Isolated by Internet

Isolated By Internet

Introduction

Clifford Stoll is a United States astronomer, a computer specialist and an author. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Arizona in 1980. During the 1960s and 70's, Stoll was assistant chief engineer at WBFO, a public radio station in Buffalo, New York. Stoll has written three books, as well as, articles in technology such as within the Scientific American on the Curta mechanical Calculator. Similarly, he has written the article “Isolated by the Internet.” The article emphasizes that most of the people talk positively about Internet around the world. As Cliff has written that few people say that Internet is like a support group, or a fantasy world, and many people meet over the Internet and eventually get married to each other.

Clifford Stoll in his article Isolated by internet talks about how at present, the internet is taking over the social lives and sense of security of people. He states that over the years several technological advances have hindered our relation with friends and families. Beginning the essay with what Stoll claims to be a fallacy, he shares that many people who use the internet regularly claim to believe that being online has increased their social prowess. These people thought that their friendships had increased triple fold with fellow chatters across the globe. However, Stoll goes on to say that they are not gaining solid bonds of friendship, just mere acquaintances that he believes is stunting a whole generation's ability to socialize. These symptoms began to match that of addiction, which was laughed at when it was suggested that prolonged exposure to the internet could become an addiction much like that of gambling or obsessive shopping, but studies by Robert Kraut and Vikki Lundermark concluded that serious cases that ranged from depression to loneliness came about from families that used the internet daily.

The psychologists at Intel insisted that it was not the internet's fault, but the people who let themselves get involved after an accusation that the technology was at fault. This social decline has created a massive change in such essential learning as human interaction, public speaking, gesture reading, and other social abilities needed for proper societal involvement that everyone should learn. The essay references a Multi-user Dungeon (MUD) player that said while he was online, other players respected him. Steve goes on to say that he is God in this world; he can control what goes on and the lives of the other characters he battles. These MUDs also gave Steve a false sense of reality. He would avoid his real life for this fake one where he dominated with his character. Steve mentioned that he was able to relate to his characters and identify with them. When not online, however, Steve was the stereotypical outcast: shy, low self-esteem and felt awkward around his peers. Stoll argues that similar people like Steve create a false image of themselves online while not seeing a need of telling others know of their faults or ...