After reading the reports on Internet marketing, some students believed that they were sacrificing privacy to seach engines and other websites that gathered information about their surfing habits. Consider the following two points:
- Whenever an individual gains something, she/he also loses something. For example, the person buys that car he has wanted. He drives down I95, listening to the stereo as loud as he wants, not worried about it breaking down, driving as long as he wishes. He feels free—until he returns to his room. He realizes that he will have to work for three to five years to pay for the car. Geigo, Allstate, or some other insurance company is looking for a high monthly payment. The price of gasoline has jumped to more ethan $3.25. He then feels trapped. The same applies to the services we receive “for free” on the Internet. There always is a sacrifice (notice the definition—why?).
- Just as the new car owner gained control of where and when he drove, today's Internet users have gained something that few anticipated even five years ago. They gained control over a large percentage of the world's websites. Users such as you are creating the Web's content on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube, as well as dozens of other sites. For the first time in the history of humankind, individuals have gained a control of what “the media” is broadcasting. In other words, you---each one of you--are today's publishers and broadcasters (why the to be verb here?).
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