Daily business
Can you ever imagine everyday life without the internet? "Of course" you say, "I do not need it". You are probably right - suprisingly only 33% of the world population is able to connect to the Web. Furthermore, only twice as many more in the Europe.. keeping in mind that we think we have a spread access all over the countries (free wifi etc.). Let's back to You: daily business may be quite diffucult to handle nowdays, how many of the following (or may be more?) are you doing over the internet?
Shopping
Are you used to surf over the allegro, ebay, merlin, empik, gumtree or many other among similar websites? Have you ever done any online shopping? This is still not commong in our country but more and more people start using it - beyond electronics, food and clothes - we willingly try to economize our time and buy presents and essentials this way in order to avoid queues, traffic jams or simply to have more time to our neighbors.
PlayStation4 DE Release in MediaMarkt
Banking
Problably you are young generation - much more of them use online banking. If you have tried it, it will be hard to stop (like candies or chocolate). Personally, once a month I have to go to the bank and take my money by cash - and I really hate standing in the queue which usually takes me additional hour (together with route). I hope most of you already save your own time by paying bills online as a much faster and comfortable solution. Not so long ago it still was something fresh for polish guys and often, wrongly, assumed as not safe.
What is your opinion? Which way do you prefer?
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| http://www.microfinancecongress.com |
New & information
Have you ever felt that today's media are providing us a bewildering amount of information? A lot of portals, subscriptions, RSS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS), videos and much more? Have you ever compared similar topics on different pages (onet.pl, wp.pl, gazeta.pl and more) ? I did couple of times and I was not astonished to learn it proved that, depending on the political connections/beliefs, they present topic from quite different point of view.
Keeping that in mind, together with the whole well-known latest noise with ACTA and Mr. Snowden - do you feel you are well informed and the new delivered to you are the true? What about TV?
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| http://www.asca.cc/ |
Knowledge
How would our world look like without searching for knowledge over the internet? Thousands of students failing to pass exams, chaos within using public transport, missinformation related to different points of views (have you ever experienced differences in, for example, handbook of history?) and a lot of unresolved quarrels about dates, names and so on... can you imagine how hard it was to aquire some information via standard way? I strongly believe that throng of information slowly leads us to devaluation (of the) information? As it is no longer hardly possible to get any data we want to know, we do not appreciate the value of knowledge itself.
What are you feelings about that? Have you thought how often you use the Internet to search for something?
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| www.wikipedia.org |
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| http://academic.research.microsoft.com |
Monitoring
Quite a short topic, the benefits of online monitoring are often compared to threats (when goverment or institution watches over us). I have seen that very nice feature is being started to be used within polish kindergartens. A colleague from my work uses 'monitoring' to watch if everything is fine with his child during his absence.
Social
Okay, I am very familiar with most of the possible opinions right there. I do not want to start a 'flame war' if the internet is necessary to stay in touch. Just keep it simple - Internet has an important role in keeping our social stuff on the top, especially young people - it looks like it is very natural for them, let me use the very true and sad comic there:
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| http://thedoghousediaries.com/ |
Okay, a lot of advantages of using the Internet in common life... or at least to get used to it as it seems that sooner than later even our fridge will be talking (oops, it is already!). I know there is much more benefits to our every day life but I suppose I won't live enough to write all of them down.
Real Threat
For sure there should be a space for topic connected not only with banking (but mostly) - thievery!
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| http://forum.telus.com |
I am almost sure that most of us are familiar with words "token", "SSL" (lock next to the web address glowing with green color), "phishing" et cetera. Enough to say is that we have to be very careful when doing something online and listen to bank advices - always check if the mail is from the known source, if the page address is legit, do not click before looking at and never giving password/pins anywhere. It is only a tip of the iceberg.
Reverse monitoring?
All of us know that we are being watched. Monitoring - it's fine, but it can works both sides, like stealing your cam view - seeing where you are and what you are doing.
Sometimes storing the information what you are searching for over the web is ok, like Google helps finding what you really need (i.e. is storing personal information and preferences about you) but is it okay so that a company sometimes know more about you that youself?
