Spring Break
Web technology has both pros and cons
Merciful Fate
Amar Maniar
Issue date: 7/23/04 Section: Sci-Tech
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Drexel University quite rightfully boasts about its wired or "unwiredness" every so often and is quite proud of it. Well, I would like to look at it from a different perspective. Every course syllabus, course material and virtually everything we would ever need is found online somewhere on Drexel's web site.
This is not necessarily bad, as we are moving into the "age of the internet" so to speak, but I do not feel it is good either. Everyone of us has become so "techy" that we have almost stopped writing letters and consider e-mail as the best way of communication.
More so, when we meet someone, the next thing we do is exchange is e-mail addresses. I see us as slaves of the internet. We have become addicted to it. And it would be a shock to most of us that close to 50% of the world lives without the internet. Although a decent portion of them have computers, they are not "connected." Yes, the internet is and will continue to be a huge resource, but it should not be the only one.
A study I read some time back pointed out that kids know more about computers and the Internet than they know about authors of classic books. I am not saying that they should know them, but books and authors should be an essential part of our lives. (I must admit here that I am not much of a book person and I know more about the Internet than about any authors or books.) I bet you would be frustrated if your computer went out for a few days or even more, or if everything was working fine except for the ever so important internet connection.
Think about it. It has so much become a part of our lives without us even knowing it. I check my e-mail every time I am around a computer, even if it has been just 5 minutes since I checked it. I never used to be that worried about my e-mail. Before I came to Drexel, I would check e-mail about once in two days or so. But as all official or unofficial communication takes place through electronic mail, I have to check my e-mail every now and then. So much so that I have now become sort of addicted, like most of you or all of you.
Recently, at my friend's place, we lost the internet connection because of some problem and everyone was so ticked off. Even knowing that the internet is not working, every so often people would come and double-click on Internet Explorer et al. and then go cursing for 5 minutes or more.
OK, so the internet is probably the best means of communication. But you know, the course websites get updated often and some people miss those updates and end up having bad experiences. This is difficult to digest, but most of us would pass free time on the internet rather than going out and playing a game or two. I hope we always have something to do than surfing the net.
Amar Maniar is a freshman majoring in electrical engineering.
This is not necessarily bad, as we are moving into the "age of the internet" so to speak, but I do not feel it is good either. Everyone of us has become so "techy" that we have almost stopped writing letters and consider e-mail as the best way of communication.
More so, when we meet someone, the next thing we do is exchange is e-mail addresses. I see us as slaves of the internet. We have become addicted to it. And it would be a shock to most of us that close to 50% of the world lives without the internet. Although a decent portion of them have computers, they are not "connected." Yes, the internet is and will continue to be a huge resource, but it should not be the only one.
A study I read some time back pointed out that kids know more about computers and the Internet than they know about authors of classic books. I am not saying that they should know them, but books and authors should be an essential part of our lives. (I must admit here that I am not much of a book person and I know more about the Internet than about any authors or books.) I bet you would be frustrated if your computer went out for a few days or even more, or if everything was working fine except for the ever so important internet connection.
Think about it. It has so much become a part of our lives without us even knowing it. I check my e-mail every time I am around a computer, even if it has been just 5 minutes since I checked it. I never used to be that worried about my e-mail. Before I came to Drexel, I would check e-mail about once in two days or so. But as all official or unofficial communication takes place through electronic mail, I have to check my e-mail every now and then. So much so that I have now become sort of addicted, like most of you or all of you.
Recently, at my friend's place, we lost the internet connection because of some problem and everyone was so ticked off. Even knowing that the internet is not working, every so often people would come and double-click on Internet Explorer et al. and then go cursing for 5 minutes or more.
OK, so the internet is probably the best means of communication. But you know, the course websites get updated often and some people miss those updates and end up having bad experiences. This is difficult to digest, but most of us would pass free time on the internet rather than going out and playing a game or two. I hope we always have something to do than surfing the net.
Amar Maniar is a freshman majoring in electrical engineering.
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