Cyberethics response

ENTRY #1

Assigned discussion: 

HOW DO YOU THINK THE NEW FORMS OF COMMUNICATION VIA THE INTERNET WILL AFFECT SOCIETY? WHAT CHANGES MIGHT IT BRING?

The changes brought on by the internet are far-reaching. Some changes are being felt now and other changes may take a while longer to determine.

I can speak from experience about changes that are being felt now. I work as a journalist for a newspaper. The internet is one of the major reasons that newspaper readership has steadily declined. Newspapers all across the country have been laying off workers for years now. In fact, The Express-News just laid 5 more newsroom employees a few weeks ago.

Magazines such as the Christian Science Monitor have ceased print production and are only available over the internet. I heard a rumor that one daily for a major U.S. city — Orlando — is considering printing a paper product only on weekends... the rest of the week would be internet-only publication.

With so much information able to be easily transmitted over the internet, how might the internet change our society? Eventually, maybe no one will ever have to drive to work again, since they can complete all of their work from their computer at home, complete with audio, video and 3-D hologram connections.

Or maybe we will all become accomplished scientists, exploring other planets through thousands of remotely-controlled drones that respond to commands given by home computers.

The internet allows a vast amount of information to be shared by an enormous number of people. I don't think its effects on our society will end anytime soon. As new technologies continue to be developed that allow even more and different types of information to be shared through the internet, I think we will continue to see the internet affect our culture in ways that we haven't thought about and can't predict.