Helping
We often search for help - we should use with caution! Unexperienced people search health advices - which often can be a disaster thanks to malignant users which will tell you for sure that your symptomps can be easliy connected with cancer! but do not be so sceptic - I remember a story when guy described his problems and story of the treatment and all opinions of doctors - nobody could help him. Finally, online forum helped him with correctly finding out the real disease - another guy has very similar situation.
It is well-known fact that infamous website, 4char, helped finding person much more better than police many times.
Okay, there are much more topic to talko about which are the part of the Internet, couple of them:
- online trips
- planning journey
- finding people with interest like you have
- funny fact - daily news, internet memes
- global actions, like ACTA
- is it useful when 'like' = 'food'?
At least - what are you unusual ways of using the Internet?
Have you ever did thank 'Internet' for something (finding your love, favourite cooking recipe, buying some old and rare stuff online...) ?
What do you think it could happen to the world when all of the web is gone in a blink of an eye?
I have to disagree with most of the article. Starting with the first assumption: I can not imagine life without the Internet (I'm addicted to the global village). It would be hard to answer every question you asked, so I'll try to summarize everything in one statement:
ReplyDeleteThe technology is designed to help us in everyday life, make us more efficient, better organized and to simply help us live better. Along with greater interference of the Internet into our lives, bigger threats flow as well. However you can effectively protect yourself. Do not upload another picture on Facebook, do not give out any personal information, do not set passwords like: "12345" or "qwerty" and always think about the potential threat with which the technology can be connected. It's hard to comment this article, because I find many contradictions in it, so I will just state my approach to the matter.
I do not have to constantly be connected to the network to keep track of each and every moment of my friends life, but the functions provided with new technologies - GPS, timetables, prices and stores search, information services - are helping me to function in today's world. This does not mean that I lost the ability to use a map or I will not be able to plan my route, but technology helps me to simplify the process, creates opportunities and most importantly - saves time.
And for the fact that children spend so much time on the computer / laptop, I would not blame technological progress, but the parents.
Finally, I know I’m not the guy, who should write it, but I will quote you - „do not click before looking at” – many typos and mistakes, made it hard to read and understand this article.
And a tip from a graphic designer: Do not mix so many fonts, paragraph settings and so on. Keep it simple, keep it clean. Just like Ludwik did (http://konwersatorium3.blogspot.com/2013/12/week-7-audio-podcasts.html)
Dear Jakub,
DeleteIt is strange to disagree when I have not put any statement to agree or not - I have just pointed out how many uses Internet has in our everyday life. This is leading us to large amount of contradictions in article by which I wanted to provoke discussion over good and bad sides of the Internet.
About the fonts: I am not familiar with strange formatters which are being used by blogspot, I have used only two paragraphs types. I have just noticed, thanks to your comment, that font was different at some points - I have just corrected it (I hope so).
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI have to disagree with the statement which appeared at the beginning of your presentation. I can not imagine my life without internet. I am aware that somehow I am totally addicted to it and I do not try to deny it :-) Internet is an amazing tool, and like Jacob wrote, I believe that it was created to help us live better. Of course I realize that using the internet brings risk, but I think that I am able to avoid it because I rely on my common sense.
ReplyDeleteMost frequently I use the internet for gaining information. Of course, because there is a plenteousness and variety of information that can be found on the network, choosing the right one is not that simple. Browser that I use the most often is Wikipedia, but I try to verify everything that I find there. In order to get an objective knowledge about the things I am interested in, that I spend a lot of time looking through web sides. But still, in spite of that, internet is the fastest and most convenient way to do it.
To answer your question: I do not think the enormity of information led to its devaluation. If information is true, proven, verified, it allows to expand people’s interests, broaden horizons and change perspective. I believe, however, that a magnitude of information and an easiness with which people can reach it, devalues critical thinking, and does not force to make an effort in searching them. It kills initiative and willingness of people to explore on their own, because everything is given “on the tray”.
