1996 was the year of Internet. We constantly saw and heard
the word "Internet" everywhere last year. The beginning of the
Internet was the computer network called ARPA (Advanced
Research Projects Agency) which started in 1969 and was supported
by the Department of Defense in America since they wanted the
webbed network which cannot be severed easily. At the beginning,
ARPA had been used for the military need; and when it
became more commercialized, it came to be called 'Internet'.
Accordingly, you can say that the need of defense caused Internet
to begin. Currently, Internet is now changing the concept of
nation, the means to communicate with people and even your view
of life. Then what should we do to deal with it? Can we be only a
fanatic of Internet or be an anti-Internet? First, I'd like to
show the positive effects that Internet has caused; then, I will
move on to the negative side.
Maybe you can come up with many positive effects of Internet.
First, you can get the latest news on the web anytime everywhere.
It must be interesting if students make a good use of the web
because what teachers teach you is not always the latest thing.
Even though the teacher say something to students, they can reply
like this; `No, that's not true, Mr. [Blank], I asked Dr.
[Know-it-all] at [Top] University just a few minutes ago on the
web, and he said [Blank-sensei is totally wrong, the correct
information is . . .]' You can have an opportunity to keep in
touch with things new and what's happening in the world now. This
was not possible a decade ago.
Second, Internet is changing the concept of organization or
system like a nation, an ethnic group, a company and a network of
people. Imagine you are Japanese living in Sweden.......you can't
speak Swedish, you don't have any Japanese friends living your
neighboring city. Maybe you'll become nervous because you can't
get any Japanese news other than the letters from your friends.
You don't have enough money to call Japan since it's too
expensive. Once you get on Internet account, your problem will
all be gone! You can chat with your Japanese friends on the web
at a low price and can get any information that you want.
Actually, Chinese people living all over the world are now making
a network which support them each other on the Internet. For
them, Internet is a very practical means to confirm their
nationality and unify them as Chinese. You can be one of them
(the Chinese) wherever you are. The borders between countries are
fading by Internet in this way.
In case of company, the differences between the classes are
now fading slowly in Japan. You can say what you want to tell
your boss or a company president by sending E-mail directly.
Consequently, the relationship among people in the company is
changing since you don't need someone to communicate with your
superior anymore. The working style is also changing; you don't
have to go to the company everyday because you can do your work
at home and send what you've done by E-mail. You can have more
free time and can change your lifestyle as you like.
Fourth, concerning a network of people, Internet helped to
connect and gather volunteers after the big earthquake had rocked
the city of Kobe in 1995. The homepage made by one of the
volunteer posted lots of information such as what refugees in
Kobe need and which shelter needs helpers.
Fifth, Internet is a good means to express yourself. You can
make your homepage and introduce yourself there. Then some people
who saw your homepage would be interested in you or your
information offered on the homepage and would contact you. It can
be someone from unfamiliar country that you've never been to.
Isn't that kind of a great meeting? Maybe you want to found your
own company on the web. It's possible now. Internet is very
useful if you have something that you want to do or express.
Now I'd like to state the negative effects of Internet. First,
an infringement of copyright (or piracy) on the web is one of the
most controversial problem that Internet has caused. It is very
hard to protect the copyright since you can get any information
on the web any time. You can draw some pictures offered in
someone's homepage into yours and you can copy everything that is
shown on the web-which you're supposed not to do so.
Second, subversive materials posted on the web is also a big
problem. It's obvious that subversive materials like porno or the
picture of a dead body are not good for you nor for children. It
can happen that innocent kids cruising the web to find a toy
company's homepage stumble across the place where many horrible
pictures are posted. Though Singapore's government now started
controlling and policing those obscene material on the web, there
is a question to be raised: doesn't the regulation offend the
freedom of speech? The same question has also been raised from
the United States when the obscene pictures on the web were
prosecuted. Then, how should we protect our children from those
subversive materials on Internet? Is there any way to measure the
degree of the obscene materials? To make matters worse, there is
currently no universal law that can supervise those problems. As
you know, since Internet is worldwide, all countries must
cooperate to restrict something on the web; otherwise, you can do
it in the country where the law is not enforced.
Third, you have to be concerned about the crime on the web.
Because you can offer some information anonymously on Internet,
some people can also trespass upon your privacy through Internet
by spreading some information that you want to private.
Furthermore, a crime on the web can sometimes be very serious. If
you are a computer specialist, you could steal a secret
information like the military secrets of another country. It
actually happened a few years ago: a guy from Brazil stole
through Internet military secrets from the Department of Defense
in U.S.A.
Fourth, as some people say, the Internet is a box of waste
since most of the information which is offered on the web is
junk. All you do on the web is just wasting your time. In
addition, E-mails sometimes bother people; you can't write back
to a hundred mails! Some mails may even have nothing to do with
you. Dealing with E-mail could waste a lot of your time.
As I said earlier, Internet, which was first created for
military use, causes both positive and negative effects today.
Nevertheless, you just can't complain all the time about the
negative effects of Internet. You know that it's too late to stop
the expanding of Internet. You won't be able to live without it.
What is now demanded for us is to deal with both positive and
negative side of Internet--and, hopefully, to change its negative
effects for the better.
by Rumiko Nomura
