Random: One of the questions I answered in my e-Marketing discussion board. :P

Question: The Internet has been changing society ever since its inception.Looking ahead, in what ways will it continue to shape our society's future? Not just in marketing and commerce but in all aspects of life. Will the Internet align to our values, and beliefs/morality, etc? Or will the Internet change long-held traditions, customs and values?

Answer: When I read this question, the first thing that came to mind was the festive seasons. Why ever, you might ask?

• Piture this: Some of us might be living abroad, away from our family, to pursue further education or work,.. etc., and we might not be able to be back in our hometown with the rest of the family on festive seasons like Eid Mubarak, Christmas, Gawai, Chinese New Year, Diwali and etc., due to, well there could be a lot of reasons there, but my point is, the Internet might be one of the ways for us to connect with our loved ones living faraway across the earth, and to think that it is a helpful way to do this is one thing, but depending too much on this means of telecommunication, could lead to a problem, maybe :P
• -Scenario 1: I know this might seem comical, but what if you depend too much on the technology, you actually feel that you don't have to go back, because you can still meet your family on the PC screen! Oh, dear. I know I'm being dramatic here, imagine doing this for one or two decades. That would make you seem heartless.
• -Scenario 2: You're living too far away, and you thought that your family would be safe, because you can monitor them from the technology you have, but hear this out, I read from a magazine article once, a sister found out that her sibling passed away through facebook. No, her sibling did not die because of facebook, but she found out that her sister passed away from the information she got from facebook. And where was she then?
• -Scenario 3: 'You can see me through my webcam if you miss me',try telling that to your old folks who are waiting for you, missing you and have been hoping for you to come back.

My ultimate point here is that depending too much on technology will make you quite a terrible person if it gets extreme. I do think that the Internet could drive a person to be less of a human if one could not learn to balance between all these values, beliefs, morality, traditions and customs and the everyday growing technology. Just remember not to take things for granted, technology is good, if you know how to handle it. :D

And yeah, sometimes I do think that the Internet could make people lazy, if the person does everything online. Technology was meant to help us enhance the way we live, but really, if everything is too easy to do, then what is left for us to do? ~ Just a thought there.