I also permanently use network for shopping. I hate crowds in the stores, I am annoyed with an ambiance of indecision and hurry. On the internet I find what I need almost immediately. I do not need to stay in a queue. Most things that I buy are usually about ten percent cheaper than in stores. And additionally I buy only what I really need – on-line shopping stops pointless and aimless wandering around the shops and in consequence stops me from buying stuff, which I did not intend to buy :-)
When it comes to social networking, I have an ambivalent attitude to it. I have never used the internet with the intention of finding love or get to know someone interesting. To be honest, I have not been using any of social networks like Grono, Nasza-klasa, or so popular Facebook for a long time. My wife persuaded me to open an account on the last of them and I agreed (only because it was important to her) but my activity on this site is really negligible. It is hard for me to judge what is the exact role of the Internet when it comes to sustain interpersonal relations of any kind, because I never did this by my own. But I guess that if someone fits that form of communication, the internet can be really favorable tool in interpersonal interactions.
Thanks for your comment Piotr!
DeleteAbout devaluation of information - I was tracking a lot of Wiki's articles, which were mostly connected to history or religion - and where a little war started because of the fact that muslism thought quite another way about something. Is this information valuable then (which for some people is wrong!) ? This is why I often try to avoid Wiki and search over the official documents and different sources of them. Which is hardly possible - while Google remains the main force of searching - as it strongly filters the results. It is neccessary to point about TOR there and similar websites, which kill 'goodle spider' (i.e. crawler: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_crawler) therefore a lot of sources are impossible to find using it...
In regards to information that can be found on the internet - you need to be careful and really read a lot to find out what is the correct one. On many portals you can find news about many different things eg. diets, trainings and so on. Every one can write anything on every subject. Do we know if the author has any knowledge on a particular subject? Is they an expert?
DeleteOnline shopping, online banking - I think that thanks to them we save a lot of time. I still prefer to touch something, see on the shelf in the shop (mainly when it comes to electronics, food, clothing). I am a proponent of avoiding the crowds so if I don’t have to go to the post office – I don’t do this.
ReplyDeleteAccording to ‘new & information’ - paraphrase an excellent journalist - fact is a fact and an opinion is an opinion, you need to stick to the facts and be able to separate them from the opinion.
It is hard for me to comment - thousands of students failing to pass exams, chaos within public transport’ but why? After all, there are bookstores, libraries, and in them hundreds or thousands of books, papers, research papers, encyclopedias, dictionaries. At each stop is the timetable. I don’t know anyone who would be so heavily dependent on the internet to not be able to function in society without it.
Internet, more specifically its skillful use makes our lives easier. Shortens search. Answers many questions.
Referring to questions asked by Iza. In fact, about diets, trainings, nutritional recommendations is almost as much advice how web pages. Therefore, it is always worth checking the source of the information and competence of the authors. Verification of these data isn’t simple. I personally don’t read the articles which have not been given sources of information. To determine whether the information is reliable should find an article on the basis of which such conclusions drawn. Such research should be conducted on a suitable number of respondents, have the proper methodology. When it comes to the authors of articles - it is worth checking whether they are experts in the field about which they write. We can also get information directly from the organizations involved in these areas - for example – American Dietetic Association, Austarlian Institute of Sport, , Dietetitians of Canada.
Yes, I can imagine life without the Internet. I even stil remember this part of my life when I had no idea what the Internet is or how to use it. I joined "Internet society" quite late, when dedicated lines were already popular. So I still remember my primary school and history lessons with paper homeworks prepared based on paper books. I remember how it was when my parents brought home their salary in cash. When there were two or three banks in the whole city and post office was the only place where you could pay the bills.
ReplyDeleteSo again - yes, I can imagine life without it. But the point is - for what? Why should I do this? It's like asking "can you imagine yor life without trains or antibiotics". People frequently ask this question about the Internet like it is the only thing that appeared in the world suddenly or has revolutionized reality. There is many such things and each generation have "such Internet". Or mobile phone. Or computer. There was a time in history when bulb was treated as a magic. Telephone? Speaking with someone else in different part of the glob via cable?! Not possible. Ok, now everything is going on much faster but anyway - I really believe that when I'll have grandchildren they will be able to show me some kind of magic. And this generation won't ask anymore "can you imagine your life without Internet" but will find something else to ask.
