The consequences of Using Internet and Blogging in American Life

With the growth of technology, which is being accelerated every day, using Internet, and in our case blogging, comes to be an inevitable part of individuals in terms of high speed communication and access to the world information within seconds. Throughout the history of the world, every single invention, internet being one of them, brought along with it a certain series of consequences as well as ease. These so called consequences have their manifestation in both individual and social layers of one’s life. That is for sure.

Many researches have been carried out, and an abundant number of them are being undergone now, by the federal government of the U.S. about Internet use and blogging, “Falling Through the Net” surveys (www.esa.doc.gov/fttn00.htm) , the Pew Internet and American Life Project (www.pewinternet.org) and also by so many other scholars and college professors which are drastically enlightening but, after all, they have not “understood the actual impact and consequences of the Internet” (J.E.Katz & R.E.Rice, Social Consequences of Internet Use, 2002, p.2). However, some definitions and opinions by experts are worth mentioning here. Expert Mark Resch once called Internet “the CB radio of the 1990’s” (Perkin, 1996) that is a craze that would soon pass (J.E.Katz & R.E.Rice, Social Consequences of Internet Use, 2002, p.14). Or there is John Perry Barlow who said that it would be the “most transforming technological event since the capture of fire” (quoted in Puntam, 2000, p, 72). See, one perceives it as a craze which will move on eventually, the other one calls it essential.

The rational move seems to be categorization of these consequences in order to simplify and narrow this broad, complex reality so that we can touch upon the consequences of this “essential craze”. Therefore, the categorization, which is introduced by experts, is to consider the consequences in terms of three social issues: access, involvement and social interaction.

Access is defined as the access to a networked computer and to use that to find material (such as pages) or to communicate (such as through email).

What we have for involvement is participation in a jointly produced social, civil or community activity. Involvement can be due to individual or collective benefits. For example civic involvement aimed at fostering political awareness and activity creates more informed and active citizens. This in turn makes political processes more deliberative and representative, thus helping to achieve a more democratic society.

And at last, social interaction includes both the exchange of information among individuals and groups online and the influence of online interaction on offline communication, both face to face and through the media (such as the telephone). This interaction is likely to involve dyadic, familial, friendship, romantic, and group relations. (J.E.Katz & R.E.Rice, 2002).

About blogging, there has been a significant incident that will help you grasp a taste of American usage of the event. There has been a boy called Jack who one day told his parents that he was gay. Parents, shocked to their very being, decided to send him to a “Catholic Straight” camp, because they were thinking that they had raised him within an inappropriate frame of ethics whatsoever. Jack started to recite his feelings by writing a blog post. Surprisingly, a friend of his happened to read his post. She left the link for a couple of friends and those friends did the same. Before long, a number of the gay and lesbian activists received the post through this process and set out a big demonstration which ended in local and then national newspapers. The point is no way on earth, this sequence would take place if it wasn’t via Internet, and in our case here blogging.

That was just a case depicting the speed of communication and bridging provided by blogging, however; bloggers also get to response to the events going on in the real/cyber world. With the rise of blogging through Internet it would be right in place to assume every blogger as a journalist, knowing that he or she can compile whatever they want with photos, live links and evidences. Or one might use blogs as “warblogs” (Susan C. Herring, Lois Ann Scheidt, Inna Kouper and Elijah Write, in Blogging, Citizenship and the Future of Media) expressing views on current political events.

With all said above, there is one sure thing: not only American people, but also people all over the world have welcomed Internet to their very houses making this event, with all its facilities and opportunities, an indispensible factor of human life.