At least I hope it won’t consider the profession I’m trying to get into.

But I believe there to be a lot of factors that point to this. For example, I know my dad works at a computer all day so when he gets home, he doesn’t want anything to do with a computer. He takes pleasure in figuring out what’s going on in today’s world by reading a paper. For him, it’s also easier on his eyes.

But print has something that the Internet doesn’t. It has a limit.

An online newspaper constantly updates and continues to give their audience information and sources through the use of links and graphs. That’s fine, but for some people they want to stop. They may not want to keep looking deeper and deeper into the issue because no matter how far they go, there will always be a link or an info graph pushing them further until it reaches a point where they forgot what they were looking for.

I’m not saying that the online world is evil and destructive, like Keen. I’m saying that print is going to continue to stick around because it offers a stopping point. On print what you see is what you get and for some audiences, they’re happy with that.

But in reality, the audience is what keeps the papers from failing or surviving. They know what they like and prefer their source of news fit to their needs.

The Chicago Tribune may be filling for bankruptcy, but they plan to stay calm and bounce back. Even their audience is supporting them.

Print will not die. Print just needs to adjust to the changing times and at the same time keep the things that separate them from the online world.

When listening to my iPod while walking home, the song “Digital Get Down” by N’Sync blasted through my tiny ear buds. After laughing to myself because I hadn’t realized that was even on my musical device, I thought about how sex on the Internet has become a means for people to interact with others without physically interacting.

This can be good if you’re not comfortable with human contact, but it worries me that a popular boy-band has taken a fancy to it. Yes, it’s been years but that doesn’t mean back then it affected many young girls, and possibly boys.

What if we all had listened to N’Sync’s words and turned to the computer for love and sex? What if we said screw human contact, I’m going digital?

There’s the end of the human race.

We need human contact. Every single one of us.

It’s how you keep the human race in existence. Pop artists are very influential and something like this can drive young ones to look to their computer to make human contact.

Technology is made to make everyday tasks easier, but technology has gone too far when it starts taking over our emotions and human feelings. The cyberspace is slowly creeping up on the meatspace and we need to be able to make human contact so we aren’t slaves of technology, and so we don’t end up like the dinosaurs.

In order to speak with someone online, hands needs to pound away on a cold and lifeless keyboard. That contact alone could never satisfy a human being. And watching other people do the dirty deed is just creepy. And I imagine like anything else it’s gets boring after awhile.

We need to stop turning to the Internet for sex and relationships, and use it for obtaining knowledge before we no longer exist.

Bright lights, gambling and advertisements as far as the eye can see. You’d think I’m describing Las Vegas, but all these components can be found on your computer and on the Web.

The Internet is home to many news sites and useful information sites to further your knowledge. But over the years I believe the Web has become more of an entertainment and advertising tool than an educational one.

Even The Orion has little annoying advertisements that have disrupted me from doing what I need to do.

With the many forms of entertainment, such as video games, the Web has also help increase addictions among the population. Mainly gambling. And the thing is, I would think gambling would much easier on the Web because gambling your house away is as easy as me typing my thoughts.

Keen would have to agree with me. The Internet is becoming a virus and has already destroyed lives with its easy gambling and its abundance of information that may not have any useful knowledge.  

Everyday I see more and more students as I walk through the library with headphones on checking out the latest YouTube video. Or worse yet I see people on MySpace. I can’t take anyone seriously if they’re on that site longer than five minutes.

These Web sites are fun and help relieve the stress of everyday life…unless you gambled everything away. But we need to take into consideration of what we’re doing and how long we’re doing it for. Otherwise, the Web will continue to be an entertainment tool and continue to upload less news worthy and knowledgeable information.

Technology is awesome.

There’s no other way to describe it. It can give us mail, upload a photo and send a message all in a heart beat.

But I’m surprised I have yet to see technology upgrade to the point where it’s just a blink away.

When I mean blink away, I mean blink.

Upon watching the movie “Iron Man,” I noticed he was connecting with his home network through the use of what he called a Heads Up Display. A computer screen is the inside of his mask and it allows him to see outside, connect at home and make calls.

