The Internet's Cost of Free

The cost of free is a contradicting statement, how is something free if it has a cost? Well that just what the inter-webs is. I'm sure all of us noticed parts of the internet that were questionable; like why is there an advertisement for allergy medicine on your favorite blog site when you don't have allergies. It's just one way the internet redefines our privacy.

Privacy

You visit your favorite website, the one that you visit everyday, and on the side is an advertisement for a potential University that you never even thought about attending. However, you did search up a University that you were interested in the other day. This happens because, shocker, the internet tracks everything you do and creates ads that they feel will appeal to you based on things you've searched.

You can look at this as a cool, interesting asset of the internet, but what happens when they pull up your personal searches. This happened with an old lady, all of her AOL search queries were distributed and she wasn't even aware that people were keeping track of it.

There is no privacy when you're on the internet, everything you search and post is being monitored. Everything you do on the internet is being taken in and giving websites new ways to feed you advertisement without you even knowing.

Personal Space

In ways, we make it easier for our privacy to be invaded by the internet. Social media is a huge part of the internet in the 21st century. It's also a big part in putting all of our personal business out there; Twitter, Facebook, Youtube etc are huge contributors to people putting out personal information. If they're monitoring your personal browser searches then what do you think they're doing with the personal information you're posting on your social media?

Example of oversharing on the internet

Along with privacy, personal space also doesn't exist on the internet. Just a simple picture you post can be seen by anyone, doesn't mean people are interested in seeing it, but they can. Also, once it's on the internet, it can't be deleted.

Who We Are

In a lot of ways the internet is shaping who we are today, instead of being consumers we are being consumed. I look at the internet as a business, although it's neat and handy it has become a market. We've become so consumed with it that we don't even mind that we're trading in our lives for the internet. That's the price we pay for the internet. Yes we can browse freely, however, we're paying for it mentally.