Can the Internet Change You?

Jaron Lanier is a renowned web researcher and a pioneer in the realm of virtual reality. In this short passage, Lanier effectively uses the classical scheme of argument in that his organization definitely helps the reader to understand his point of view and it sums up the point with detailed support in a concise manner. His introduction was strong in that he revealed a little about himself and he highlighted the main topic of his argument. From that, his body paragraphs are each compacted of details that show both the pros and the cons of the Internet and how it is helpful as well as dangerous. He also goes on to elaborate that the web has allowed advertisements to specifically target certain groups as well as how the Internet can help to increase efficiency by losing the need for human workers. After several examples of confirmation in his body paragraphs and his refutation to the “reducing the human aspect leads to impersonal behavior”, Lanier asks readers to give their insight on what they think about how the Internet could be changing how humans act every day.

Personally, I know from experience that the web allows people to mob together in certain influenced groups. An easy example is YouTube; If you actually go through and read the viewer comments on most of the videos, it is unbelievable how many racial slurs and curse words one might see just because someone doesn’t like a person in a certain video. The thing that Lanier speaks of that I also believe to be a bit true is that these comments can influence other people to act out and say things they normally wouldn’t maybe in public or to their parents. However, people can anonymously say just about whatever they want on the Internet without any concern of being punished for it. The Internet lacks these rules. It makes sense that certain people would say things after being influenced by others because there is no repercussions of “mobbing” up on anything.