Anecdote

Growing up I did not have the privilege of having different technological devices. We had a computer at home, but there was no Internet. The main use of the computer at that time was for my sister and I to play educational games which were accessed by inserting a compact disc into the base unit or go on Paint and doodle. It was not until I was in around the fourth grade that my mother and father were practically forced to get Internet, simply because my sister was beginning to need it for school work and various projects. Even then it was simply only used for educational purposes, and I did not use it very much because I was very young and did not really need it for anything important.

As the years progressed I began to need to use the Internet for school projects and simply just for entertainment. With the use of the Internet over the years I feel like it has been of great benefit to me. It allows for me to gain knowledge within seconds on any basically any topic I can think of. There is many people who might say that since the invention of the Internet, many people can no longer read, write or perform cognitively as well as they used to be able to. 

Viewing my own experience in using the Internet over the years, I have not seen it affect me as much as other say that it has affected them. Being able to view texts online, such as eBooks or anything else, has been very helpful. Having the text in from and eBook or Portable Document Format file in front of me allows me to take these texts anywhere and be able to read in a more efficient manner. I can still read books which are printed on paper and understand them as well as when I did not have the Internet but if there was something that I did not understand I could go on Google and search for help on the web. Not only has it benefitted the way I read but also the way I write. As Thompson states in his text things such as posting on a blog, sending an email, or tweeting can all improve the way we write. Because I know that someone else anywhere in the world can be reading what I have posted I tend to make sure that things such as my grammar are correct and I actually think more about what I am going to write. 

Overall I believe that using the Internet had helped me out a lot in various aspects. I believe I think better, and not less, than I would if I did not have the Internet because it allows for me to learn so much from other peoples work. Being able to have the Internet actually helps me think better because it allows for me to expand my thoughts by quickly accessing other texts about the same topic(s). I can read a text online and still think about it as much as I would have if the book was in a physical form. The Internet lets me connect with people and be able to get their own opinions on a certain topic to be able to further analyze it, which maybe could not have been done as quickly if the others lived in another city, state or even country.