What Sorts of Connections and Disconnections, If Any, Does the Internet Bring to People’s Everyday Lives? Give Examples from Existing Internet Research.

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In this essay I will be discussing the connections and disconnections the internet brings to people's everyday life. I will be looking at the connections and disconnections and using examples from Internet research to back up my points. In the 90's the internets main use was for emailing and was seen to be used by people who worked in offices. However since the millennium the internet has become more widespread and is seen as a necessity rather than a luxury. As Barry Wellman & Caroline Haythornthwaite say in their book The Internet in Everyday Life, “We are moving from a world of Internet wizards to a world of ordinary people routinely using the Internet as an embedded part of their lives.” (B Wellman & C Haythornthwaite, 2002, pg.6) With the rise in the internet and technology expanding it is a lot easier to make connections online than it once was. For example, telephone was once the main method for staying in contact, however now with the internet it is a lot easier to stay in contact through email and social network sites. Now if a family member or friend lives outside of the UK, it is cheaper to go online and send them an email rather than to ring them. British telephone provider BT charge 2.5p/min for International calls, but you can get Broadband for only £7.78 p/month, (BT.com, December 15th 2009) therefore proving that it is cheaper to be online than it is too make a call. Also depending on how far away the family member or friend lives, there is also an issue with time difference. When sending an email, you can send it at any time and just wait until the recipient receives it and replies, however with a telephone call, both have to be on the telephone at the same time. So the internet helps make a connection between distant family members and friends through email. A study by Norman H. Nie & Lutz Erbring for Stanford University shows that out of

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