week 12, session 11

The Internet has certainly revolutionised the world, shaping peoples' lives all around. I can barely think of anyone who is not hooked on to the Internet and even my mom who's a computer illiterate is becoming more and more fascinated.

Sure, the Internet has become our source of massive information, entertainment, way of life and all...But how much of a threat is the Internet to us? To what extent has the Internet posed more as a threat to us? Let's take Facebook for example. It's a hugely popular social networking site that has practically everyone (if not, most)at the palm of its virtual hands. While posting on peoples' walls or talking to friends through Facebook chatrooms may be seemingly innocent, we unknowingly become vulnerable to the things we cannot see. Out there, there's always people who are on the prowl to get just about anyone's information and use it to their advantages. I would think that for such social networking sites, one should never reveal too much details about oneself. Not even when you've been given the option to limit your accounts to friends only. Professional hackers out there are becoming so sophisticated in their ways, they'd probably be able to extract information about what happened to you years ago. Even the security a site may offer is vulnerable to breaches when in the hands of the wrong people.

I feel that,just like humans, technology can fail us too. That's why we must never place our lives in the hands of anyone or anything. In particular, Internet because we'll never know how people behind the computers may be manipulating our information right this very moment plus the fact that the Internet has connections to everywhere else around the world.

Even things like Internet phishing is on the rise. Online shoppers would have to be wary of how hackers can extract their important information. I feel that with the Internet, no one is safe anymore. Governments all over should start Internet education and ethics as a subject even for primary schoolers. Yes, children these days are starting to use the Internet at a very tender age so such education should be put in place fast.

It's hard to draw limits when you're talking about the Internet. Many know the dangers but then again, you can't live without them. It all boils down to the people using the Internet, whether their the sheeps or wolves. Goes back to the first quote from class of "Technology is easy,peopl are hard".