How I use the Internet… I don’t spend much time on the Internet (an hour at the most an any one time) and I especially don’t spend much time on social networking sites. Although I know many people who would be happy to spend hours and hours just browsing through other peoples MySpace or Bebo accounts.
Social networking sites such as myspace, bebo and facebook are becoming much more popular with all age groups. In some case though, it is becoming way too popular and for a few people it has become a problem. There have been reports of some people becoming addicted to such sites. Every day 300,000 people register a MySpace account with over 110 million active users and over half of them check their own page daily. (1).
I feel that msn messenger is a better alternative to MySpace as there is not the constant pressure to update your profile and have the most page views. Msn is also a much faster way of communicating as the people you’re talking to are online. This way you don’t have to spend hours or days waiting for a reply because the person you sent a comment to hasn’t got round to replying yet.
I don’t think people should stop using social networking, as it can be a great way to share music, pictures and other personal interests without needing to be with the person. But there are some obvious disadvantages with social networking sites as some people spent far too much time on them. I know people who will spend 3 - 4 hours everyday just on Bebo. Bullying on the Internet is also a problem, but from what I can see it is no longer a growing problem. I try to avoid using social networking sites as much as possible because personally, I don’t like them. They take up too much time and it is much easier to pick up the phone, go on msn or just go and talk to them face to face.
In my own experience MySpace and Facebook are growing while bebo is becoming less popular with older people but is still big with younger children. I’ve noticed that more children are starting to use the Internet from a much younger age. 90% of children aged 5 – 17 use computers. But to break that down, 25% of children aged 5 use the Internet and that figure rises to 50% of 9 year olds using the Internet and again rises to at least 75% of 15 – 17 year olds using the Internet. (2).
I find that many people don’t seem to worry about the dangers of using the Internet. Some people are more than happy to give out there e-mail address to people they don’t know. Although, the Internet is a fairly safe place if your careful and don’t give out any confidential information.
(1).
http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/...e-views-and-engagement-by-the-numbers-in-2008 (2).
http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2004/2004014.pdf Advertising… - I sometimes click on advertising at the side of websites if it is relevant to what I’m currently looking for.
- Links from one site to another I tend to use if the description under it is relevant to what I’m looking for.
- Adverts that popup and adverts that flash across the page I always close or ignore.
- Adverts at the top of the page, which try to sell you something or say that you’ve won a competition I always ignore.
- Adverts that open a new window I close.
When searching for something using google. I only use the sponsored links if I can’t find what I’m looking for in the organic search results.
