The Internet, Used For Good or Evil? The internet is probably one of the most powerful things ever created. It is responsible for spreading news on one hand but also false news on the other. It has the power to change the way many of us think but it also has the power to reinforce what we believe. Some people think we would have been better off without it while others look at it as indispensable. So, who goes on the internet? I have to say we almost all do at one time or another. After the last few old timers die out who are not tech savvy, everyone will be internet users. It is getting to the point some things can only be done over the internet. There is this creeping changeover to the internet which is taking place. One of the first things which comes to my mind is education. More and more universities are using courses which you can take at home assuming you have a computer and internet service. Some schools have sprung up which only give courses online. The Corona virus has pushed many a school onto the internet which had not been there before. What effect will this have on future education? According to some, the effect may only be temporary because education may only be temporary. These people are referring to the fact it may be possible in the near future to implant computer chips into humans which have all the information on them we would have absorbed in classes and more and that information will be able to be accessed by us anytime we need it. If this doesn’t happen, that is the implantation of computer chips into humans, the big Universities may never go completely to the internet since they make tons of money using the physical setup. Just the amount they get for boarding students is a good chunk of change they don’t want to lose. What they may do is play degrees earned over the computer against theirs and eventually decrease the value of a computer earned degree in the minds of business and the people. Most everyday financial transactions are taking place over the internet in one way or another. If you have a cell phone, which most of us do, and it is a smart phone you are probably using it to connect to a banking website to perform some sort of financial transaction from time to time. Many use the apps supplied by the different banking institutions and the relatively new feature of being able to cash checks by just sending the picture of them to your bank has increased the amount of online banking even more. Even many of the cash machines known as ATMs use an internet connection to verify your information but not everyones. Some use a telephone line. Communicating with others has become a big thing on the internet. Years ago, the dream was having a phone where you could see the person you were talking to. That dream became a reality with the cell phone which is really a computer, but it also became a reality with our desktop and laptop computers. We now have other devices like the Echo and Portal to name a few which also allow us to talk and see each other. This has also become very useful in business. It is no longer required that people come to a business meeting in person. They can all hop on the internet and with the right software all participate in a meeting at the same time. Many jobs have been transformed by the internet. The concept of having to travel to work no longer applies in many instances and the virus just reinforced this. Many types of work can be performed at home and the product sent back to the job site over the internet. The big tech companies realized this a few years ago and during the virus outbreak they had far more employees working from home. Some of the employees decided to move to other places since it didn’t matter where one’s home is located to get the work finished. The tech companies didn’t like this idea of them moving out of Silicon Valley and told the employees if they move the money they save would be deducted from their pay. Let’s not forget the value of the internet in research. Just about all of us have used the internet to find out the answers to questions on how to do something or who did what and when. It has been used to find out formulas and the latest inventions. If it is research you are doing it is one of the best resources ever invented. It has even replaced the libraries in many capacities. The internet is not all a bed of roses however. It may be an incredible blessing to us, but it is even a bigger one to criminals. Just think about this, it allows a criminal, no matter where in the world he is, to commit crimes against anyone, anywhere. Some of the countries the criminals are operating out of have no treaties to punish criminals with other countries so as long as that criminal doesn’t commit a crime against his home country, he or she are free to commit their crimes without fear of reprisal. Another area the internet is used for is hacking and not just by individuals. Hacking is breaking into others secure locations or software. The most problematic is done by countries with teams of thousands of hackers, trying to hack the secure sites of other countries. Almost all countries do this to each other and at times it has been quite successful. You just have to look at the new war planes in China to see how similar they are to ours and then check how many plans have been stolen from American computers. Fraudulent emails are being sent out everyday which are targeting mostly the elderly and uneducated. These emails promise riches to anyone who helps some royal get out of his country by raising money. They state if you donate a few thousand dollars or more when that royal gets out, he will give you a huge amount of money because he can now get to his fortune. Bulk mailing has allowed millions of these emails to be mailed at once so if the criminals only get money on two or three emails that works out for them because next, they will not only send out millions more emails, they will try and extort more money from those who fell for the scheme.
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