Jiatong Han (Tonya)
Professor Klepper
English 113B
13 December 2013
The Influence of the Internet
As
time progresses, the technological world relies more and more on the Internet,
a rapidly expanding and massive information platform. The Internet is also a
good transmitter of functional applications and useful software for all aspects
of our lives. The Internet connects people wherever they are. As Xingfang said: “Because Internet almost could touch
everyone and everywhere, our life and future will be affected greatly. Not only
to our individual but also to our organization, environment, family and
so on (Xing86).”
Generally speaking, the Internet
provides a wealth of resources and ideas that help people do their work. For
example university students can find the resources to finish their academic
tasks. Artists and designers can obtain their sources of inspiration from
reading and viewing other works posted on the Internet. Businessmen combine
timely online information with their expertise to make investment decisions.
However, even with the functional improvement of the Internet some problems
like plagiarism, unpermitted copying and downloading, and false business information
exist. Overall the Internet both has great benefits and harmful
disadvantages.
The first advantage of Internet
is to provide a database for students to do research. When professors assign a
prompt to us, we generate main ideas in our minds, but we need convincing
examples to demonstrate our points of view. The best and most time-saving way
is to search the relative topics on the Internet. After getting the articles
and references, we can make a summary on each article. Some key points and
major ideas can be paraphrased in our own words. This process is very helpful
to us since we can make big progress in a short amount of time and so improve
our academic performance. It is critical for students to learn and know how to
use the resources on the Internet to improve our knowledge.
Second, the Internet is an important
tool to help artists and designers conceive works. When artists or designers
have ideas, they build the frame first, then they seek accurate information
through the Internet to support their draft. A combination of all resources
will make the results and visual effects more perfect. An example of a place of
inspiration is Deviant Art. It is an online community showcasing various forms
of user-made artworks. Creators can get a lot of inspiration from there, and
usually artists and designers visit place such as Deviant Art to get the newest
information about art and design. Another example of place of online ideas is
Pento. Pento always shares some useful information for creators so that they
can keep up with the major trend of the times. The resources from Internet can
really help artists develop useful ideas. Artists should reasonably use these
resources and visit art website to improve their skills.
The third advantage of Internet
relates to the business field. Some subjects like finance move so fast and the
Internet can help you keep track of it. As an investor, we can know the stock
prices at home or in our office. We can know the latest interest rates on
different types of deposits, loans and mortgages. It helps people make
necessary decisions in a short time. Some famous investors’ successes relied on
their observation of dynamic information through on the Internet. Some famous
businesses become successful due to the reference of business concepts from
websites. For example McDonald’s, a big American global fast food company, is
also popular in China. McDonald's is very successful in the Chinese market.
Meanwhile there is another kind of fast food restaurant called Dicos. By
referring to the business concepts on McDonald’s website, Dicos can make a
comparison and concentrate their major markets on relatively smaller cities and
create new and different things on their menu. Therefore, we can say that Dicos
get their business ideas from McDonald's to operate their own special fast food
chain and survive in the market. When an interview was given to the current CEO
of Dicos, he said that “opportunity is scarce, thanks to the website, we know
the famous fast food McDonald’s business concepts, based on their open
information offered on the website, we did a detailed research on their
financial statement and menus, finally we found out what kinds of industrial
structure fits in our company and what kinds of food are more competitive in
smaller market.” Thus, the open information on the website is really important
for some startup companies to study and follow. From another perspective,
borrowing ideas from others and building upon them to create something newer
and better is a good strategy. In (put the name of the textbook here), Lessing
called this kind of borrowing “Disney Creativity (Lessing 22)”. In my example,
if McDonald’s has one more competitor, it would prompt McDonald’s to create
more delicious foods that fit in local markets. Competition in business will
bring benefit to both sides, it seems like a power to push the industry
forward, and the Internet helps this.
However,
all things have good and bad aspects. Some bad phenomena exist with the
Internet. Some students and scholars don’t complete their academic papers by
themselves. They directly use the ideas from other authors’ works. This is
called plagiarism. It is unfair and immoral to the original authors, and it can
be regarded as “[robbing] the author of the profit (Lessing).” It is an
appropriate option for creators to get inspiration from an original author and
his content. Then they can make themselves’ originality and combine them
together in order to generate personal ideas and results, but they cannot just
copy it without recognition. There is no doubt that all things have a starting
point, and many excellent ideas and works stem from other ideas.
Overall, the Internet is
gradually becoming a necessary part in our life. People these days can not live
and work efficiently without access to the Internet. In particular, students
and scholars use the references and resources to finish their academic
assignments. Artists and designers rely on the inspiration from the Internet to
expand their vision. The famous Dutch artist Rafael Rozendaal said “The website
can exist anywhere you want, anyway you want (Rozendaal 32).” The
Internet is a good platform for creators to get newest ideas and it is also a
good proscenium and backstage tool for creators. The business area needs
accurate and transparent information to make the financial and economics systems
robust, which the Internet provides. But every coin has two sides.
Plagiarizing, unauthorized copies, fake information and business fraud on the
Internet also exist and negatively affect the development of innovation.
Personally, I think we should make the best use of resources and obey the
Internet legality, use the resources and cite ideas reasonably and correctly to
avoid plagiarism. We cannot rely on the Internet too much that we lose the
spirit of innovation. After all our lives need more real creators rather than
copycats.
Works Cited
Xiang, Fang. Internet-Future Business Development Focus.
American
Journal of Industrial and Business Management, 2012, 2, 85-88 85
http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ajibm.2012.23011 Published Online July 2012 (http://www.SciRP.org/journal/ajibm)
Fri.13. Dec. 2013
Lessig, Lawrence, Free Culture, The Penguin Press, New York,
2004, Print
Tue. 1. Oct. 2013
"The internet
artist: Rafael Rozendaal." World Policy Journal 27.3 (2010): 32+. General
OneFile. Web. 5 Oct. 2013.
Br J Gen
Pract. 1997 October; 47(423): 664 PMCID: PMC1410114
Tue.1.Oct. 2013
Computers and Geosciences,
volume 23 issue 2 (30 November 1996), pages 221-223The British Journal of
General Practice : The Journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners,
volume 47 issue 423 (1997-Oct).
Fri. 13. Dec. 2013
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