How Can Internet Impact Their Life? Essay

Growing numbers of Americans have access to the Internet at work and at home. That is especially true for Internet veterans: 56% of the long wired1’ say they have access in both places, compared to only 32% of Internet novices who report access at work and at home. The Internet’s growing role in the workplace has translated to changes in the amount of time people spend doing work – whether it is at the office or at home. One in seven Internet users say their use of the Internet has resulted in an increase in the amount of time they spend working at home and one in ten say the Internet increases the time they spend working at the office (kutais 2002 138). Although the magnitudes here are not great, the Internet veterans report greater impacts. As the current time progress, the contributions of internet from the lives of a single individual to the entire community engage in complex approach (Anandarajan 2004 57; Bonilla 2004 88). The evolution of cyberspace provides interconnections to different cultures and traditions that somehow create a notion of monogamy in the ideations and concepts of every human civilization. Information and various socializations are easily facilitated through the use of web connections (Vogel 2007 247). The research involves the utilization of interview procedures in order to obtain probable effects and contribution of internet in the lives of American people. Literature Review The increasingly important role of the internet in users’ lives is also evident when it comes to money matters. These changes in some users’ perspectives are understandable. The initial excitement and fun of emailing a distant friend or family member is bound to make people at first herald the way the Internet enhances the feeling of closeness (Pogue 2006 121). Although the magnitudes here are not great, the Internet veterans report greater impacts (Robert 1994 13). Of those who have been online for more than three years, 21% report that the Internet has increased the amount of time they spend working at home, while 4% report it decreases the amount of time they spend working at home (Huber 2002 186). These veterans also report large impacts when it comes to spending time at the office, but the effects cut both ways. Eleven percent of veterans say the Internet has increased the time they spend at the office; 11% say it decreases time at the office. This compares with 10% of Internet users who report an increase in time spent at the office and 6% who report a decrease. The use of the Internet to find important information or carry out tasks also grew among their respondents. An average user in March 2000 had tried about 11 activities online, compared to an average user a year later who had performed about 14 activities online. They found that a year’s experience online results in a modest decline in the amount of time an average Internet user is online during a typical session. In March 2001, such a session lasted about 83 minutes, compared to 90 minutes for an average session the year before (Vogel 2007 248). There is great flux in people’s time spent online. Some Internet users are spending more time online, especially those who use the Internet at work and those who find new things to do online. Conversely, some are spending less time online and they tend to report that they don’t have as much time as before to be online. Some say they don’t find using the Internet as appealing as they did before. Internet users—veteran users especially—report that their use of email and the Web has changed the amount of time they spend watching TV, shopping in stores, and reading newspapers (Huber 2002 187). One-quarter of all Internet users say that the Internet has decreased the time they spend watching television, with fully one-third (31%) of veterans saying this (kutais 2002 138). The Internet has also prompted some users to spend less time reading newspapers; 14% say this, with 21% of Internet veterans reporting a decline in newspaper reading (Karin and Keller 1997 138). However, Internet users, and veterans in particular, are active online surfers for news, so they might be simply switching time with the paper to tame with the online version. As for elements of the Internet that bother people, spam emails lead the way (especially from marketers), and a substantial number of Internet users complain that they have received unwanted emails with sexual content (Vogel 2007 248). More than ten Internet users (44%) in March 2001 said that unwanted â€Å"spam’ emails were a problem for than, a large increase from 33% who said this in March 2000 (Winston 1998 64). Moreover, many reports getting so much spam that it is hard for them to get to the emails that matter to them . Most Internet users (56%) have received an email with adult content or advertising adult Web sites; 20% say this happens often (Bonilla 2004 88). In this report, the Pew Internet & American Life Project traces the same Internet users from one year to the next. In March 2000, they interviewed 3,533 Americans, inquiring if they used the Internet and if so, what they do when they surf the Web and use email to stay in touch with family and friends. In March 2001, they re-interviewed 1,501 of the people they talked with in their March 2000 sample. Throughout this report, they compare the answers they got in 2001 to the answers we got from the same people in 2000. This provides a rich picture of how people’s internet use changed over the course of a year. Matching the 1,501 people from their March 2001 survey to the previous year, 57% said they were internet users as of March 2001 – compared to the 46% of them who were internet users in March 2000. As we did in