Chapter 2

1. My first encounter with the internet was very helpful in many ways. It was in middle school when i had to do a research project. I know longer had to go to the downtown library and read out of books. My mom was there to help me look up the information on the internet. It was a lot easier to find information by typing information in a search engine than flipping pages through a book. It was a lot faster and i believe a lot easier than me trying to find the information from a book or magazine.

2. The possibilities of the futures Internet that i am most excited about are, how easy they will make information on subjects to find, what you will be able to watch such as certain sporting events and movies. You can already watch some sporting events for free but not all of them. Some sites want you to fill out a survey or buy a package so you can watch it. Also like the sporting events you can watch some movies but most movie sites want you to buy packages as well. The possibilities that are most troubling is what will people be able to find out on other people. There are already some programs that are on the Internet that if you buy you can find out where people live and how old they are and even their job salary's. Also if there will be a way in the future for them to get into your computer where they can actually see what you are doing at the point in time. Like anything else where there are good uses for the Internet there will be bad uses that comes along with it.

4.I do believe that virtual communities are genuine communities. Virtual communities are informational systems in how people communicate with each other in the virtual world. With genuine and virtual communities meaning they both share the same interests, it help people meet new people on the internet or even help bring people together. It is also a way for people to talk about there problems. If someone is shy in person it will help them talk to people because they will be behind a computer instead of talking them face to face. In today's world the most common virtual community is Facebook. It helps people keep in touch with old friends or meet new friends with the same interest, even if they are on the other side of the world.