Technology and Access

    After doing some of the readings in class, I have found myself thinking more and more about high quality verse low quality internet access and what effects this has on an individual. I guess I had never really thought about what advantages I have while in high-access zones compared to those individuals who lack constant access to the internet, something which I take for granted daily. The internet holds an absurd amount of information on pretty much any given topic...ever. First created and experimented with in the 1960s, the Internet, in 50 years, has had extraordinary unforeseen results. 50 years may seem like a solid amount of time to formulate such a masterpiece as the internet, but, if we think about how quickly it has evolved once the internet became public, the time frame is less. Even thinking about my history of internet usage probably beginning around 1998, sources, information and capabilities of the internet were just beginning to arise with the start of email and online interactions. In 10 years or less (depending on the site/company) the internet has taken part in political, economic and social aspects of our lives, arguably more than any other technological advance thus far.
    Prior to this class, I naively underestimated the power of the internet in our lives and the effect it can take on an individual who does not have current access to the internet. The other day one of my roommates was talking about privacy issues on face. She, like myself, has had full home internet access as long as she can remember and internet has become a huge part of her daily life in both leisure and task-oriented time. While talking, she unconsciously pulled up google, spit in a few key words and found an obscure privacy protecting website for an application download, simply after spotting a brand logo she recognized. Our generation, speaking specifically about 16-25  year olds with high-quality internet access, should foresee a huge impact. Our information seeking skills and surfing tactics put us at a huge advantage in comparison to those with low quality access daily, and, our parents generation. While I have discussed in our class midterm about high verse low quality access teenagers and the consequences the no or low quality access teens face, I am interested in what changes we should expect in respect to past generations.
    For example, I am currently 20 years old, a junior in college and have been using the internet, as I expect many of my classmates have, for approximately 12 years (clearly, depending on each persons case). My parents have been using the internet approximately the same amount of time as myself, probably with the addition of a few years. When they were in college the idea of clicking firefox, googling whatever you could possibly want to know (literally….) and in less than a second be confronted with thousands and thousands of websites with possible information, sorted by relevance. As many companies are marketing and advertising specifically with the intended audience of individuals ages 16-25(ish) and using the internet as a base for such information, I would argue, we are receiving much more information daily than our parents did and ever will, and we should predict this to have a huge impact in the future.