My View On the Internet

Xiang Liu
2010/06/10
assignment 2
My view On the Internet
The essay "Isolated by the Internet" is a section from Mind Readings by Clifford Stoll. In this essay, Stoll mainly talks about people becoming isolated because of the wide-use of Internet. Stoll believes that the internet made people's lose their basic social skills and negatively affect people's relationships. Also, there is another essay "Who Am Are" by Sherry Turkle, which shows the people have lots of dimensions in their lives, and the Internet was just one of these dimensions. I disagree with both of these views. In my opinion, using the internet is a very personal thing, and it is up to the users to determine how internet affects their lives.

To counter Stoll’s point, I believe that the Internet is just an additional way of communication, and it will not replace people’s social skills. Nowadays, it is easy to chat with somebody from the Internet or send texts without talking face-to-face. Like Stoll says, "those weaned on computer communications won't learn basic social rules of conversation . How to interrupt. How to share time with another. How to speak to an audience. When to quiet." (651) Stoll believes that the Internet is dangerous, which will caused lots of serious problems. Admittedly, using internet will limit people’s face-to-face meeting opportunities. However, I still believe Internet is just a product of advanced technology; it is still controlled by the people's minds. In other words, peoples’ minds can still tell them how to deal with people in the real world, rather than losing their basic social skills due to the use of computers.

As for Turkle’s idea, I believe that the virtual world is just as important as the real world for people's lives. In the essay "Who Am We", Turkle shows a couple of MUD players who felt much better in the virtual world than in the real world. To some extent, I agree that people need to escape from the real world into the virtual world sometimes, because there are too many things that we cannot fulfill in the real world, so the virtual world is a good place to relieve these pressures. However, I want to say that people cannot become addicted to the virtual world. People still need to face the real world; for example, we need to eat, and we need the real love which we cannot receive from the virtual world. Therefore, I think that people need to understand how to balance both worlds and understand that each of the worlds can bring you a different experience.

In conclusion, people should not only focus on whether internet will replace social networking or whether the virtual world is insignificant. The main thing that people should know is to believe in the power of their mind to help them differentiate which world they live in and act accordingly. In the real world, people should socialize and take advantage of face-to-face meeting opportunities; in the virtual world, people should let it be a factor in enriching their real world experiences.