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Essay 1 Is the internet a waste of time essay

Internet a wast eof time essay When Kenneth Goldstein began with a qu...
Academic year: 2020/2021
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Missouri State University

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Isabel Ellis Jennifer Wilson English 1020-D 9 February 2022

The Internet: It’s all In How We Use It Let me give you point of view number one, after sitting at the house for the past week, quickly running out of ideas to keep yourself occupied, you finally hear your phone ringing. A phone call from your grandfather, who during this pandemic you have not been able to see for weeks. You guys are due for an online game of checkers and he’s calling to ask if you’re ready to lose. Later, after the game has ended, you use the internet to order him his favorite dinner to be delivered right to his door as a winner’s reward. Now point of view number two, you have been avoiding your chores and homework all week because you have been busy playing online games and watching YouTube videos. You’ve been avoiding conversations with family and have instead been conversating with strangers whilst posting unnecessary hate comments on different platforms. Both points of view are obviously very different, but what they both have in common is the use of internet and how it can vary between positive and negative. This is a slightly different standpoint from Kenneth Goldsmith’s argument in “Go Ahead Waste Time on the Internet” where he goes on to say that the internet couldn’t be a waste of time and can surely only do good for us. I both agree and disagree with Goldsmith’s argument, agreeing with his statements covering the internet’s plethora of positive resources and the many useful aspects it holds. And disagreeing with his statements arguing that the internet is a form of socialization that is comparable to face-to-face socializing, or that it could not be considered a “waste” of an

individual’s time. I believe using the internet is not necessarily a waste of time, but one can surely waste time using the internet.

Today almost everyone has access to a computer or technological device, and most of them are connected to the internet. There are so many different aspects of the internet and countless sites such as chat rooms, online stores, sports pages, and so on. It would be ignorant to state that any use of the internet is a waste of time, because the internet is today’s number one resource for so much information. Goldsmith does a great job at phrasing this social conflict with the use of the internet by saying, “the notion that the internet is bad for you seems premised on the idea that the internet is one thing-a monolith. In reality it’s a befuddling mix of the stupid and the sublime, a shattered, contradictory and fragmented medium.” (Goldsmith 500). The internet is so many things, each having an amount of value that is different for the individual person. Some of this value can come from experiences on the internet where you gain a long-term result, and others might be short-term. A person can reach personal accomplishments through the internet by graduating through web assisted classes, or even finding love through online sites. These could all be long-term values that we can gain with the internet, and short-term values can have just as much of an effect. A great example could be humor, and how the internet can give us moments laugh or reaction that might not further anything larger than our emotions in that moment, but who are we to say that those values are not just as important? We’re simply not.

However, this is not to say that one can never waste time on the internet. A large disagreement that I have with Goldsmith is with his overall argument that whatever you do on the internet is not a waste of time because each moment that we put into the use of the internet will relay back to something positive. “I keep reading-on screens- that in the age of screens we’ve lost our ability to concentrate, that we’ve become distracted. But when I look around me

laughter, affect.” (Goldsmith 501). I just do not think that this is fully correct, and that there is actually a very large difference in these two types of socializing.

Face-to-face socializing is a key component to social skill advancement and can be something that people need to be able to obtain social interaction standpoints. I think that socializing takes many forms, but to what point of an absence of present communication can we justify socializing. I think that we do more negative than positive when we put socializing online and face-to-face socializing on the same pedestal. There is a huge difference and I think in person communication is far more valuable and important. And even taking it to my reference of the pandemic and lockdown, although many people were grateful to be able to still have a form of socializing, the loss of being present with peers, family, or even strangers and being able to interact was impactful.

Goldsmith, Kenneth “Go Ahead: Waste Time on the Internet.” "They Say / I Say": The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing with Readings , W. Norton & Company, New York, NY, 2021. edited by Gerald Graff, Cathy Birkenstein, and Russell Durst. pp. 500-504.

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Essay 1 Is the internet a waste of time essay

Course: Modern English Grammar (ENG 390)

University: Missouri State University

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Ellis 1
Isabel Ellis
Jennifer Wilson
English 1020-D01
9 February 2022
The Internet: It’s all In How We Use It
Let me give you point of view number one, after sitting at the house for the past week,
quickly running out of ideas to keep yourself occupied, you finally hear your phone ringing. A
phone call from your grandfather, who during this pandemic you have not been able to see for
weeks. You guys are due for an online game of checkers and he’s calling to ask if you’re ready to
lose. Later, after the game has ended, you use the internet to order him his favorite dinner to be
delivered right to his door as a winner’s reward. Now point of view number two, you have been
avoiding your chores and homework all week because you have been busy playing online games
and watching YouTube videos. You’ve been avoiding conversations with family and have instead
been conversating with strangers whilst posting unnecessary hate comments on different
platforms. Both points of view are obviously very different, but what they both have in common
is the use of internet and how it can vary between positive and negative. This is a slightly
different standpoint from Kenneth Goldsmith’s argument in “Go Ahead Waste Time on the
Internet” where he goes on to say that the internet couldn’t be a waste of time and can surely
only do good for us. I both agree and disagree with Goldsmith’s argument, agreeing with his
statements covering the internet’s plethora of positive resources and the many useful aspects it
holds. And disagreeing with his statements arguing that the internet is a form of socialization that
is comparable to face-to-face socializing, or that it could not be considered a “waste” of an

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