06) Social Uses/Implications of Technology & Media

Ever since enrolling into the Media Studies Program here at Guelph-Humber, i've really noticed how much the internet controls my life. I do realize i've already written a blog on the internet, but in my own personal routine, it mediates almost all of it.

The following is my routine most of the time when i get up and turn on my laptop:

1) Sign on to MSN

2) Check hotmail.com

3) Check facebook.com

4) Check guelphumber.ca

5) Check deviantart.com

6) Check perezhilton.com

This sometimes changes depending on how much time i have but the first three things i do everyday. I've come to have a real love/hate relationship with technology-especially the internet. I find it almost pathetic that i use it so much, and that i have to do these 6 things each day or else i feel that i'm behind or out of the loop. Especially lately, i've found that facebook has just been causing problems for personal reasons. Perez Hilton's blog is something that distracts me constantly while trying to finish my homework as does deviantart which is an online gallery of different medias of art from different people. Ever since i finally got the internet at home and i was allowed to use it and then when i finally got MSN Messenger in the 6th grade, it was all downhill from there. I didn't go outside as often and sometimes i still don't. I hardly watch the television and since my laptop screen is techinically bigger then my 13 inch tv i have here at school, sometimes i just surf youtube for shows that i've missed or feel like watching. I do use the internet for education purposes, but since i use it more then going to the library, i sometimes have a harder time finding books when i do go since with the internet all i have to do is type in a keyword and it will bring up thousands of different options instead of walking through the aisles trying to find the specific code for a specific book.

If it was possible to go a day without any technology mediating my life, i would do it. But it's becoming more and more impossible. Everyone's become so dependant on it, just like i have. Despite still being addicted to the internet, i've had some eye openers and i am going to try and cut back my internet time and to go out more and actually socialize, and re-learn how to find library books.

God only knows what would happen if the internet just stopped working one day-can you imagine the mayhem?