Internet ties
Saturday, January 28th 2006
A recent survey on Internet use in the United States confirms that information technology plays an important role in the life decisions of some 60 million Americans.
The report, titled 'The Strength of Internet Ties' compiled from a survey conducted by Pew Internet, a US-based think tank, found that at present 21 million Americans are using the internet to further their studies at online universities. Some 17 million people use it to conduct research on major illnesses that may be affecting their families or loved ones and a similar number use it to investigate schools before enrolling their children.
The survey found that 16 million people have "surfed the net" before choosing a car and many have actually bought their cars online. Ten million people now use the internet for real estate purposes; to find a place to rent or buy or if they are selling property. And some eight million use it for career changes: to find a new job.
According to a BBC news report, the purpose of the survey was to find out whether the worldwide web and e-mail had strengthened social ties as it had been suggested in the past that web-based communication could diminish real relationships. But the report said that this has not happened. In fact, the researchers found the opposite - Internet communication has helped people in different parts of the world to keep in touch. Free e-mail and instant messaging services have also helped in cases where telephone calls and personal visits would be difficult and prohibitive and regular mail too slow, especially in times of crisis.
And the technology keeps growing more innovative as time goes by. Blogs, websites in which journal entries are posted on a regular basis and displayed in reverse chronological order and which first appeared around 1994, allow people to communicate their thoughts and with anonymity if they so prefer. While many blogs are used to share political views, today there are hundreds where emotional and other support, which was previously only available in individual or group counselling sessions or on crisis hotlines, is available, giving new meaning to the word community.
Meanwhile, an earlier study, also conducted by Pew Internet Project, found that the gender gap existed online although the division was not really in whether men or women used it more; rather it was in how they used it.
Men's usage tended to veer towards information about sports results, weather, news, job offers, recreation, music, hobbies and consumer ratings for goods and services, while women's use involved greater use of e-mail to make and maintain contact as well as searches for health and medical information, map directions and religious material.
In the UK, attempts are being made to integrate older people into the age of modern technology. 'Silver Surfers Day', an annual event observed in May, targets people over 55, aiming to make them less alienated. The proponents of the project see it as vital as it can help reduce the loneliness shut-ins tend to experience.
Last year, online reports say, the worldwide web grew by more than 17 million sites, the most ever in a single year, eclipsing even the 16 million recorded in 2000 at the height of the dot.com boom. Of course the Internet is not nuisance free and a significant number of these flourishing websites are used to sell/distribute pornography, dubious 'health' products and promote scams. Everyone who uses email is bombarded with these 'offers'. There is also online gambling, a fast-growing industry.
While the internet is widely available in Guyana, at offices, net cafes and on a growing number of personal computers in homes, the much-talked-of, long-hoped-for US$22.5M IDB information and communication technology project became bogged down in the failed talks to end telephone monopoly and never came to fruition. The project was to have been mostly educational and would have seen increased access to IT by schoolchildren and perhaps even local 'silver surfers'.
Nevertheless, in his budget speech on Monday, Finance Minister Saisnarine Kowlessar said the government would unfold an IT strategy for Guyana that will hopefully "enable us to realise the goal of seeing every household and school having access to telephones, computers, and high-speed broadband Internet."
He did not say when this strategy would be unveiled or how it would be financed, but since he had also said that the budget was not making "any grand promises", we will have to wait and see.
Saturday, January 28th 2006
A recent survey on Internet use in the United States confirms that information technology plays an important role in the life decisions of some 60 million Americans.
The report, titled 'The Strength of Internet Ties' compiled from a survey conducted by Pew Internet, a US-based think tank, found that at present 21 million Americans are using the internet to further their studies at online universities. Some 17 million people use it to conduct research on major illnesses that may be affecting their families or loved ones and a similar number use it to investigate schools before enrolling their children.
The survey found that 16 million people have "surfed the net" before choosing a car and many have actually bought their cars online. Ten million people now use the internet for real estate purposes; to find a place to rent or buy or if they are selling property. And some eight million use it for career changes: to find a new job.
According to a BBC news report, the purpose of the survey was to find out whether the worldwide web and e-mail had strengthened social ties as it had been suggested in the past that web-based communication could diminish real relationships. But the report said that this has not happened. In fact, the researchers found the opposite - Internet communication has helped people in different parts of the world to keep in touch. Free e-mail and instant messaging services have also helped in cases where telephone calls and personal visits would be difficult and prohibitive and regular mail too slow, especially in times of crisis.
And the technology keeps growing more innovative as time goes by. Blogs, websites in which journal entries are posted on a regular basis and displayed in reverse chronological order and which first appeared around 1994, allow people to communicate their thoughts and with anonymity if they so prefer. While many blogs are used to share political views, today there are hundreds where emotional and other support, which was previously only available in individual or group counselling sessions or on crisis hotlines, is available, giving new meaning to the word community.
Meanwhile, an earlier study, also conducted by Pew Internet Project, found that the gender gap existed online although the division was not really in whether men or women used it more; rather it was in how they used it.
Men's usage tended to veer towards information about sports results, weather, news, job offers, recreation, music, hobbies and consumer ratings for goods and services, while women's use involved greater use of e-mail to make and maintain contact as well as searches for health and medical information, map directions and religious material.
In the UK, attempts are being made to integrate older people into the age of modern technology. 'Silver Surfers Day', an annual event observed in May, targets people over 55, aiming to make them less alienated. The proponents of the project see it as vital as it can help reduce the loneliness shut-ins tend to experience.
Last year, online reports say, the worldwide web grew by more than 17 million sites, the most ever in a single year, eclipsing even the 16 million recorded in 2000 at the height of the dot.com boom. Of course the Internet is not nuisance free and a significant number of these flourishing websites are used to sell/distribute pornography, dubious 'health' products and promote scams. Everyone who uses email is bombarded with these 'offers'. There is also online gambling, a fast-growing industry.
While the internet is widely available in Guyana, at offices, net cafes and on a growing number of personal computers in homes, the much-talked-of, long-hoped-for US$22.5M IDB information and communication technology project became bogged down in the failed talks to end telephone monopoly and never came to fruition. The project was to have been mostly educational and would have seen increased access to IT by schoolchildren and perhaps even local 'silver surfers'.
Nevertheless, in his budget speech on Monday, Finance Minister Saisnarine Kowlessar said the government would unfold an IT strategy for Guyana that will hopefully "enable us to realise the goal of seeing every household and school having access to telephones, computers, and high-speed broadband Internet."
He did not say when this strategy would be unveiled or how it would be financed, but since he had also said that the budget was not making "any grand promises", we will have to wait and see.
© Stabroek News
