The Internet is one of the most valuable tools that I have access to.  Keeping in touch with friends and family has become a little easier with e-mail and instant message chatting and I can stay more up-to-date with my loved ones’ lives by seeing new photos or reading blogs that they have posted.  With websites such as MySpace or FaceBook, you can also get a glimpse of how people you know see themselves from their own perspective.  I can even search for people I have lost contact with and maybe even find a few of those long lost acquaintances but if anyone is ever searching for me, they can simply Google my name and locate me at the touch of a few clicks. 

As long as the Internet is handy, then I can win almost any argument by proving myself with facts supplied to me from a plethora of websites that backup my knowledge.  It’s also enough to drive me a little nuts when I blank on the name of an actor in a movie that I’m watching.  It will be on the very tip of my tongue so instead of racking my brain, I’ll just toddle over to the computer and look up the film on the Internet.  Or if I really want to finally get the lyrics right to a song that I’ve been misinterpreting and mumbling along to for years, then all I have to do is plug in a few keywords and the information is readily available.

Without the Internet, I wouldn’t be able to find music that is always new to me or check on the latest news updates going on anywhere in the world.  If I’m curious to know more about a subject or would like to see beautiful pictures of places that I can only imagine traveling to, then it’s like I have the world’s biggest library right at my fingertips.  It’s a little less organized than a real library and you might have to keep a watchful eye out for pedophiles and stalkers but you just have to be careful which links you click on, especially since you can unwittingly download some nasty viruses to your machine when you’re simply surfing through Internet porn.

You can hawk all your crap on eBay or Craig’s List and find almost anything your heart desires, even treasures similar to the toys you had as a kid that have long since disappeared.  Or you can check out what’s happening around town for the weekend and find a new restaurant for a bite to eat or even have dinner or groceries delivered to your home with the convenience of the Internet.  You can also meet your future spouse online but I’d have to be hard up to use Match.com as a relationship resource.  There’s just something unnatural to me about telling your grandchildren that you met your wife on the Internet. 

Lastly, the Internet also makes looking for a new job easier.  In the old days, you would have to spend money on printing along with the additional expense of postage to mail out hard copies of resumes and cover letters.  Now with so many job postings online, you can quickly locate positions you are interested in and respond to potential employers almost immediately via e-mail.