Topic: Choice #5 - The Evolution of Media
The internet may be the most popularly used thing in the world as of right now. It truly is absolutely amazing. Something that hasn't even really been around, used worldwide for even 10 years, is now one of the most used types of media in the world.
The internet has changed the way media is presented in so many ways. It has made things better and it has made things worse. It has changed the way we look at things, the way we feel about things and the way we perceive things. But for this I'll just tell about my opinion about the history of the internet and how it has become the super media goliath that we all know today.
My first experience with fully getting to grips with the Internet was when my family got our first computer back in 2003, I really remember that time well because it was a craze that a lot of friends and family around had fallen into at the time. Everyone was buying computers and saying it was the next biggest thing in technology. As a chubby little 10 year old who's idea of awesome technology was being able to play Super Smash Bros. 4-players, right beside each other on a Nintendo 64, the thought of something being more technologically superior than video-games really had me thinking.
I remember at first when we first got our computer was hooked up and running and such me and my parents were really interested in it. However the computer was used mostly as my mom's work computer for her to do her work stuff on. It was open to me often but since neither of my parents really used a computer for entertainment at the time, I really saw nothing amazing that took me over for my love of video-games. It wasn't until I was about 11 or 12 that I really started using the Internet and got to know what it was all about.
When I was 11 or 12 is when I really started to use the Internet, at first it was all about play flash games from various TV shows from Cartoon network, I wasn't playing it all the time as much as a console video-game system like my N64 but it was a nice little diversion. However the first time I really got interested in the Internet was in 2006 when my friend Patrick started making videos on Windows Movie Maker and posting them onto a site called "YouTube". From then until about 2008 I made YouTube videos off and on for about 2 years until I decided to just stop making them around the start of high school. It just seemed like a little kid thing to do.
However YouTube has totally changed from what I once knew it to be in 2006, Now a marketing giant for anything YouTube is to me not about people to post videos and show them to everyone, It's a huge marketing company, Any other company can put a commercial at the start of a video, which is a trend I really hate, which didn't really start until early 2010. There's add's everywhere around the videos, YouTube is just one huge bank, and it can really get as much money as they want, I'm not saying that what they are doing is bad, I mean they are a company after all and that's a company's number goal is to please the consumer, However since I knew YouTube when it wasn't really that well known, YouTube just doesn't feel as personal to me as it once did.
Now a day's though the Internet has completely changed from what it first was in 2003, People can literally use the Internet for everything, Wanna send somebody a picture without using the post office? Go ahead. Wanna talk to a friend without calling them and getting a higher phone bill? Go ahead. Wanna download things illegally and not have to pay the consequences? Go ahead! Which brings me to my next point, The Internet is a convenience an inconvenience at the same time. While we, the people, are happy to be able to do whatever we want, whenever we want. It's coming at the cost of the people and company's we know around us. Music has for sure taken it the hardest, nobody has to try to make an album with 12 songs that they put time and effort into anymore. They can just make one catchy song and sell it on iTunes for $3.99. Ask 10 teenagers if they have ever downloaded music for free of the internet and I guarantee that at least 8 of them will say yes.
I can download any record, any video-game and CD and movie, whenever I want for free without paying a dime out of my pocket for it. Were getting what we want when we want it. But is it really worth it? From an honest standpoint I can say Yes and No. Knowing that I can literally get whatever I want to entertain myself of the Internet for absolutely free it just crazy. It's basically stealing with the very small minuscule chance of paying any sort of consequence for it. But then again it's like a cold, So many people are doing this, and downloading music, movies and games and other stuff that they should be paying for, It's basically impossible to stop everyone who is downloading to stop.
But besides Television the numbers of hours spent on a Laptop or desktop computer or even a browser on a cellphone is most likely bigger then that of a TV, however for all time hours spent, Like in the history of time, TV still probably has the Internet beat by a lot. Anybody can visit any website they want at anytime and most likely that website will have add's and commercials on there that are going to appeal to them. Which is what makes the Internet the most diverse and huge media supplier in the whole world.
You can do whatever you want in the real world, on the internet, with the convenience of being able to do it on the internet, Buy this, Download that. However the Internet, from what I remember was not used for entertainment as much as it was for today. Today people are on the Internet may more then they do say watching Television, especially with the ever-increasing popularity of social networking websites.
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