Online Today, Online Tomorrow?
When the internet was commercialized in 1990’s, different media or line of communications have been reshaped and have been redesigned. Below are some of the internet activities that are truly affecting each and every one of us.
Online Shopping
+ One major factor to be considered why people are into Online Shopping is convenience. You don’t have to get wet to buy your favorite newly released Ipad during rainy season. Or you don’t have to travel to another state to buy it from an apple store. You’ll just open your computer and order online.
– Setback that I could mention is the delivery time. My wife ordered a non-famous tablet brand through an online store. It was stated that the delivery will be made after 20 working days. Then came the 22nd and the 23rd day, still the order hasn’t come. We contacted the online store and then the post office; they said that all the shipment/orders were sent back to Hong Kong because P.O. Box was not written on the deliverable blah blah blah. Out of frustrations, my wife cancelled it. Years from now, big malls will have more spaces perhaps, because everybody’s going online shopping. π What will happen to those people working in malls?
Online Movie
+ If you’re a full time net surfer, you can find hundreds if not thousands of movies online, and these are free. You may download; go to a movie site and others. Almost all released movies can be downloaded online and can be seen from other sites too that are offering free video streaming.
– Smaller screen experience, unless you have purchased the latest breakthrough in television, the internet TV. Downloading movies excessively makes your computer/laptop worn out plus you’ll get freebies like viruses, spams and unwanted programs that is automatically installed to your system without you knowing it but later on, you’ll notice an extreme system lagging.
Online Library
+ With the latest news about the old Encyclopaedia Britannica’s end publication and now producing only online editions simply suggests that big libraries will become empty in the years to come. You can even have your own library by then if you’ll start collecting and buying all kinds of eBooks etc. today. Probably this will help heal the so many denuded forests everywhere. We will become a paperless world by then. π
– You can no longer show off a 12-volume Encyclopaedia in your living room which was the very reason why parents before are buying this expensive books. ο To be honest, Encyclopaedia is very educational. You can no longer meet and make friends in person that usually happens on a library or for the singles out there, they call it, LOVE-rary. π
Online Farming
+ LOL! Wait, I don’t know why I included this on the list. But anyway, since this social gaming came out, I’ve learned that some of my friends’ lifestyle and time management have changed, for good reason. Instead of going out somewhere after work which could possibly waste time and money, they’d go home directly to check their farms and the plantation being made online. π A good diversion really not to get involve in non-sense activities.
– The game indeed teaches the player some strategies and techniques similar to actual farming. But it is an addictive kind of game. In a way it teaches time management but on the other side, it also eats time. One day I called my brother for some important reasons, but with no answer, 5 hours after, he called me back and said, “I was having farmville that time when you called that’s why I didn’t notice it because I am busy harvesting.” Okay, thanks.. π
Online Banking
+ Gone are the days when you feel like being followed by robbers the moment you stepped out from a bank especially if you have withdrawn a big amount of cash. Now, you can do almost all banking transactions online; money transferring, applying for loan, paying electricity and water bills, etc.
– You just have to be very very very extra careful. You won’t feel like being followed by robbers anymore because theyβve been online ahead of you. π Not accessing online bank accounts from public computers to avoid identity theft is just one of the so many ways to avoid problems. Big banks and big companies are currently at war with thousands of cyber criminals.
Online News
+ News delivery today is just way way faster compared to what it was years back. Just few minutes after the actual destructive earthquake that shook Japan last 2011; people from around the world immediately expressed their sorrows and offered their prayers to the Japanese, most of it were posted on facebook. First hand, fresh information and fresh stories can easily be read online.
– Irresponsible people are scattered online. Before, monitoring and verifying information were strictly observed especially by big news companies and yet malicious and false stories sometimes still can go public, how much more today. Different information can be easily seen online. It is now just up to you to distinguish which story is genuine and which story is not.
Online School
+ No dorm expenses, no actual terror instructors, no hassle as a whole. You can earn a degree or have another degree while you’re currently on a full-day-time job. Online school has way lower fees compared to actual universities.
– Less people interaction. If you are a tongue-tied person, then you’ll remain that way if you’ll have online school because interacting with actual people is vital in one’s development. If majority of the coming generations will go online schooling, what will happen to big universities then, what will happen to my relatives and friends working as faculties? π
Online Job
+ Thousands of online job posted everywhere on the internet. Most of them are not requiring fix timings or working schedules. You can set your own time of working. You can have online job while staying at home babysitting your new born child or guarding your house after being laid off from work.:)
– You just got to be quick enough to accept only genuine jobs, because if not, you might end up wasting your time and effort doing online jobs and never get paid by thousands of online scammers out there.
Online Chat
+ This is just so very beneficial to everybody especially to expats like me. Thanks to Skype Technologies, G-Talk, facebook chat and Yahoo Messenger which are instrumental in all these seamless chatting online.
– This online activity never gave me reasons to question its existence. Only telecommunications companies providing services to mobile phones and telephones were greatly affected with online chatting. Their talk-time sales have decreased continuously.
As of 2011, more than 2.2 billion people β nearly a third of Earth’s population β use the services of the Internet – wikipedia.org
With that figure, I would ask, does the internet can maintain its existence and does the internet can deliver the services the same we’re having now if not, better?
Perhaps another breakthrough greater than the internet will come out! No one really knows!