He has the Internet in front of his face, the entire time.

Already there have been advances in this technology using contact lenses. If this were to get big and if the government could find a fast and cheap way to manufacture this, the Internet would even be more accessible. This means that news would have to become more accessible, and much faster.

This would put a whole new definition on the 24 hour news cycle.

In order to keep up with this groundbreaking technology, reporters and anchors would have to be constantly broadcasting, constantly keeping an eye out for news.

There would be more demand for news and updates that I believe some reporters would lose their minds from being overworked. And the sad thing is that they would be overworked but would be working improperly.

People want the news fast and now, but if they get it fast it may not be accurate. One aspect of journalism is to be accurate and truthful. It can’t be done in a mad rush.

Other bloggers agree that fast-paced, 24 hour news can lead to inaccurate information.  

The technology we have is awesome and is allowing news to get to readers quicker than ever before.

This can lead to some nifty new things, but it can lead the insanity of reporters all over the world.  

For example, blogs are a great source for story ideas. It’s like eavesdropping to find ideas for the stumped journalist.

Also, I may have thrashed blogs in my other posts but blogs keep people talking. They keep people interested.

Adding a blog to a newspaper’s Web site will allow their audience to stand out and create a conversation with the writers. It keeps people interested and coming back for more.   

But the one thing the bloggers have over journalists and traditional print is the ability to post anything in a matter of seconds. It’s even done when it’s unknown if their post is fact or fiction.

I admire that about them.

It’s as if they’re fearless when it comes to libel and slander.

They can post quickly but they may not be a good thing. The ethics of journalism usually don’t come into play when most bloggers publish their work online.

I can only hope most bloggers check they’re work when visiting their site.

Besides the fact that bloggers aren’t notorious for their ethical background, they know a thing or two about knowing what the readers want. In retrospect they are the readers.

And slowly but surely, bloggers will move their way into the newsroom more than they already have.

This means finding a job and Mom and Dad are no longer giving you money…I dread the day.

For journalism majors it is difficult to get a job with the Internet take over and with the spreading of the phrase, “go green.” But if this didn’t make it hard enough, we have to worry about the two Web sites that connect and engage college students all over the nation: MySpace and Facebook.

I use both sites, mainly Facebook, and knowing what I know now I probably wouldn’t have gotten one or at least not post some of the things I have.

The truth is that these sites have cost people jobs because of the content posted. Everything posted on that Web site truly shows your character and if all you’re posting is you and your friends getting hammered Friday nights, you’re not going to make it far in the job world.

I would consider Facebook just a bit more threatening because of their ability to archive everything. Nothing is ever going away, even by deleting it.

MySpace is only considered a minor threat in my book. It can be deleted simply by pushing a button. It’s as easy as squishing an ant.

But although it is a job destroyer, the company offers a list of jobs within the company that reaches 21 pages.

In a way it makes up for the jobs it has cost. With this recent discovery of mine, I concluded that Facebook is taking over the world, physical and online. It’s taking our jobs, it’s giving us jobs and the Web site contains hundreds of online communities and groups. 

It’s slowly taking over and soon we’ll all be working for Web sites such as Facebook.

In fact, I consider the Internet legal crack.

I love the Internet, don’t get me wrong. But the Internet has given birth to things like World of Warcraft and the development of a phone that has my friend isolated from the world.  

Take my buddy, The Amazing Rando. He just received an iPhone for his birthday and ever since he got it, he’s been online.

He’s either searching for goofy videos on YouTube or he’s on his fantasy baseball Web site. He did these things before, but the fact that he can access it anywhere has resulted in him aimlessly searching for entertainment while we’re eating lunch.

I’ve considered hiding the thing from him.

Because it is everywhere, we are so used to being online just to keep our attention. It’s even distracted people from one of the most important things of all. Love.

The World of Warcraft has caused people to lose their homes and their relationships. It’s so addicting it has caused divorces.

