Interviews

Interviews will be posted here. Each person has been given an alias, and represents a certain age range. Though each person's answers won't reflect everyone in their age range, these interviews serve to give more qualitative data to our study.

Zak | 17 - 25

Zak was the first person I spoke with regarding his opinion of the internet. Zak said he thinks the internet is very good, and went further to say later on in the interview that "perhaps a better description, rather than 'very good', is it is wonderous." When asked why, I was presented with an illustrious eplanation:

"It is a tool. Neither good nor bad, but as far as tools go, it is perhaps the greatest we have made. It is a very capable tool, providing us many services. The greatest service it gives us is the sharing and storing of information. It is the antithesis of the Dark Ages, the new Library of Alexandria. It is the next best thing to a 'hive mind' of the human species. With all of humanity's knowledge available to pretty much everyone, we have, and continue, to propel ourselves forward scientifically, socially, culturally, and so on."

When I asked Zak if the 17-25 age range would agree, he answered yes, saying "It seems popular for my generation. It is often joked about how much we rely on it, especially social media involvement." I pressed further by asking "How do you think younger people view the internet?" To which Zak replied "They will have a similar experience to me. Unless some great innovation comes to change the internet, at this point, it seems likely they will know the same internet that I do, and rely on it as much, or more, than I do." but this was not the case for older generations. "If nothing else, I got to know the internet after it reached its peak. For me, that's all its been. For older people, they have seen at least part of its 'becoming'. Old versions of the internet, the pioneering of it, and such. Regardless of whether they think it is good or bad, they likely see it from a different perspective than I do. I know some, though few, are suspicious of it, and many don't understand modern internet as well as I do."

Zak has made a good case here, that younger people likely have a different experience with the internet, perhaps because they were raised with it after it had reached it's peak. This may explain why they tend to have stronger opinion of whether it's good or bad in comparison to those of older generations. Perhaps it is because if affects them more greatly, or has been there for a larger percentage of their lives? A question we'd like to revisit in our conclusion.

Ethan | 26 - 34

When I spoke to Ethan about the internet, he seemed completely neutral, making a case for both why he considers it a good thing, and why it might be a bad thing. He said "I think it’s good to have the internet because it’s easier to get access to information, that someone may or may not need" but went on to make his counterclaim "I also think it’s bad because of what it does to people. Making people reliant on it." He mentioned that people rely on the internet rather than their own minds to store data.

Regarding his own age range, he said "not really sure" and that he's "not sure they would all agree, some may but not all." Overall, it might be a mix. However, regarding other ages he mentioned that older people would probably share an opinion close to his.

Varoni | 44 - 52

Varoni also said that the internet was both good and bad and made a case for each. She said it was "good because it is advanced technology and it allows people to do multiple things such as talk to each other, even seeing each other if you don’t live close. A lot of research can be done on it. People can play games with people from other countries." She also added that "it’s like a huge encyclopedia and dictionary combined. At the touch of a button, you can have an answer to questions." However, she still pursued her case that the internet could be bad as well, saying "I think it’s bad because people lose their identity. Identity theft. There are a lot of people who hack into the systems or apps and cause damage to other people."

When I asked her about people in her age range she said that they'd likely agree with her, further adding "I'm from an area [time] where your own personal information was never really in jeopardy because there was never really any computers to speak of to allow hackers to get your information. And many people [were] used to having to write things, now they type things, like, an example is, cursive is no longer used, a lot of people don’t really know how to write in cursive anymore. When I was growing up that was the penmanship."

She went on to talk about people who are in age ranges older than her own, "I think older people are so set in their ways that they’re scared to learn what the internet is capable of. I think they feel that it requires too much thought, a new way of learning. I think it’s so advanced and easy that it intimidates them." I asked her what she meant when she said that the internet was "advaced and easy." How could this be intimidating to an older generation? She replied by saying "It’s easy for someone who knows how to use the internet to use it; it’s friendly. For someone who doesnt even know how to get on the internet on a computer, it’s intimidating; they have no idea."

Lastly, I asked her how younger people viewed the internet, to which she enthusiastically replied, "I think they love it." and explained why, "they can do multiple things with it. You can use it for education, you can use it for fun, social media, tracking people." She said that it could be used to see where old friends might be "you can search for somebody you haven’t seen in a long time and probably find them, the chances are that you will."

Varoni makes a good point that some of the things that her generation had been used to were changed with the advent of the internet, such as cursive and identity security. She also mentions that older people tend to be "set in their ways," referring to those older than her generation. Overall she ends with a note of potential connectedness that the internet has offered.

Concluding thoughts

From these interviews, it seems reasonable that younger people might be more comfortable with the internet because they were raised in a time where it was always there. It was a part of their worlds, and yet not as much a part of the worlds of the older generations today. This might explain why younger generations seem to have stronger opinions regarding whether the internet is good or bad based on our data.

From these interviews, we can reasonably assume that the differences in opinion between generations is due to the recent emergence and possibly the rapid development of the internet and related technology; each generation has had a different experience with this technology. However, more data from older generations, and several more in person interviews would be needed to solidify any theories regarding the internet and how different generations might view it.