Why The Internet Is Going To The Dogs:

Oh, the information superhighway, the world wide web (or World Wide Weberverse- according to Jake Morgandorffer), once a veritable mecca of readily (and often illegally) obtainable information and entertainment, where you could find out anything with the click of a button, instead of (tsk. tsk.) actually reading a book for once (what year did Mommie Dearest come out? What is the scientific name for sunflowers? Who starred in the original Marie Antoinette? How do I get to The Royal Alex from my house?) quickly and effectively solving bar and schoolyard fights, alike is rapidly disintegrating into a pay-as- you can database that undermines its entire purpose and ideaology

- The whole point of itunes was that you didn't have to pay for an entire CD when you only wanted a few songs. Now however, with the majority of new albums, the only only option I to buy the entire album, although in some cases things like theme songs or breakout hits are available on their own. This makes me love the Dresden Dolls a whole lot more, as a group that openly supports a pay-as-you-wish philosophy, on the grounds that music should be free and shared. Thier site features a virtual hat where you can leave donations if desired.

But as for itunes, I'll stick with Limewire, thank you very much.

-On youtube, it is often easier to find a cover of a song sung off key by someone at home, than the actual song. In addition, the site is currently cracking down on posted TV episodes and movies, which is frustrating, but understandable if the video in question is available to purchase and you were jut being cheap, but it is unfair in the cases of unreleased material (such as Daria episodes- although that is supposedly being released on dvd in 2010) or old movies that you cannot buy anywhere.

-We call ourselves the understanding generation that is open to all races, sexes and orientations, yet there are so many comments on blogs, entertainment posts, etc. that bash the writer, calling them offensive names and telling them they deserved whatever happened to them (be it abuse, rape, assault, robbery, etc,because they were the way they were. This is one thing I do not, and hope to never unstand. Why can't we all get along and love each other Christmas Eve?

-There is a growing trend in articles, such as those from newspapers, magazines, journals, studies, coles notes, and even people's personal ramblings in allowing the reader to access a page or paragraph of data, and then requiring them to pay to see any more.

It is predicted that this trend will eventually grow across the board, mostly in order to make up for the growing traffic of free news blogs and sites over actual newspapers (something as a student going into Journalism, I guess I will ultimatedly be grateful for)

- sites like FML (Fuck My Life), LML(Love My Life), and MLIA (My Life Is Average) were once fraught with fun little quips to joke with friends about and hours of distracting annecdotes to distract you from doing any actual work and give you a laugh and a break from everyday life is now certifiably corrupted. FML is still fine on its own, but the comment on the posts are horrible; bashing the poster , telling them they deserved horrible things like rape or getting kicked out of their house (some posts are less funny and more sad), calling them fake just becaue the scenerio was in a movie or something (yet could still plausibly happen) or desperately trying to be the first commenter (FIRST!). MLIA is actually a fun site full of cute everyday moments, but also suffers from commentor bashing, particularily being accusted of being fake. however a lot of posts from FML are being copied over to MLIA, which is strange considering how different they are supposed to be. LML is really the worst, at first it was hard to read after months of FMLs, meaning that you expected the worst for a poster who came a doctor's appointment to test for cancer or tried to ask someone out, but there's a darker side. Now people have started to triumphantly post on thier successful pranks (like making their sister eat grasshopper guts in her sandwich because the poster was forced to babysit her, etc), but there are some horrible ones, like the guy who stole an ipod and $70 from a kid with down syndrome or the guy who triumphantly posted that he punched his pregnant girlfriend in the stomach, and cheered when she dumped him because "its not my problem anymore". I can't stand guys who think a kid is the woman's falut or that they have no resonsibility for it (these are often the people are against abortion- rich, old men). Even worse are the people supporting these monstrous act or egging the poster on.

Some people need to be reminded that these sites are for entertainment, they are not a contest to be first or to find fakes, but if these sites question my faith in humanity, Post Secret restores it.

-In the past you pretty much discovered that a new movie or book was coming out when you saw the preview at the theatre or the ad in the last pages of a similar book, but now thanks to the internet, you can know years in advance and build things up into incredible hype. As the girl without the patience gene, I am particularily suseptible. Currently I'm waiting on tenderhooks for at least 50 movies and books that will most likely never be produced (more on that in a future post)

-There are also scary pro sites for almost anything you can think of- Anorexia (Ana), Bulimia (Mia), Nazism, gay-straight 'reeducation' programs, smoking, abstenance only based sex-ed, extremist pro-lifers, etc. While I recognize the right to free speech and thought, these types of communities make me wonder how these sort of ideology can be accepted and followed in today's fact based society, although I admit to a sick fasination with pro-ana sites, that really do serve their purpose in making me feel like a fat glutton.

-I used to love to spoil horror movie plots by reading indepth lists of each of the gimick kills in franchises like Saw, Final Destination and Urban Legend, but has of late, wikipedia has been removing these extremly intereting topics and leaving the pages as stubs only naming the movie's year, director and cast.

-There is also a marked preference of americans on sites like itunes which only offer certain tv shows (until recently canada was only allowed to buy canadian tv shows, even though the majority of canadian subsist on purely american content) and albums in the states. In addition much advertised sites like Hulu and Pandora are only accesible from an american ip adress. This is like the cool deals and specials you used to see on tv and run out to the resturant to find out they were only avaiable in the states (this even happened when watching canadian chanels)

-Also, if it is no longer true that the internet is for porn, much of its content still is. Said content often pops up in the middle of a PG search, and to quote Ms. Valerie Cherish, "I don't wanna see that!"