March 2000, they asked people how the Internet has affected the way they keep up with family and friends (Pittinsky 2003 99). The study probed whether and how often people go online for work-related tasks and they inquired into the kinds of activities people do online. Further, they pursued some new themes in March 2001, examining the impact of the internet on people’s time-use and looking into people’s feelings about some of the Internet’s possible â€Å"hassle factors† such as unwanted are emails (Huber 2002 188). Not only do we explore how peoples Internet use has changed in the aggregate between 2000 and 2001, they also examine how different kinds of users have changed their surfing patterns. A consistent finding throughout their reports is that the length of time a person has been using the Internet is a strong predictor of how often, person goes online and how much a user does on the Internet (Bonilla 2004 88). The longer a person has been online, the more likely he or she is to have surfed for health care information, sent an instant message, or purchased a product over the Internet (Huber 2002 187). To explore the impact of users’ experience levels more carefully, they compare the Internet’s veterans or the â€Å"long wired,† who have been online for more than three years as of March 2000, to â€Å"mid-range† users who were online for two to three years in March 2000, and â€Å"newcomers† who were online for a year or less in March 2000 . In analysis of these three categories below, when they refer to, say, newcomers in 2000 and newcomers in 2001, they refer to the same respondents and how their responses compared to what they told us in March 2000 (kutais 2002 140). For Internet users with access at work, four in nine (44%) say that the Internet improves their ability to do their job a lot The Internet’s long wired† users—those online for more than three years—report the greatest impact, with 55% saying the Internet has helped them at work a lot By a large margin, those veterans who say the Internet has improved how they do their job are men—fully 60%. The effect is less pronounced for those new to the Internet, with 36% of newcomers saying the Internet has helped them a lot on the job. Americans’ engagement with the Internet as a way to stay in touch with friends and family remains strong. In March 2000, 79% of Internet users said that they email members of their immediate and extended family, a number that grew to 84% a year later (Karin and Keller 1997 138) Seventy-nine percent of all Internet users said they email friends in March 2000, essentially the same as the 80% who said they email friends in March 2001. However, as some people gain experience online their perceptions of the Internet’s role in personal communication change (Vogel 2007 248). Fewer report that emailing is very useful for being in contact with family and friends and a notable number of email users cut back the frequency with which they email family and friends (Huber 2002 186). At the same time, they a bow a substantial increase in the use of email for serious communication, such as sharing worries and seeking advice. All this is in the context of people continuing to value the internet highly, 82% of veterans said that in 2001 compared with 68% who said it in 2000 (kutais 2002 140). Methodology Research Design The study is cross-sectional descriptive design since it studies variables of interest in a sample of subjects are assayed once and the relationships between them are determined. This is also used to examine and identify the cause and effect relationship of the dependent and independent variables. The main purpose of descriptive study is to observe, describe, and document aspects of situations. Furthermore, the design’s objective is to portray accurately the characteristics of persons, situations, or groups and/or the frequency with which certain phenomena occur in the overall course of study. Sampling Criteria The sampling criteria of the respondents to be involved shall cover age, specifically 18 and above; with no racial and/ or gender categorization; and locale, specifically the Cambridge University College of Information Technology. Sampling Technique Random Sampling will be used in this study. The researchers will use simple random sampling since it is more appropriate and practical to use. This is a technique where we select a group of subjects (a sample) for study from a larger group (a population). Each individual is chosen entirely by chance and each member of the population has a known, but possibly non-equal, chance of being included in the sample. Random Sampling is used to prevent the possibility of a biased or erroneous inference. The researchers will use this sampling method to reach a sample frame of at least 2,300 respondents with time frame of September to October 2005. Data Gathering Procedures Upon conducting the study, the initial step is to formulate the tool for evaluation, which includes an open-ended questionnaire: The researchers of this study must accomplish a written consent signed by the concerned locale administrations, significant officials, and the respondents themselves granted that the knowledge and coverage of the research are explained in full detail. The researchers will obtain the sample population guided by the criteria imposed for sample gathering. After which, the respondents shall be given a complete information guided by the standards proceedings of ethical matters. The researchers shall utilize the evaluation tool in order to obtain the set of answers facilitating homogenous perspective. The researchers will provide the interpretation and analysis on the quantitative data in hand. After which, the numerical data obtained