Another world in the world.

The Internet: for a hobby, for business, for pleasure, for convenience, for expression, for etc., for almost anything.
No matter what you use the Internet for, it gets used nonetheless, and by the millions. If you've run across anyone in your lifetime that has never used the Internet, call a museum or the History Channel or something. Its a big thing and it's only going to get bigger.

So something this huge, used widespread, and expansive must be a good thing, right?

The Internet has its strength and its weaknesses. The Internet lets its users access potentially anything in the world that their little hearts desire. Even a place to belong among others. With places like MySpace and Facebook, the Internet lets people meet others online, letting you chose and request friendships from other people depending on what they see that they like on your profile page. While this sounds like a great thing to be a part of, these online communities have become havens for perverts, stalkers, etc. and lets people develop a new online personality that can be completely opposite from their actual self. (The insecure 9th grade nerd in New Jersey is now a Hollister model from California to his online friends.) People also become addicted to such web communities; staying in their rooms in front of their computers all day, checking them constantly in eager anticipation for their next new comment or message. However, while this sounds nerdy and maybe scary, the plus side to these websites are their great means of communication. I have a Facebook (not addicted) and it is a great (and free) way for me to keep in touch with cousins and old acquaintances who live either out of state or I don't see as often.

While its good for communication, yet easy to get glued to, the problem that spawns now is deprivation of interaction. If we want to tell someone something, we use e-mail or message via online communities. Not a big deal, I guess. For some people, however, the negation of face to face interaction can seem unhealthy. Humans are social beings and to coop yourself up in front of a computer screen could probably become a problem. Social interaction is definitely a good thing, but the Internet makes it sooo easy to not have to talk to people in person.

I know I utilize that convenience all the time.
There are just some people I'd rather not actually talk to.

The Internet spoils us. We can live online (as mentioned above), shop online, pay bills online, get/watch media online... Pretty much anything. The more we surf the Internet, the more things we find out we can do on the Internet, so the more we try to squeeze in during a day. So the more we want to accomplish, the faster we want it to go... and it can get pretty fast. I've seen Internet download speeds clock in at about 5 megs a second (about the file size of an mp3 downloaded in about a second or so), and I know that it can get waaaay faster. So we get greedy. And the fast life transacts online, the faster we want things to happen in real life. We order something online, we get it rush delivered and "we still have to wait overnight! ARE YOU KIDDING?!" I personally don't care, but I would rather instantly e-mail someone a message instead of writing an old fashioned letter. I may have written 6 of those my entire life anyway...

So the good side is: We can get more done in a day.
The bad side would be: We become spoiled brats for speed.
Side effects would include: We become stressed from adding more things into a day.

For those of us who don't utilize the Internet for its effective, stress creating conveniences, it can be fun. And by fun, we can express ourselves. An endless, vast expanse that the masses can use to publish, write, draw, post photos, journalize, blog, post videos, watch videos, create slideshows, create flash animations, post music, listen to music, web design, post poetry, insult, stalk, offend, slander, criti-- ...well, you get the picture. The Internet, with its seemingly infinite space, lets you access and post media of almost any type. Its a haven for artists to express themselves and a theatre for those who want to be entertained. And with the Internet digitizing these media files, the wear and tear is eliminated, making a music track the same in 2016 as it was 20 years ago in 1996.

The quality of artistic life is preserved (and open for stealing!).

Overall, I think the Internet deserves a 9 outta 10.
It lets us do things and preserve things like never before.
It lets us communicate and participate in ways that are too convenient too pass up.
And even though it creates more creepy people and allows new ways of fraud,
I guess that's just the price we have to pay for a communication medium that rocks worldwide.

I guess that'll do it for me,
Time to illegally download some music and check MySpace (just kidding),
Jared.