For many of us, the first thing we do is walk over to the computer and check our e-mail. Then we open a web browser to see what happened while we slept, which team won last night, check out the comic strip of the day ,and by how much Google's value increased during the night. All these are done before we are fully awake.
Many of us were not wired as recently as 10 years ago (I didn't go online on a regular basis until 1998). However, it is now difficult to imagine someone in the industrialized world without access to the Internet (you can log on at most libraries for free, as long as you have some kind of identification). Many of us are lured online because of the wide range of information that is available with a click of a mouse and a little typing (of course, for many, the main reason they go online is that they can get access to the "articles").
Whoever invented the term "Internet" (sorry, Al Gore, I am not talking about you) can be cosidered some kind of visionary. The "Net" is an appropriate metaphor for the online world — once you get connected, it is virtually impossible to get out (I don't know anyone who has stopped going online after getting connection to the Internet).
We have all heard of nicotine or alcohol addiction. There is also something called Internet addiction, and I'm not just talking about those who play online games non-stop for tens of hours. For many of the people who travel, the first thing they look for after arriving at their destination is to look for the nearest place with Internet connection. There are also some people who go restless after a (not so) extended period without going online. Even for the more sane, going through extended periods without the Internet means a barrage of e-mails, a lot of news, the online pals wondering one's whereabouts, and many "friendship" requests to catch up on. As for those whose only activity (while they are awake) is to play online games, take it outside (of course, with wireless coverage expanding, soon they can enjoy the outdoors while playing their favourite online game).
Speaking of wireless networks, many of us are now surfing the web using our cell phones and handheld computers. More often than not, being wireless is a misnomer — no matter how powerful the wireless capabilites these devices are, they have to be connected to a wire from time to time, when their batteries are being recharged (yes, some of these devices can use dry batteries as their power source, but the rechargable ones also need a wire to supply the power that is being used to recharge them).
We do everything we can to ensure that no one is able to invade our private space. However, with the proliferation of the Internet, this is becoming increasing difficult — every time we go online, we expose ourselves open to the public. Many of us work hard to avoid being highjacked by spyware, spam, and viruses. Here is another place where the net analogy can be used — we struggle to avoid being caught by spammers, but with just one slip-up and we are thrown onto the ship full of enlargement ads and loan offers.
There are some who believe that the Internet, in particular e-mail, instant messaging, SMS, has make writing worse. Once in a while, we see students hand in writing assignments that was written as if they were SMS messages (I have yet to hear anyone handling a writing assignment full of emoticons). In the defence of the Internet, the world wide web is full of well-written, easy to access pieces of writing, this can help our literacy and improve our writing and reading skills (after all, we need to understand what is being written in those message and to make sure that the people receiving the messages we send know what is the content of our typing).
Billions of articles have been written about the Internet (many of which, this one included, would never be read had the Internet not as wide-spread as it is today), and billions more will be written in the future. The Internet can be a dangerous place, but it has also brought the world within our fingertips (a privilege that used to belong to those pursuing world domination only).