Bill Gates will yield you $ 245 for forwarding this e - mail . At the stroke of midnight , March 31 , the Internet will be shut down for 24 hours for its annual spring cleaning . Microsoft is develop a portable toilet with net access called the iLoo .
Sound familiar ? Those are just a tiny sampling of the thou of absurd Internet myth that have launch the spam e - mail service circle over the past decade . Not that we ever believed any of them , of course .
What is it about the cyberspace that make it such productive soil for goofy hoaxes , elaborate jokes and urban legends ? Perhaps because many of us are so awed about how much the Internet has changed our lives , yet every bit clueless about how the thing in reality work . As a final result , we incur ourselves taken in by the Internet ’s many distractions – some innocuous , some quite harmful .
What follow , in no especial order , are the top five myth that continue to heave our understanding of the Internet , its beginning , who controls it , how it makes masses rich ( or misfortunate ) and who ’s prowling in its darkest corners .
5: Al Gore Invented the Internet
This one ’s really a myth within a myth . The first myth is that former vice president Al Gore invent the Internet . The 2nd myth is that Al Gore ever claim to have " invented " anything .
On March 9 , 1999 , CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer interviewed Al Gore as Gore was beginning his 2000 presidential campaign . Answering a question about what he would bring to the table , Gore replied :
Even Gore ’s most loyal protector admit that if he never meant to take solitary quotation for the introduction of the cyberspace , he articulate it awkwardly . It did n’t take long for critics to bound upon what appeared to be a gross overstatement , if not an outright Trygve Halvden Lie .
Two days after the interview , diary keeper Declan McCullagh write a narrative for Wired News lambasting Gore for exaggerate his role in the net ’s cosmos , and then stick to up his story with an e - mail newssheet titled , " House Majority Leader Armey on Gore ' forge the Internet ' " [ source : Finklestein ] .
The story exploded , and although Gore never utter the words " make up the cyberspace , " that idiomatic expression would be repeated in nearly 5,000 news show stories and countless late night lecture show monologue during the campaign [ seed : Boehlert ] .
While Gore did popularize the phrase " information superhighway " and supported former high - speed web legislation , the men traditionally credit with " cook up " the Internet are Vinton Cerf and Robert Kahn [ seed : Google ] .
4: Your ISP Is Tracking Your Every Move
Your Internet service supplier ( ISP ) is your local link to the worldwide computer electronic connection bonk as the Internet . Every page request you make and every einsteinium - mail you send must move around through your ISP ’s router first . It would seem , therefore , that your ISP has the power to scan and save every piece of data that flows through its scheme .
The Sojourner Truth is that it does have the power . as luck would have it for us , it does n’t have the money or the desire to archive every mo of information that come its path .
ISPs in the United States do n’t routinely save the Web surfing history and e - post conversations of their exploiter [ source : McCullagh ] . It would simply be too expensive to pull through all of that data and the public outcry from secrecy right and polite liberties organizations would be deafen .
However , ISPs can ( and do ) get over the online behavior of suspects targeted by an ongoing Homeland Security or law enforcement investigation into charges of act of terrorism or shaver pornography .
In European Union country , ISPs are now require by a European Commission regulation to make unnecessary eastward - mail logs of their users for up to two years [ source : Tryhorn ] . The e - mail logs do n’t check the message of the subject matter , only information on who sent messages to whom and when . The log can be used in criminal investigations .
A hot topic in the U.S. concerns ISPs who partner with advertising firms that stack away cooky on users ' web internet browser to collect " behavioral targeting " data point designed to cater to visitors of various Web site . The advertisers take they do n’t associate gather up data with single IP addresses , but secrecy radical are still up in arm [ seed : Greenburg ] .
3: The Internet Is Filled With Sexual Predators
Every parent want to protect his or her kid from emotional , psychological and physical harm . That ’s why parent are so disturb by programs like Dateline NBC ’s " To Catch a Predator " and news news report that limn the net as a breeding ground for sexual stalkers .
The trueness , accord to a recent report by David Finkelhor – music director of the University of New Hampshire ’s Crimes Against Children Research Center – is that the Internet has n’t create a new form of child predator . rather , the Internet has provided a unexampled medium for an old phenomenon : adults depend for nonaged sexual partners .
The study finds that in the huge absolute majority of " online predator " cases , the grownup culprit clear identified himself online as an grownup looking for sexual urge with minors [ source : Wolak et al ] . Most predator crimes are statutory violation , not sexual ravishment , meaning that sexual relations between the parties involved were n’t force .
This is an uncomfortable field of study , but an important preeminence , says mother and Daily Beast editorialist Lenore Skenazy . Instead of ban a child from using Facebook , for example , parents can focalize on learn their children about hefty relationships [ reservoir : Skenazy ] . And teachers and confidence can focus on the danger sign – abuse at home , drug use , isolation from peer group – that would lead a young person to absorb in hazardous online behaviour .
2: Everything You Read on the Internet Is True
The Internet has revolutionize the publishing and media industriousness . Anyone with an Internet connectedness can straightaway share their thoughts and opinions with a cosmopolitan consultation . The result , allot to Google , is that there are well over a trillion unique Web pages [ source : Alpert ] .
Since anyone can publish a Web site , you could never recount where that information comes from . That ’s not the case : By using a comparatively simple set of guidelines , you’re able to judge the credibility of information on any Web site .
The first matter you should try is the WWW computer address itself . Does it end in .gov or .edu ? Does it include a someone ’s name ? With nothing more than a universal resource locator , you already have a serious indication of the reservoir of the material .
If the online material is an clause , does it include the author ’s name and publication escort ? Search the author ’s name and find out more about his or her experience and expertness . If the article is old , consider whether it covers the variety of entropy that convert quickly .
If you do n’t recognize the name of the entanglement website from an offline publication – newspaper , clip or TV show – read the web site ’s " about " surgical incision to find out more . Look for clear signs of bias or commercial interests .
Above all , say the librarians of the University of California at Berkeley , you should approach all online information with " healthy skepticism " [ source : UC Berkeley ] . utilize the same analytic peter you would utilise to examine any other word form of media . In other words , consider the source .
1: The Internet Will Make You Rich
It ’s true that a few seer – and lucky – entrepreneurs cashed in big when speculation capitalists and large brick - and - mortar company funnel gazillion into their entrant tech startup during the dot - com thunder eld . Huge collapse like Webvan , eToys and Pets.com made tidings , but the memory of these flameouts would fade with prison term [ source : German ] .
From a business perspective , it ’s still tempting to think of the Internet as a magic bullet for increasing sales on any existing Cartesian product or avail . After all , if millions of people are online , then you must have a huge client root . Then again , you may not .
Effective on-line marketing is a foxy business . It requires savvy lookup engine optimization , complicated on-line advertising framework and sometimes even expensive offline commercial message . The sad thing is that even if you could win over millions of people to visit your site , there ’s no guarantee that they ’re go to buy anything [ origin : Borrego ] .
There ’s no chemical formula designed to assure on-line line achiever . On fact , most on-line businesses succeed or fail by the same principle as offline businesses . The quality of the product or avail is the most of import of all , conform to by your ability to forge and maintain excellent relationships with employees , business partners and customers [ informant : Holloway ] .
For more information about the cyberspace and social networking , take a face at the radio link on the next page .
