The Downfall of the Internet

The internet is a great place. It offers an entire, almost immeasurable wealth of information to be shared. Countless hours can be spend engaging in conversations with people all across the world, testing your skills on entertaining games, or learning from the expanse of dictionaries, encyclopedias and collections of literature and graphics available for public use.

However, despite the many new additions to the internet, there are a few major, major changes that have made it easier for big business to get in the way of private entertainment and building. The internet, after all, used to be the great equalizer: the place where anyone could be anything.

1. Pop up ads
These are the ultimate annoyance of the browser. No matter how hard one tries, even the best pop up blocker or internet browser cannot catch them all. With the requirement of Javascript and Flash to view many sites, it is impossible also to avoid Flash ads and 'mini-game' advertisements which 'float' all over the content you are trying to access.

2. Domain names
Another spot in which the internet has taken a huge hit. In order to use a domain name, one has to register the domain name for years. In 1999 and prior, it was possible for the average user to register a domain name and get ad-free hosting, for free. Now? It is impossible to find a fully featured, ad-free host that will also give a domain name for free. Instead, a website will cost you an average of $10 per domain name per year, and at least $24 a year for the most basic website hosting.

3. Networking
Inventing online networking was a great idea - forums, chat rooms - they were how I grew up. Unfortunately - now that almost everyone can access the internet, the public spotlight is on internet predators and 'proving your identity'. Five or ten years from now, it may be that you will have to provide your credit card information just to sign onto a chat or forum site. That is just the stepping stone for our current free sites, requiring a fee to cover the verification, etc.

It was, in essence, the ideal of the internet to be treated for the way you act, and not the way you look, or your income, or any other 'real life' factors that are just factored out when you get on the internet. With the influx of big business, our freedoms on the internet - the freedom to surf without interruption, the freedom to create our own home, and the freedom to choose your own identity - are diminishing by the day and by the hour. Be warned, internet users: there will come a day when you look back on what will only be fond memories. Who gave them the power, anyway?