The Internet: Pros and Cons

Just ten years ago very few people heard about the Internet. Now it is nearly as common and useful as the telephone. As more and more people use the Internet, as it becomes cheaper and faster and easier to use, there will be new things on the Internet that we cannot imagine today.

On the one hand, the development of the Internet will bring new opportunities to many people. Now, with the Internet, the place where you live may become less important than who you are and what you can do. In the future we'll be able to find a job in any part of the world. What is more, the Internet will allow a lot of talented people to show the world their achievements.

Today most operating systems are the work of hundreds of programmers and they cost thousands of dollars. In 1991 Linus Torvalds wrote an operating system alone, and he gave it away. Now, with the help of many programmers who work together on the Internet, his Linux system has grown into a serious rival to the products of the industry leader, Microsoft.

It costs almost nothing to deliver software over the Internet. If programmers are willing to give their work away, and if programs are as good as their commercial rivals, the days of paying for software could soon be over.

What is more, the Internet is a great opportunity for people to report on the world. Using just a cheap PC, Matt Drudge nearly ended the career of US President Bill Clinton. He wrote the story about a sexual relationship between Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky and put it on the Internet. Soon a million people a day were looking at his Web site. With the Internet the future belongs not to traditional journalists, but to ordinary people with a story to tell.

But on the other hand, the possibilities of the Internet may seem frightening. For example, Vladimir Levin worked for a computer firm in St. Petersburg. From there, using the Internet, he was able to break into Citibank's computers in the USA. He moved more than $10 million to other banks all over the world. Most of the world's money is stored in computers. Clever criminals are likely to use computers and the Internet, not guns to steal it.

As the Internet becomes increasingly important to governments, it also becomes a stage for people who oppose them. The information wars of the future may be fought on Web sites.

Some people argue that the Internet is dangerous because it a addictive. A lot of people, and especially teenagers, spend hours chatting or playing games on-line. What is more, teenagers and even children look at sex pictures on the Internet. It is true that like photography, cinema and video before it, the Internet is growing partly because it is a way for people to find sexual material that they cannot easily obtain in any other way. Anyway, there axe many ways for parents to prevent their children from seeing anything си the Internet that the parents do not like.

To sum up, it's impossible to say now what the Internet will be like in the future or how it will change our lives. But we must admit that the World Wide Web offers people great opportunities, and we must try to make the best use of it.

1. When did the Internet appear in Russia? 2. Do many people use the Internet nowadays? What for? 3. What does the Interne allow us to do? 4. Does the Internet save our time? 5. What are the disadvantages of the Internet? 6. How do you think the Internet will change our future? 7. Do you use the Internet? How? 8. What is your personal attitude towards the Internet?