One of the most inspiring aspects of the internet is how it keeps everyone connected and how it is ceaselessly reinventing itself.   Anyone with means of communication via a computer can alter or change our world which exists in the vast cyberspace.  New ideas constantly arise.  A fifth of those ideas are published by amateurs.

For instance, YouTube is a site that is created by amateur videographers.  It is not a requirement to be an expert film director on this particular site.  Anyone can post anything and within a matter of time, it can be viewed by millions (depending on how it reaches audiences).  Additionally, this site changes television.  Music videos are no longer seen by watching them on MTV, VH1, or FUSE.  Who watches music videos on television anymore?  It doesn’t exist.  The internet, YouTube, is presenting any music video you ever wanted to view within a click.

Other aspects of the internet are created by a community of people who only need access to a computer.  Wikipedia is where these communities come together.  It is our encyclopedia, our informational system, our brains coming together of what we know of the world.  There is a chance by all to edit the information.  It can be altered by anyone.  This can be perceived in two different ways.   One, we hold the power to distribute valid information.  Two, we hold too much power and may mislead and deceive our online community.

One of the many cynical points about the internet is being wired by the government.  This topic is still hot today, knowing that our own lives are being surveyed, mostly by owning an iPhone that contains the internet at hand.  Within the web article, “A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace”, John Perry Barlow understands the online community as a non-physical matter.  Therefore, we should not be governed.  We, the internet, do not have a government.  He states that property, expression, identity, movement, and context do not apply to those of the internet since all of those concepts are dependent on being of a physical matter.  We are of the grand continuous space.  There is no government in space.  How can it control something so massive?  Cyberspace cannot be maintained.  It was meant for expressive ideas.  It is meant as a community of people sharing their thoughts which were never meant to be shut down.  Everyone is entitled to convey their point of view on varying matters.

The internet is our brave new connected world.  Anyone can become a publisher.  Though this idea is freeing and inspiring, can we be limited?  Knowing we are monitored by what we say on the internet, can this bring us harm?  Once an idea is posted, it is forever swallowed into cyberspace.  One in three of us (or maybe higher since the BBC series took place years ago) are on Facebook.  Through this site, we are constantly in reach of one another.  We have the site connected to our iPhones through an app.  We can be viewed 24 hours a day.  Our ideas and sharing of many kinds of media can be a refreshing way to understand one another’s lives.

So, with so many constructive and revolutionizing concepts, how can we go wrong?  Have we learned that too much knowledge may lead to hazardous consequences?  Could it end up in the wrong hands?  Or are we advancing as a whole?  The internet has become our world where we consume products, share ideas, find where we are going, watch or listen to any source of entertainment, and constantly learn.  If the internet provided us with three square meals, there would be no reason to leave it behind.