Anyway - even if I can imagine my life without an Internet access, I don't want to do it. If can use it, I can also decide if would do it. Fortunately (rather) there will be no one forcing me to resign from the Internet :)
Kamil, that’s true the internet is a huge help in all kinds of life situations. I however recall the times when access to the web wasn’t so common. I remember going to library and reading room to find some information. I haven’t done that in years ...and frankly I’d like to thank God I don’t have to do this no more, because if the book I was looking for wasn’t in the library the situation was hopeless. But I graduaded, manegad to fond all required data, learned new things... So it was possible and there’s always a solution. I also remember sitting with 3 friends in front of one internet-connected computer in an internet cafe, exploring, gaming, chatting... Well, that was actually fun!
ReplyDeleteFor me the best thing about internet is access to limitless amounts of informations, books, movies, courses, information from any place in the wold, about other people, which most of the time are completely different in all sorts of ways then me... I look at my parents and I can see that access and awareness of all that made even bigger the usual between-generation gap... But they are keeping up :) ...They have on other choice.
Almost forget - YOU need to see it – your move from the shop opening inspired me to post it :)
ReplyDeletehttp://gong.pl/lowcy-promocji
It's Ceneo ad so fits into the topic perfectly! :)
I want to share with you my little experience in online travel planning. I had planned few months back a trip to Zakopane and I must say at start it was nice and easy. I had found a lot of places where I can sleep and some advertisement. My trouble started when I wanted to book hotel room. My browser made me a trick and switched during making reservation to another hotel… So I booked my hotel room not in hotel that I wanted to.
ReplyDeleteSecond thing was renting a car. It is strange but there is a looooooot of trash sites with renting car offer and when you try to rent, it says that there is no car available for location but they can drive car to your location for about 50€…
At the end I had cancelled bad reservation and found a car renting service that was available in Zakopane but I had to do a lot of calls directly to websites owners to get more detail information. Maybe this is only in “Polish Internet”… I have no clue but this online travel booking would be more pleasant for me if website owners put accurate information and stick to it
Did you had any bad experience with travel booking over the NET?
Unfortunaltely there is a lot of trash in the Internet. I had few similar situations like I couldn't arrange something because it was already boooked / n/a / I should pay extra money. But when I called directly to the hotel / store / company - everything was fine and I could complete my transaction and get what I wanted or needed.
DeleteIn my case - I do all the things that you mentioned: shopping, using a bank, getting social, marketing my business, playing games, finding news, gaining knowledge.
ReplyDeleteFor years now I'm not reading any newspapers, watch very little TV and get my knowledge from books, Internet and studies. At the same time I can't think of anything unusual that I'm doing on web - it just seems that anyone is doing anything up here and nothing is considered "unusual" anymore. Actually the most uncommon thing I did on the Internet is taking that class! I never thought I could pass English course by writing notes on the blog :)
About the question of Internet ending one day - I believe after some initial chaos people would quickly find ways to do the things they did through other channels like TV, radio, phones. Internet is something innovative but not essential for the human kind. I actually feel we might get better off without the Internet - we would be more productive, that's for sure.
I am really get used to do a lot of things on the Internet. I can’t even imagine how complicated our lives will be without the Internet. Mentioned things like online shopping, online banking, journey planning, etc. save a lot of time and allow me to reconcile all my duties.
ReplyDeleteAs far as I am concerned, the Internet is also a great place to gather information about my biggest hobby which is motorization. There are a plenty of websites which provide technical information about cars, their modifications and restorations. If you are not able to face the problem with your car by your own, you can always describe it on the internet forum and ask for the others’ opinions.
I must say that for sure we can live without the internet, but our lives will be much complicated.
I owe the Internet big time - just like all of people in the world. Nowadays, as Internet is a common thing, I feel like we don't fully appreciate its features and treats given to us - such as Google Maps, online shopping (price comparison sites and notifications of their change FTW!), vast areas of knowledge, online entertainment, music discovery, instant communication with just about anybody (e.g. recent Twitter Q&A with LeBron James after lost game, when he couldn't sleep most of the night, so he decided to soften his sorrows by interacting with fans :) ).
ReplyDeleteSudden cutoff of the Internet would simply be a disaster not only for individuals, but for most businessess as well - stock markets would go bonkers!
Did you know you can create short urls with Shortest and receive money from every visit to your short urls.
ReplyDelete