The topic I will be researching in my paper is
Science and Technology: Promise or Peril? What I intend to focus on in this
paper is the promise or peril of the internet. I want research and discover
what effects internet technology has had on humanity, whether they it be
negative or positive.
One source I am thinking of using for my research
paper is an article titled “I was misinformed about the information revolution.”
This Financial Times article, which
was taken from LexisNexis, was written by Richard Tomkins. In the article
Tomkins argues that the significant social/political change promised by the
invention of the internet has not come to fruition, he writes “What has the internet ever done for us? All
right, so it has facilitated the spread of global terrorism, given rise to an
enormous expansion of the pornography industry and introduced the words
"spam" and "penis enlargement" into everyday speech. But
where is the revolution we were promised during those wildly optimistic days of
the 1990's dotcom frenzy?”(Tomkins). Tomkins feels the internet has not made
that significant of an impact on our way of life like it was promised to do. I
chose this source because it presents a different view of the internet and its
effects on human life. I will use this source to present an opposing view of
the internet and use it as the author I am responding to in my essay.
Another source I might use in my research paper is
an article titled “Addictive Internet Use among Korean Adolescents: A National
Survey” This article, which has multiple authors, was taken from EBSCOHOST
research database. The article explores a psychological disorder, which has
developed due to rise of the internet, called “internet addiction.” The primary
group focused on in the research was South Korean youth from the ages of 13 to
18. The article highlighted many factors
correlated with addictive internet use in South Korea and found that alcohol, parent’s
educational level, tobacco consumption, and many other variables were all linked
to internet addiction (Heo et al. 4). The article highlighted many factors
correlated with addictive internet use in South Korea and found that alcohol,
parent’s educational level, tobacco consumption, and many other variables were
all linked to internet addiction (Heo et al. 4). The article also discovered an
interesting difference in the variables leading to internet addiction in girls
and boys, “[…] gender stratified
analysis revealed different patterns of associated between boys versus girls
across all variables. The association of poor self-rated academic achievement
with addictive internet use was stronger in boys than girls. Parental
educational status was inversely associated with addictive internet use among
boys while showing no association among girls.” I chose this article because
it presents a negative side effect of internet usage that I want to speak about
in my paper.
