Crosstown Traffic

As we all know, traffic can be one of the most nightmarish situations when it comes to driving. It's long, hot, and can be really bad for the environment. But when it comes to the internet, traffic is an everyday occurrence that allows for the internet to grow. When you and I use Google to try to find research on a paper, the results come from a very intricate process of traffic monitoring. Search engines are able to provide their services by using search engine optimization or SEO.

If you were to go to Google and type in cherry blossom (my favorite flower!) you would find many results, mostly starting from the top and maybe most visited website down to the least relevant. Most engines divide your search into two main groups, paid results and natural results, so if you weren't looking for information, but perhaps a service, you could simply click the links located to the rightmost of the page. But how do search engines know what the best website and the least relevant are? Simple. Bots (complex computer programs) were designed to hone in on the tags, words and images based on a key term and index and document them. A search engine company would then measure a website by the content it had based upon a keyword, or in our case it's content on cherry blossoms. This is an important process when it comes to the internet today, if you were to start a business and gain recognition you would need to have a website. By having having key words and images on your site, relevant to your business, you make it easier for potential customers to find you. There are even services that you can purchase that will place your website within the top five listed pages. All these things are apart of internet traffic, which on the internet can be a good thing.

Face Booger, Tweedle-bop, and My-splice Hoopla

"When I was your age, we didn't have all that face booger, tweedle-bop, and my-splice hoopla! If we wanted to talk, we had to send letters to each other!"

It always tickles me when I hear an older person complain about the technological wonders of today, and try to make comparison to the days of their time. But have you ever listened to an older person and wondered if the endless series of tubes known only as the internet has subconsciously made us lazy? I'm sure Doris Lessing would agree.

To be honest, I would agree as well...to an extent. I feel as though we rely a bit too much on the Internet. It has made us impatient, distracted, and lazy. However, it has made us more resourceful, productive, and smarter. I mean, Lessing does have a point as chat slang has spilled out into the media, but it doesn't mean that the Internet makes everybody dumb. Using the words LOL, OMG, and ROFL will earn you the rank of being "hip" in the cyber world, but they are by no means necessary in real life vernacular. I've actually heard teenagers riding on the Metro use these words as if they were apart of the English dictionary; they are not bad words, they just don't belong outside of your computer.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/12/09/nobel-laureate-says-the-internet-makes-us-dumb-we-say-meh/