The Internet is an excellent source of communication and an excellent source of information. The problem were facing is that it has become another necessity of life. It’s become just as important as eating and breathing. And this can be due to the fact that the Internet rides in our pockets and purses everyday with us.

Shopping, homework and it’s even used to aimlessly surf the Web in search of something entertaining.

But if the U.S. experienced an Internet shut down that lasted for so many months, possibly years, I can see the citizens of this grand country relearning to spend more than 10 seconds on one activity. Plus, we’d become more active in face-to-face interaction and will shun the computer as a best friend.

What I noticed after spending three years at college is that the Internet has made it its slaves. I’m one of them!

On many occasions my roommate and I will be watching television, but we’ll seclude ourselves in our Internet world not making any conversation or any eye contact.

Without the Internet I believe my roommate and I would speak more and interact with each other about what’s happening on the tube. We may even possibly get bored and head to explore the outside world around us. You know, go experience that nature thing.  

Also, the Internet has given me the attention of a kid who has yet to take their ADD medicine. I can’t stay on one page for too long or I get bored easily. I never once was this way. I used to be able to read a book, not required for school, and read more than just the first page.

There’s just so much information out there that we want to wrap our minds around it all.

Not only is there an abundance of information, but you don’t have to actually meet someone to connect with them. Blogs, Web journals and chat room have allowed us to be ourselves and connect with people within our own room. No moving and no nervous and awkward first meeting necessary.

But isn’t that part of being human? Interacting not just through words but through touching, feeling and seeing?  I believe the Web has become society’s best friend. It’s become society’s lover.

If the Internet were to fail in this country we can make the human being our best friend again. We can make the human our priority instead of what some guy in Singapore’s latest blog entry is.

            Why you ask?

            They are the only people who will give us the real facts, and facts that can concern our life.

            I came to this conclusion after watching an episode of “TRL,” “Total Request Live” (Yes, I know not the greatest of shows, but hey maybe they’ll have a musician on the show that I enjoy listening to).

            Anyway, when watching this I saw Perez Hilton pop up. This guy is notorious for blogging about the stars and what they do and how they do it, and so on. But he’s getting paid by the millions to show up on the show and discuss what George Clooney is up to. All he does is blog his reaction to what they’re doing and this is considered news among the entertainment world even though it states “star gossip.” It’s as if MTV has gotten their very own “journalist.”

            The real journalists today are getting slammed by bloggers and are getting replaced by them. For example, when applying for a job at “The Synthesis” I was asked to be a blogger…..really?

            Blogging can be fun but it’s not a way to inform the public accurately. It’s a way to express your personal views and to summarize for the public about what’s going on. But blogs are replacing the gatekeepers. People are using them for their update on what’s going on. Just this July Twitter has been considered a news-wire. After viewing Twitter Whore in class I can’t take Twitter as a serious news source.

            It’s just like Andrew Keen said in his book “The Cult of the Amateur,” “Unlike professionally edited newspapers or magazines where the political slant of the paper is restricted to the op-ed page, the majority of blogs make radical, sweeping statements without evidence or substantiation.”

            In this article I read, it says that companies that are concentrating on online reporting will see the pay off. I believe this to be true because I myself will read an article online faster then picking up a print copy and reading it. I occasionally check out CNN.com to see the latest and most intriguing news.

            I admit that’s a bit sad for me considering I want to work in the print world.

            But news online will reach an audience faster than in print. Also, it’ll reach a bigger audience. The Orion is aimed towards college students, but with an online version anyone can see it. People in Russia could see it if they simply typed in “The Orion” in the Google search engine.

            However, because most newspapers are making the switch to online the quality isn’t what it used to be. I read on a sustainability blog, “Journalism becomes more about quantity rather than quality as well as being technology-obsessed rather than content-focused.”

            This I can also agree with.

Today, more news sites are about getting the news fast then throwing it online. This is frightening because in a way, the news media is turning into a giant blog. Articles are put up and the content isn’t as great because not all the facts are there and not enough research has been put into the work.

            Print needs to come back fast before the content becomes lower quality.