Internet Disaster :: Impact Technology Cause Effect Papers

Internet Disaster The normal developmental process of a teenager is built upon a mastery of their bodies, their minds, and their environment. This process known as adolescence is essential to the development of a healthy sense of self, and the ability to successfully interact with themselves and their environment. In this paper I will examine the lives of 2 teenagers who substituted some of the traditional roles of adolescence with computers and the Internet as their primary link to the world, with disastrous results. A computer is just a tool. When software is loaded, the computer performs a task. There is nothing particularly remarkable about this. A solitary computer while individually powerful has very little interaction with anyone beside its primary user. It is only when a computer is connected to the Internet does it truly appeal to a teenager. Once connected to the Internet the computer enables a teenager to take advantage of all the myriad communication outlets available. These outlets cover a huge variety of interests and technical implementations from MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer On-Line Role Playing Games) to simpler chat systems like IRC (Internet Relay Chat) and MUDS/MOO (Multi User Dungeon/MUD Object Oriented) to AOL’s family of real-time chat systems (Instant Messenger, ICQ). Besides these fairly well known applications, there are dozens of other software applications designed to permit users to communicate in almost any conceivable technical manner in almost any com bination of race, age, gender or era. It is by using this infinite variety of possibilities that a teenager can substitute the normal process of adolescence A computer, like a teenager, needs to learn how to perform a task. In a computer, the process of learning is called programming. In a teenager the process is called socialization. A computer is programmed by creating a series of machine language instructions that are executed by the computer’s microprocessor. Normally, however a computer is programmed through the use of a high level language such as C, or C++. This high level language abstracts the internal hardware of the machine such that the learning curve is easier to surmount. Another piece of software called the compiler accepts inputs from a high level language and outputs machine language code ready to be run. A teenager is programmed by their interactions with themselves, their peers and their own environment.