With 91 millions users, AIM is the biggest online chat service available. Amazon.com and eBay are widely used by many Americans. Online shopping has extended from those oh so hard to find items to every-thing from groceries to your perfect match. You can find any informa-tion you desire ranging from your ancestry to tracking down those annoying kids you went to high school with or perhaps finding a name, address, and map to the unknown number on your caller ID. The Internet has spread from its original military purposes to encompass anything and every-thing. If it?s not online, it might as well not exist.
Today it is becoming easier than ever for citizens to closet themselves away from the rest of the world. The book tube has been replaced by the smart box and Americans aren?t questioning it at all. It is impossible to go to most websites without encountering a few pop up ads, not to mention the ads placed on the actual site. Advertising sales from Internet searches alone are estimated to be $2 billion this year, according to US Bancorp Piper Jaffray. These ad placements are not random, as businesses pay a lot of money for targeted advertising space online.
The Internet has become a way for people to shut themselves away while at the same time publicizing their lives. People hide from others by using chat devices, having their groceries delivered to their home, or engage in online dating?all methods to avoid dealing with a people on a real level. The depen-dency people are developing on the Internet is crushing to our culture. Lack of face-to-face interaction is desensitizing Americans. We?re losing our humanity to a box that assaults us daily with pop ups from Jenny inviting us to check out her web cam at barelyeighteen.com