Lazy or pretty awesome?

It was just my baby cousins birthday, my mom's birthday, my sister just got her first "big girl" job, and my aunt was just recentley informed there were no signs of her cancer any more. All of these occasions compelled me to get something for each of these people in my life to show them that I'm thinking about them. But being a Marist student and taking some pretty extensive courses this semester, I just don't have the time to run around to different stores and get things for each person, especially considering the fact that each of these occasions and people are very different, which would in turn require me to do a lot of running around. So while sharing all of this with my roomates they suggested I use online shopping. Being a 19 year old girl you would think I did this often, well having the dad I do who has lectured me more on money, and the art of "responsible spending" than anything else, I have done very little online shopping in my whole 19 years. So I went online and looked up not only stores that I was able to order from but ideas for gifts for my baby cousin and for my aunt online. Browsing the internet I was able to successfully find the perfect gift for each of these people in my life and was also able to have it shipped to them. I was able to do all of this in under 2 hours, without leaving my room. When I was done I felt a sense of accomplishment and comfort knowing that the internet and this idea of online shopping has helped me stay connected with my family and helped them know that even though I am away at school, I am always thinking of them and there are sufficient ways in which we can remain just as close as we were before I left for college. And not to mention the fact that it was just so cool to be able to pick out what you wanted, how many you wanted, and in what color and size with just a click of a button.

All of this from online shopping.. I guess this is what my dad didn't want me to know.

What would happen if the internet just dropped?

Today I've noticed just how much I use the internet and how important it is to be able to have internet access as a college student. I've been catching up on assignments for the most part of the day and I realized that every single one of my assignments I had to use the internet, or my computer for. Not to mention the time in which I was procrastinating doing these assignments, I was either on my blackberry or browsing Facebook. Everything I did today was technologically based. I emailed three of my professors assignments, I researched the history of broadcasting for my research paper using the internet, I'm typing this blog using my internet right now.. Using so much internet access today made me think of the question, what would I do if the internet just failed? What would happen if one day we could no longer access the internet? In thinking about this question I sincerly believe that people would go crazy. I know I would personally feel anxiety and have a sort of "lost" feeling without being able to log on to the internet. Being such a technologically advanced age.. I'm not sure what would the world would come to if we could no longer access the internet. I'm not sure I want to find out either.

Social Networking

After reading a special report from The Economist on social networking it was brought to my attention just how popular and how technologically advanced our generation has become. According to the article A world of connections, there are 350 million people who are currently using the social networking site known as Facebook. That number is growing everyday. I found it unbelievable that that many people could be connected by a single website and be able to contact each other if they so desired through this site. I always thought of Facebook, MySpace, and even just recently Twitter as the younger generations type of sites. I found them to just be places where friends could keep in touch with friends and post pictures and just keep in touch and communicate with one another online. Although, I'm coming to find that all different types of people are using these sites for all different kinds of reasons. Businesses and business people are using these sites for networking purposes, advertising purposes, and even adults are logging into these sites in order to explore what they have to offer. Every day we are gaining more and more knowledge and becoming more of a technologically advanced world, that I am very curious as to what device, website or service is going to come out next in order to further our advancement.