Name: Joe Carey
Section: ENGL 1301.019
Date: March 23, 2004
Assignment: Project 2

Frivolity of the Internet

In 1962 W.H. Auden stated, “What the mass media offers is not popular art but entertainment which is intended to be consumed like food, forgotten, and replaced by a new dish.”  Since then, a new form of mass media has come into being which cannot be described by such limited terms as “popular art” or “entertainment,” nor will its effects be quickly forgotten.  The Internet is a staple of modern life that improves and deteriorates the quality of each individual’s life that uses it.

Much like the consumed and forgotten entertainment that Auden talked about, many people waste a lot of time on trivial things online such as games or idle chat with people they do not know.  This time might be better spent doing school work or working on household projects, but at the same time the internet is not limited to those wasteful activities.  You can access just about every news source in existence online today, you can turn on your electricity and gas and order phone service online, you can do just about everything you need to do with your money online (there are even online bank accounts now), and you can make important personal and professional contacts online.  How often do you think about your electric, gas, and phone bills?  Is that the frivolous entertainment Auden was talking about?

Many people are reluctant to get too involved with the internet because it is new and constantly changing, and people are just afraid of what they are unfamiliar with.  However, their fears are not altogether unwarranted.  There is no such thing as complete online security for your financial transactions, and until you meet someone face to face you can not be completely confident that they are who and what they claim to be.

Potential pitfalls of online immersion are not limited to outside influences.  The HomeNet Group conducted a study in Pittsburgh of people during the first year or two of home internet use.  They found, among other things, that when people “used the internet more, they reported keeping up with fewer friends, spending less time talking with their families, […] and feeling more lonely and depressed” (Kraut 21).  While people do socialize online, the researchers observe that “many of the social relationships people maintain online are less substantial and sustaining than relationships that people have in their actual lives” (Kraut 22).

The Group concludes that “using the Internet at home causes small […] declines in social and psychological well-being” (Kraut 21).  Surely that is not the effect of the entertainment that Auden spoke of, but the result of a new type of media that is more pervasive than anything we have called “media” before.

However unfortunate, it is becoming true that fewer and fewer people are finding themselves able to keep themselves Internet-free as the Internet becomes more and more pervasive in what is our modern daily life.  In that vein, in response to research such as the previously mentioned HomeNet Group study, Lisa-Jane McGerty asserted that “Nobody lives only in CyberSpace” (McGerty 896), stating that “Internet use does not have the degree of independence from offline contexts that is often assumed” (McGerty 896).

Maybe it is not all that unfortunate anyway.  Consider those online social relationships.  “Many [people] feel they can be themselves more when they’re online than face to face.  That’s especially true for teens who are shy or nervous in social situations” (Globus), according to Sheila Globus in The Good The Bad and The Internet.  If the Internet helps a person get a relationship started and it grows into an offline relationship as well, that could be just as substantial as any “normal” relationship.  The Internet also makes it possible for people who already know each other to keep in touch more often.  Many people have access to the internet at work and at school where they can email each other at breaks and between classes, and email is not hindered by problems of time zones or long distance costs for people who wish to keep in touch across the country or around the world.  Again, how often do you think about your relationships?  Is that the frivolity that Auden described?

Unfortunately, the Internet is not just an amorphous distraction to be consumed and forgotten with no effect on an individual’s life, though certainly that is one facet of it.  In The Net That Binds, Andrew Shapiro talks about parts of the Internet that involve people in their community, saying “community networks in the United States have continued to thrive” (Shapiro).  He gives an example of one such community network in Virginia:

Arising from a project that began in 1984, Blacksburg Electronic Village appears to be one of the more successful of these endeavors.  It counts a majority of Blacksburg’s 36,000 residents as participants.  Senior citizens chat with their neighbors online.  Parents keep abreast of what their kids are doing in school and exchange e-mail with teachers.  Citizens use Web-based surveys to communicate with their municipal government about spending priorities.  A key feature of successful community networks, in fact, is the opportunity they provide citizens to talk – with civic leaders and one another.  Users don’t just want information fed to them; they want to generate conversation themselves.  (Shapiro)

The Internet is not frivolous, whether you want to be involved or not, whether it affects you positively or negatively, today we have a member of mass media that you will not easily forget and will not be replaced by a new dish any time soon.

Globus, Sheila.  "The Good The Bad and The Internet."  Current Health  Feb. 2002.  Academic Search Premier.  EBSCO Host.  University of Texas at Arlington Lib., Arlington, TX.  12 Feb. 2004 <http://www.epnet.com/>.

Kraut, Robert. "Social Impact of The Internet: What Does it Mean?"  Communications of the ACM Dec. 1998: 21-22.  Academic Search Premier.  EBSCO Host.  University of Texas at Arlington Lib., Arlington, TX.  12 Feb. 2004 <http://www.epnet.com/>.

McGerty, Lisa-Jane.  "Nobody Lives Only in Cyberspace."  CyberPsychology & Behavior.  Oct. 2000: 895-899.  Academic Search Premier.  EBSCO Host. University of Texas at Arlington Lib., Arlington, TX.  12 Feb. 2004 <http://www.epnet.com/>.

Shapiro, Andrew L.  "The Net That Binds."  Nation  21 June 1999.  Academic Search Premier.  EBSCO Host.  University of Texas at Arlington Lib., Arlington, TX.  12 Feb. 2004 <http://www.epnet.com/>.