The Internet, and the information it contains, has changed my life significantly. When I speak to my parents about their college experience, I find it amazing that they were able to survive the four years without personal computers, or the Internet. While I complain about getting up at 5:45 am to register for classes, which never takes more then 15 minutes, my mother explains to me that she use to have to stand in line for hours and hours to register. My father, who went on to medical school, described the hours spent looking through card catalogues for books at the library. When I need information for a class, or to simply look up a question, I jump on the Internet, and “google” it, taking only seconds. With the time once spent standing in line to register and researching, what has the new generation filled our free time with?
While there is an immense amount of information at our fingertips, it is important to be a critical reader. In every class I have been in, teachers have always set aside time to mention Internet research. It is important to realize that anyone can publish anything on the Internet. There is no one to regulate each Internet publication. As I read in the article, “We Have the Information You Want, But Getting It Will Cost You: Being Held Hostage by Information Overload”:
“In every 21-hour period approximately 20,000,000 words of technical information are being recorded. A reader capable of reading 1,000 words per minute would require 1.5 months, reading 8 hours every day, to get through 1 day’s technical output, and at the end of that period, he would have fallen 5.5 years behind in his reading!”
I believe that with the information we have been given, we are responsible for being critical readers. The Internet has made my life much easier. It allows me to obtain information about anything. Without the Internet, our lives would be significantly different.

Three discussion questions:
1. How can someone know if the information found on the Internet is credible? What makes it credible?
2. Do you think the Internet will change at all in the future regarding what is published on it? Could there be classifications made, categorizing certain websites regarding their authors, content, etc.?
3. How many times a day do you go on-line, and for how long? Count every time you check your e-mail, AIM, facebook, research, look at a class web-site, etc.