselves. They must themselves create guidelines as how to use the tools the internet offers because nobody else would do it for them. When people learn practicing internet self-defense, they're increasing their chances of enjoying the tool more and they'll be able to maximize its power. Let's all start enjoying the use of the internet. Let's not make it a menace. Instead, lets' use it for our advantage.
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