shall be categorized into three criterion, namely satisfactory, average and unsatisfactory, in order to facilitate the comparison against the factors influencing the outcome. After which, the proceedings shall involve the tabulation and collation of the data gathered, determine factors and differences on the learning outcomes, and identify the point of views of the respondents. The tabulated data shall then be interpreted and analyzed in order to serve basis for the end conclusion of the study. Considering the previous studies and established norms, the study shall then provide implications associated to the previous research and study. Moreover, the study shall analyze the correlations of the data obtained in order to draw the leading factors that answers the problem statement on how internet affects the lives of the users. Discussion The impact of internet in the lives o human civilization can vary according to the culture and racial orientation as well as the modernization phase employed by the country; however, the settings are proven to be disregarded most especially the impact of internet engages the homogenous aspect of facilitating efficient and fastest means of communication. Hence, one of the impacts obtained from the methodological study is the use of email against the acquisition of knowledge through web-surfing utilizing search engines (kutais 2002 140). Apparently, the use of email has been one of the most prominent purposes of internet. In order to reach an individual from any other part of the world, communication usually takes day, but with internet, it only takes clicks for the message to be delivered. Such outcomes obtained from September 2005 implicate a significant increase from mid-2004 (Pogue 2006 121). The study shows that the use of search engines in June 2004 on a usual day has increase significantly from 30% to 41% of the population that utilizes internet, which evidently expanded from the data compared last year. Such outcomes implicate that the population utilizing search engines on a typical day increased from crudely 38 million in June 2004 to approximately 59 million in September 2005 – a shoot-up of approximately 55%. Such interpretation concludes that the utilization of search engines is clearly making its way to popularity than email, which affects greatly the usual pattern of day-by-day activities on any given day (Vogel 2007 249). On the other hand, the Pew Internet Project data implicates that on a usual day, the utilization of email is still the top internet activity (kutais 2002 140). Considering no specification of day schedule, approximately 52% of American internet users are sending and receiving email, up from 45% in June of 2004. Consistent with the finding that Internet users are less likely to email family members, the study found that a year’s time means that people are less likely to say that they communicate more with family members now that they use email. In March 2001, 56% of those who email family members said that they communicate more with others in the family now that they have email. This number fell to 46% in 2001. At the same time, people are somewhat more likely in 2001 to say that email has improved family relationship. In March 2000, 35% of Internet users said the Internet has improved family relationship. ; this number increased to 39% in March 2001. Again, this suggests that though frequency of contact may decline, the Internet positive impact on family relationships does not decline (Winston 1998 64). The story is similar, although the less pronounced, when people are asked about using email to communicate with friends. In March 2000, 92% of those who email friends said email was useful to stay in touch with friends, with 55% saying it was â€Å"very useful† In March 2001, 90% of people who email friends said email was a useful way to connect with friends; 52% said it was â€Å"very useful. † Long-wired Internet users are largely responsible for this decrease, with this class of Internet user being the only one in which a year’s time led to a decline in support for the idea that the Internet is a â€Å"very useful† way to communicate with friends. For connections to friends, 69% of March 2000’s Internet users said the Internet improved connections to friends â€Å"a lot† or â€Å"somewhat† and 65% said this in March 2001. The share of people saying the Internet improved connections to friends changed very little, going from 37% in 2000 to 35% in 2001 (kutais 2002 140). Within categories of users, again it was the veterans who recorded a notable decline in enthusiasm for this proposition. Similarly, people were somewhat less likely to say email has increased the amount of communication with friends, with 61% of them who email friends saying in March 2000 that email means they communicate with friends more often, compared to 54% saying that a year later. People’s emailing habits have changed in a year’s time, with the daily email to family and friends becoming less frequent. Accompanying this decline, however, has been a sharp increase in the use of email for important communications (Robert 1994 13). Many more people in 2001 report that they use email to get advice or share worries with those close to them. Some 12% of people who have ever emailed family members sent email to a key family member every day in 2001, down from 21% in 2000. Newcomers to the internet in 2000 had the starkest declines, suggesting a novelty effect wearing off. Similarly, about 13% of Internet users emailed a key friend on a daily basis in 2001, down from 17% in 2000. The weekly email is the staple for most Internet users, as about 50% of email users said they send electronic messages to family and friends once a week.