In today’s day in age almost everyone in the country is dependent on the technology of computers and the internet, except for a few hermits living in huts in the forest or out retired grandparents. It is very difficult to even imagine life without the internet, personally, I have no clue how I would survive and I have become so dependent on it, I honestly do not know how I would function without it. In school almost everything relies on computers and/or the internet: all papers need to be typed and formatted, assignments are sent through emails or posted on course websites, and research always needs to be done. Email seems to have become the primary source of communication now between teachers and their students; before it was if they didn’t mention it in class, they might post it on a board outside their office or they would have to mention it the next time. If a student ever had a question, they would have to come into office hours to have it answered, even if it was something as small as a spelling error in an assignment.

    I have been working on this bitch of a paper lately, I am nowhere even close to having enough sources, but without the internet at my finger tips I would not have even been able to find the few sources I have. It is amazing to be able to have access to the entire library catalogue at your fingertips, as well as access to thousands of otherwise unattainable journal articles. It wasn’t all that long ago that people were still dependent on card catalogues; I personally remember using them at the beginning of my high school career and in grammar school, but now I would not be able to find what I need with them. I have been do desperate in my attempts that I have been searching subjects through Wikipedia and then looking up the given sources for the article; websites like that, although not completely academically trustworthy, can at least be used as a starting point for research if no other option is available.

    I also think that some teachers are taking too much advantage of the internet and most people’s easy access to it; is it really too much to ask that they have the homework assignments before class, instead of emailing them Sunday night when they are due on Monday? I am sure they were capable of that before the internet was in such high use, and I do not understand why they are no longer physically able to do that. They were able to function without the internet, unlike my generation, and because they do take advantage of the internet so much, it is causing an even larger dependency for the students. I know that if I did not have to check my email for homework assignments constantly, I would probably be on the computer at least a 1/3 less that I currently am.

    Even though it is very convenient to have almost all of the knowledge of the world at your fingertips whenever you need it, I long for a simpler time without so much dependency on technology. So much precious time is wasted doing frivolous things like watching videos on youtube or looking at pictures on lolcatz. People are losing perspective on what life truly is, and are becoming overly involved with their cyber lives (ironically I’m writing this for the internet). But as much as I want to loose my dependency on computers and the web, at least while I am at school, I cannot without loosing contact with most of the academic world, and I probably will never be able to function long-term without it in today’s day and age.