Canaan's Report 4: My Involvement With The
Internet
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This fourth and last report will deal with my personal involvement
with the Internet. I will discuss mainly the
motivational forces that kept me going throughout the semester. I will
also go into the troubles I faced, the things I learned, and most
importantly, my current perspective on the Internet.
What motivated me in this class
Perhaps the most powerful motivational force that helped to get me
started and to keep me going was the knowledge that I was finally learning
what everybody's been talking for that past two years. Coming into this
class I felt as if I was "behind" in the world of the Internet. I knew
absolutely nothing about the Internet, the World Wide Web, etc. While
working in this class, I felt that I was taking a part in the future. I
realized that this Internet is the future. I didn't want to be left
behind doing simple word processing or e-mailing while everyone else has
their own personal web site. I wanted in on the action and this class
gave me the opportunity. This desire to be a part of the future is
mainly what kept me going.
Another factor that kept my interest up was the fact that my audience
was the world. At first I thought that the Internet was just a whole
bunch of computers liked together so people can share information. Later
I learned that the Internet is much much more. Anyone with access to a
computer possessing the will to learn will be able to read what I write.
As of April 6, 1996, Lycos has cataloged
37,643,037 unique URLs. This doesn't include your average netsurfer.
There may be over 50 million people with access to the Internet. I may be
naive in assumming that 50 million people will come and visit my web
sites. But just knowing that my audience is the world excites me and
motivates me to construct a good web site. I'd be lying if I said that
a good grade had no motivation for me in doing well in this class. I
would love to get an A in this class. But I know that I must earn
an A, not "get" an A. It was the two previous motivations I mentioned
above that got me started and kept me going through this class. I hope
that I was motivated enough to earn a good grade in this class.
The conflicts I experienced
Although I had some powerful motivation to help me through this
class, I did face some very big conflicts. The biggest conflict I faced
was learning to do mostly everything myself. When the semester began I
thought that we were going to be led step by step through the process of
constructing our home pages. We were given some instructions on file
administration for our Unix and CSS accounts, but when the time came to
begin home page creation, I and most of my classmates were lost. I soon
learned that Dr. James wasn't going to baby us. I needed help and it was
my job to go out and look for it. Everything was so new and I was blind
as a bat. My expectations going into this class and the reality of it
was certainly the biggest conflict I had to face while taking this
class. Soon enough things settled down and I got the help I needed.
Much of this is further detailed below in the Demands and Challenges section.
Another conflict I faced was staying focused on my classwork. Some
may say that staying focused shouldn't even be a problem. But I had many
distractions. As soon as I got the basics down I wanted to learn more.
I wanted to attract a web surfer's attention and I needed graphics. So I
searched the web for graphics and before I knew it I was in a chat room
talking to strangers about Star Trek. I would eventually get what I
wanted, but it would take more than double the actual time because I
would get distracted. I finally realized what people meant when they
talk about becoming addicted to cyberspace. The fact that my database
for this class was Recommended Web Sites-For Being
Shocking allowed me to go out and surf the web for web sites that
were shocking. I once spent over seven hours straight surfing the web
for shocking sites. The problem was that I would get so distracted that
I would forget to bookmark or link to a certain cite. Whereas I
should've had over 100 related sites, I had only 20. But as the semster
wore on I began to realize that I was spending way too much time on the
Internet. My work for this class and my other classes were suffering. I
had to solve this problem so I went cold turkey. After midterm grading
for this class I stopped surfing the web for almost two weeks.
Fortunately it worked and I was able to get on with this class's work and
the rest of my life.
How demanding and challenging it all was
The most demanding part in this class was the beginning. Getting
started in this class was unlike any other class I have ever had. I was
expecting to be taken step by step through HTML code and creating a web
page. Instead I was given instructions for setting up my files in my Unix
and CSS accounts. When it came time to actually begin web page
construction I, and the rest of my class, were left on our own to figure
it out ourselves. If we needed help, we were told to go out and find it.
I was certainly surprised to say the least. At first I tried to figure it
all out by myself. But soon enough I was stuck with a web page with a
title and no substance. I soon asked Denise Tanaka for some help. Denise was
a part of Psy 459-G2 so
she
had had a lot of experience with web page construction and HTML code.
She said that the simplest thing I could do
was to go to a web page (her
own web page in G2 for example), look at its
source code, copy it and then modify it to fit my web page criteria. I
did this using "Copy" and "Paste" and voila, I had a web page. It wasnŒt
my own but after a few hours of figuring out what HTML code did what, I
totally changed it and my wib14.html page was
born. As the semester wore on I became more experienced with web page
construction and HTML code. But I am power hungry. The more I learned,
the more I wanted to learn. I asked friends, read books and magazines,
but I still wanted to learn more. I then turned to online help. I tried
this in the beginning but I was so confused that I stopped using it. Now
that I understood the basics (and then some), this online help gave me
what I wanted. The only thing was that all the stuff I wanted to learn
was not just doubly harder, but more like exponentially harder to
understand. I learned how to use Adobe Photoshop to create graphics, how
to down and upload files (graphics mostly) using Fetch, manipulating
tables, creating Netscape 2.0 window frames, JAVA, and just recently,
animated GIFs. Although this semster is nearly done, I will definetly try
to challenge myself and expand my knowledge of the Internet and the World
Wide Web.
