Double-Dull Double-Dull Double-Dull Dot

Is it just me, or is the internet not what it once was?

When it was first launched, sites like the BBC were said to be taking a massive risk by going online. People said it would never take off and it was end in financial losses and many companies going out of business.

The beeb went online to report the death of Dianna, Princess of Wales. It was scheduled for early 1998, I believe, but it was brought forward to 1997 to provide immediate news coverage of the tragic event. Since then, their website has gone through numerous changes - all of which can be tracked by the wonderful Wayback Machine - until it has become an all round media hub for everyone and anyone. There's pages for children, adults, people interested in a particular channel or radio station, different sports, different areas of news, the weather, regional weather, regional communities. There's even messageboards for particular interests. It's almost as if they're trying to stop you from leaving.

Well, as a matter of fact, they are. I know it seems unlikely, but the more hits they receive, the more money they make. And if they can keep people from going elsewhere for their information, then they can stop competitors getting any income. Most companies and corporations even pull dirty tricks like I have and am doing in this blog (and all over this website), by opening external links (links to websites that aren't their own) in new windows. That way, their window is still open and there's a chance that you'll click back and carry on where you were before.

But the BBC isn't threatened by a loss of income, since it is funded by the licence fee, which immediately makes it a better website than the likes of ITV, which carries adverts.

The internet, though, isn't just an information centre. You can buy things from online shops like Amazon or visit the websites to real shops like Sainsbury's or ASDA to check prices, to even do your shopping and have them deliver it to you. In fact, it's actually possible to live without leaving your house, providing you have an internet connection.

Now, I get annoyed that reality TV shows like Big Brother or Celebrity Jungle Nonsense fill our lives with absolutely nothing for hours on end, but the internet is becoming like this. There's been message boards and chatrooms for years, but now there's been a boom in social networking websites like MySpace or Facebook that allow anybody to make 'virtual friends' with someone else. And you can do all sorts to them - message them, voice chat with them, send them your picture, poke them, virtual dance/kiss/hold hands/you name it with them. This isn't much different to the hours of nothing that reality TV brings to us.

But on all of this, the internet is becoming boring. It's not that there's not a lot to do - there's games like iSketch and XpertEleven to fill your time, message boards like the BBC's to debate upon, and all newspapers are online - The Sun's website is almost a carbon copy of the paper, available for free. You can watch videos on YouTube. And to wade through everything, you've got search engines like Google.

The trouble is, with so much available, people become disillusioned with what this is. Ten years ago, the internet was a medium that was for geeks with nothing better to do than link up their computer and chat. Now, if somebody isn't on the internet, they're looked at as if they've just sacrificed a small child in the centre of town. The fact that everything is now so much easier online - it's all in one place for a start - shows how much we owe to those geeks who were communicating last decade.

But what if it's reached its peak? There seems to be nothing new out there anymore, and the internet is becoming an endless stream of the same old material. With us expecting that it should be more giving, and provide new ways to inform and entertain us, what if it's ran out of ideas? What will we do with it then?

Obviously, it needs a person to have a new idea - the internet hasn't reached the stage and level of technology where it can think for itself and create websites that people want to see all on its own - but what if that person is out? Of if they don't have any more ideas. After all, the internet already contains everything in the whole wide world ever.

It's also ironic that the medium I have chosen to write this on is the internet. Millions and millions of websites are updated everyday and lots of people have their own space where they post images of themselves, their cat, their house and personal thoughts and feelings. That's why I try to write my blogs about things I am interested in, but keep them full of opinions and try and get a thought to spark into someone's head - whoever does read them. I don't want to read about what somebody's cat did last week, so I'm sure you don't want to read what mine did. If I had a cat, that is.

I'm going to end it there, because I've rambled on enough and, on that note, I shall wish you all a happy new year and the best for 2008. What with it being New Year's Eve and all.



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