YIN YANG

Everything in life can be harmful to you if used the wrong way, but to me the Internet has many more positive benefits than negative ones. After reading the two articles on some positives and negatives that comes with the Internet, there are three main positives and negatives that stick out to me. The two main positives that the Internet offers is a quicker and cheaper way to communicate with the rest of the world. With social networking websites evolving and shaping the way we communicate in our society via Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace, etc. We as a people are connected fastest and much easier than before. The second positive that the Internet offers is the ability for people to video chat with loved ones living across the world. The old means would result in a high telephone bill, but the Internet offers ways to communicate at a much cheaper rate. Those serving in our military can now video chat with their families from any part of our world with just a click of a button.

On the other hand the Internet can be harmful to us if not used the proper way. Identity theft is something we all have to be aware of and we must take the necessary steps to prevent someone from using our name. With children we have to be extra careful and set up parental blocks to keep our children from viewing inappropriate things, and with sexual predators out there we have to make sure the Internet is only offering new exciting ways to communicate. Not opening the door for weirdo's to prey on our children. Many critics also believe that the Internet is only creating lazy teens that will be less motivated to go out and do things rather than sitting at a screen.

The Internet is a great tool when used properly. It is cheaper and quicker to communicate with people all over the world. Others argue that the Internet can cause us to be more isolated which studies show can lead to depression and other negative outcomes. So does the risk meet the reward? If you ask me I say YES! The Internet in itself is not bad; it’s the person behind the screen that decides how they're going to use it.

What is Web 2.0?

The Internet has played a major role in how we access information and community with the world around us. In its first stages the web was provided for people to access information off of the sites provided to them. The term Web 2.0 is tied to Tim O'Reilly owner of O'Reilly Media because Dale Dougherty, Vice President of O'Reilly Media came up with the term during a meeting held in 2004. Web 1.0 was filled with static websites meaning the provider of the site would only gives the users  limited information to access without giving them the ability to comment or share what they know about at particular topic. This is what makes Web 2.0 so GREAT. If you ask me social media would have not evolved into what we know it to be today without Web 2.0 being the platform or foundation used to launch it. I believe that Web 2.0 will continue to evolve and shape the way we communicate via the web. The idea that I can log onto a social media site or even create my own video chat site to talk to loved ones face to face, compared to my first experience with the chat rooms just blows me away. Web 2.0 does more than just live up to the hype it sets the bar at a higher level than before.

Web 2.0 offers many new features that include social networking sites, user created web sites, self-publishing platforms, etc, that were not offered by Web 1.0. What does Web 2.0 offer?

GOOD vs BAD (Web 2.0)

There are others who beg to differ that Web 2.0 is the greatest thing to happen to the web, because now that people are the director and producers they will forget how to learn by listening, and instead of taking to to think critically people will just flood the informational super highway with nonsense and opinion rather than facts and true data. Where's the balance? In traditional forms of the web the gatekeepers decided what information we viewed off their sites and didn't give the users a voice. Web 2.0 opens the door for the users to not only put in their two cents, but the user takes the role of the gatekeepers. Is Web 2.0 bad? Web 2.0 is not so popular in the business world and many business owners believe that Web 2.0 will not provide a stable interface and have referred to Web 2.0 as "building a house on sand". A bad foundation. Some have even gone as far as saying that its a bad idea to allow monkey's to be experts. In other words people are not smart enough or disciplined enough to gather facts and present them concisely. The word talent is also brought up in these articles provided via the links above. Traditional methods have taught us to define talent as what the networks define it as. Old times made it hard to showcase your talent using the media because it was the network people picking the talent they wanted. Web 2.0 now gives the user the right to decided what is talent and who they watch. YouTube is a big player in all of this. People do not have to watch what the networks choose to broadcast, now they can choose what he/she views and with a platform available to them such as YouTube they themselves can now broadcast their own videos or short movies. All thanks to Web 2.0.