How worth while and valuable it was
This was possibly the most worth while class I have ever taken in
the four years that I've been here at UH. The things that I've learned in
this class will be invaluable to me now and later in life. For one,
having experience in web page construction will look very good to future
employers. The Internet is the future, and those who have experience with
the Internet will not fear the future, but embrace it and shape it for the
better. This class has also fired up my interest in computing. Although
I was never really any good at science or computers, I have always been
interested in new technologies and the future of science and computers.
Being a part of this class and what we did allowed me to involve myself
with the future of computing and the Internet.
Another way this class has had great value to me is that it
helped me overcome the technophobia that I had. I don't think that anyone
can say that they have absolutely no technophobia. Computer technology
and the Internet is expanding at such a high speed that no one person can
keep up with it. There is always something new and wonderful developing
with both its pluses and minuses. Everything new is usually met with some
sort of wariness and perhaps even some trepidation. This may lead to
fearing everything new. Considering the rapidity of development for not
only computers, but for all of science and even humanity, fearing the new
is very bad. This class has helped me alleviate my fear of the "new". I
learned that this fear is baseless and unwarranted. Once I understood
something, I was no longer afraid of it. I was then very eager to learn
more about this new thing. I understand that there are constantly newer
things being developed that I have to learn to use, but I face the future
and everything it has to offer with excitement and not fear.
How involved I became in the online experience
And how it has affected my life
Through this class I have become very invovled in the online
experience. Even before I constructed my web sites I was online doing
e-mail and surfing the web. When actual home page construction began, I
really got into it. I was the most involved in the beggining because I
had to learn from the ground up. I spent hours just trying to figure out
HTML and how to organize my files in my CSS account. After a while, I
concentrated on graphics. I knew that once someone clicks on to my home
page, I would need to make that person stay there. I also knew that
graphics are a very powerful attention getter. I searched for hours
finding backgrounds,
images,
icons, and
bars. You name I had it. I
then learned to use Fetch to download all these graphics from my disks to
my CSS account. At first I went overboard with the graphics. I had too
much and I eventually cut it down. Another thing that kept me web
surfing was trying to find web sites that were related to my database.
I searched every nook and cranny of the web. I started using the big
search engines and then used the "side roads" to find those sites that
aren't advertised too much. I certainly found some shocking sites. After most of this was
done, I then had to go out and promote my database. I went to every
major searhc engine and submitting site and filled out form after form
just so I could announce to the residents of cyberspace that I finally
had a home.
All this online involvement for class was nothing compared to my
extracurricular involvement of the web. Everytime I would have a plan to
do something for class like find a blue button, I would be searching and
go off. The next thing I knew I would be clicking on MTV's home page downloading a Coolio
video. As the semester progressed I tapered my invovlement to
include classwork only. But once in a while I would go online to learn
about the latest trends and news.
Being so invovled in the online experienced has certainly changed my
life. I am much more comfortable with computers now then I was about
seven months ago. I am no longer afraid to seek out help if I don't
understand a certain concept whether it be computer related or not. My
curiosity has about the Internet and computers has also expanded
greatly. I am so eager to learn more that in my fourth year here at the
University of Hawai'i at
Manoa, I have registered for an
ICS (Computer Science) class,
Psychology 459 (Traffic
Psychology on the Internet),
and Psychology 499 (directed research on the Internet with Dr. James). I know that once I
graduate, if I don't stay involved with the Internet and stay online, I
will again fall behind.
How I see the Internet now
How I see the Internet's affect on people and society
When I first started this class, I saw the Internet as being just a
vehicle in which people can share their ideas on a global scale. Now I see
that definition as being only a small part of what the Internet really is.
Communication is said to be the basis for a strong
and lasting relationship. What the Internet does is that it allows peoples,
societies, and cultures to communicate with each other establishing a
relationship that would not have been possible without the Internet. The
Internet can be seen as the ultimate example of power. Power used to be
determined by wealth or by political strength. Today power is defined by
information. The more information one has, the power he or she has. The
Internet is the ultimate vehicle in which this power can be shared,
accumulated, and perhaps even stolen. Granted that for everything new
there are both good points and bad points attached to it. The power of
the Internet can be dangerous if handled foolishly or greedily. Because
the Internet has the potential to allow mankind to transcend his current
state of communication and thinking, the hope is that this tool will be used
not for personal gain, but for the betterment of all mankind.
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by Canaan Machida
Spring 1996
Psychology 409-G3
University of Hawai'i at Manoa
cmachida@hawaii.edu