My Opinion "Cult of the amateur"

a) Firstly, after listening to Andrew Keens, I think he is being cynical. Internet is a place where people express themselves. It is for people to whom nobody pays attention to and when they make their voice heard on internet, when they believe that there are people out there who listen.. it is actually developing a good culture.

Coming to the high quality media he was talking about, when coming to TV and Radio, there are shows which people hate too. If something looks and sounds good to one person it need not be good enough for everyone. Moreover, such media doesn't always give everybody an opportunity.

In my opinion, internet has a lot of impact on the society. But according to me it improves the culture if people use it sensibly. It is quite clear that internet has both good and bad things in it. It contains content which can be both true or false. So it depends on the users how to use it. It is always the users who should know how to use so much of information present on the web. What if there are a number of amateurs out there posting their views. There is nothing wrong with people expressing themselves.

But yes, there is a chance in which people can be mislead by such user generated content. If someone is accessing such information, it is completely dependent on them whether they want to see, read and listen to such stuff. If they dont like it, they have the option to shift to a different site or a different blog. Why should we have a filter to such content when the user himself can use his common sense and determine the worth of what he is watching.

b)
"http://www.youtube.com/user/Midnight0000#p/a/u/0/gXY03hyGu44"

So coming to my experience regarding user-generated content, it was always good. I always found information which was apt or atleast I thought so. I never really found any information on net where I had to question the geneuinity of the data. May be it is because I do not access a lot of random stuff on net. If the data is random, then I am least interested in it. The video link that I mentioned above was from "doppleganger". I wasn't that much interested in it. Neither did I find anything that I would like. But recently I came across "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4I3ZmNKYma0" this video in youtube and I just loved it. It was amazing. So it is usually my choice. I browse something only if i like or i may like it. I may be kind of prejudiced but that it how i prefer it.

Good and Bad Effects of Internet

Web is like a beautiful object placed in bright sunlight. It has the darkest shadow. In general web has both good as well as bad effects. Good because it brings the entire world onto our fingertips right from politics to games to movies to as small as our exam grades. Bad because there is every chance of people getting easily carried away from reality into their online avatars, chat sessions or shopping or browsing pornography.

My personal experience says that web has had a lot of good effect on me. On a scale of 10, I can give it an 8.3 to good effects and the rest 1.7 are its bad effects. My general knowledge improved, I am a better cook now, I maintain my online accounts using GYaaTi perfectly. I do online banking which makes my life simple. I use a lot of other sites to help me with my assignments, projects and research. The rest 1.7 will be my unceasing hours of chatting, being literally stuck to the laptop screen for hours together. There were days when all I did was being online and never speaking a word to my roommate sitting right beside me. Web at times make me feel that I am becoming more mechanic.

Internet in my daily life

My day starts with minermail in the browser. The next tab has blackboard in it. The next has gmail, orkut, facebook and then youtube and CNN. In YouTube I play some devotional song which slowly transform into rock, pop, jazz, hiphop and finally relaxing melodious music into the night. I check my mail every hour. I use net to play games, get recipes to cook new kind of food for my roommates. I use Google maps find my way whenever I am lost. I use online gift shipping to send gifts to my parents and friends on special occasions. I use web for almost everything. I love Google. You name it, Google has it. I am also a big fan of CNN and the webpage interface. Its a cool news site. I am also a Blogger. I record all the interesting things on my blog. I fight for the environmental cause using my Blog as the medium. I use social networking sites to be in touch with my school pals. I share my pictures and videos with them. Internet gave me the flexibility and ability to be myself.