The Purpose And Function Of The Internet

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The internet has been around for decades now and almost half a century in the form of an idea for many more. The purpose and function of the internet is also debated regarding how it is used. The internet is seen by some as merely a tool for use. While others see as their livelihood as demonstrated by e-businesses they trade solely through the internet. This essay will examine a question that encompasses the purpose and function. The idea of whether or not the internet is a new medium is both broad and intriguing. Merriam Webster defines medium (for the purpose of this essay) as “a channel or system of communication, information or entertain”. The definition implies that from what we can see on the surface that in fact the internet is a new …show more content…
The standard medium of communication was of course through face to face conversations when it came to a real time interaction. Communication as we see it is more than just words and consists mostly of body language with only about 10% of the message that we receive being the words themselves (Mehrabi, 1972). However, we can look at a wide range of ideas to understand how the medium of the internet works to overcome this. Even in the early 60s when the computer was first conceived people saw the potential it had and how it could not only act as a way of communication just like traditional medium but also allow for what was once unable to be presented to be at the very least perceived (McLuhan, 1960). This meant that people knew that communication could be enhanced by what was seen as a new invention. Communication as we understand can be seen as a form of expression so to understand how the internet works as a medium for communication we can examine how it effects the expression of one’s personality online. A scientific study conducted in 2010 found that the internet allowed people to express themselves and removed major barriers for in particular introverts to communicate to others (Tosun , 2010). However, while the expression of one’s personality is enhanced through the internet it still struggles to match the social aspect of communication. When it came to how …show more content…
This coined term is cyber culture. Cyber culture highlights how the internet has now taken over in conveying culture where pre internet mediums would have done so. At the same time however a new subculture has emerged in the form of cyber culture which can be seen as an amalgamation of multiple cultures. In the online world of bulletin boards a culture of flame wars has emerged where so called combatants argue in a vulgar manner on forums. While this shows us how the internet has taken over for this form of communication, it also highlights a new medium for cultural expression where the anonymity of the internet has allowed people to do what they want and in doing so created a new culture that is within the culture that they live in. This phenomenon was observed Dery (1994) which shows how consistent internet culture has been since then as flame wars can still be observed to have identical properties. While this can be seen as a new culture in many ways it is the culture that already exists but expressed would the medium of the internet. As discussed earier social barriers are removed when communicating through the internet (Tosun, 2010) this also applies to cultural expression and suggests to us that as a medium the internet has remediated certain forms of traditional cultural expression. This suggestion is also displayed through internet activism where

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