People today can shop, work, and communicate with others via the Internet. They do not need to do these face to face. Is it a positive or negative development?

The soaring influence of Internet is providing many new possibilities, from buying necessities in a quicker and more economic manner to forging unheard ways of communication. Yet there is dissenting voice, claiming this trend negative. Personally, I reckon this as positive, despite the evidently existing downsides. Merits produced by Internet can hardly be neglected as such advancement has successfully removed the geographic barriers in basically every aspect in our daily life, and therefore benefits both individuals and organizations. With this platform, organizations would not only be more agile and flexible due to faster information transmitting carried out by cables and satellites, but also have a border range to find the most suitable recruitment. This particular advantage will extend to individual level as well, since people in job hunting may have more choices. In addition, such development can also enlarge or enrich people’s personal life, since they are now more likely to make friends regardless the location of others via social networking sites, and gain accessibility and affordability from online-shopping. It is, however, unwise to neglect the profound influence of the Internet, especially on the social level: indeed this technology makes living easily, yet with the price of the collapse of traditional social structure, which then causes elimination of community and neighborhood. Actually, with the rage of individual’s social circle being greatly extended, everyone can make contact with larger number of people and establish social relation according to their will, making the traditional social relationship less valuable. But one must also admit that although this scenario has been acknowledged as negative, it is actually inevitable: the human nature is to live with ease, and the fading of the concept of neighborhood and community can be easily replaced by online social group. Overall, some may insist that the disadvantages of the cast implementation of Internet can be enormous, but it is simply pointless to fight the inevitable.