Living in a Networked World

Thus far, I have learned and discussed about the Internet and its implications quite a bit. I have discovered that there are a variety of opinions about these implications ranging from extremely optimistic to entirely pessimistic. Discovering the truth about whether the Internet and living in an age of connectedness' impact on people seems to be an almost impossible answer to find. This is the result of technology evolving so rapidly that concrete evidence about the effects it has on the human condition are hard to find. This is not for lack of trying, many people have written on and pontificated on the good and bad of the Internet and that is what we strive to explore in this course. I hope that by soaking up as much information about the Internet I will be able to construct a better concept of what the effects of it are on myself and my generation. Maybe, just maybe, I will even be able to lean towards the optimistic or pessimistic viewpoint depending on what I wind up discovering. It's clear so far that there is a brand new frontier out there that is simply inviting us to explore; what the implications of that exploration will be is up to debate.