Internet Habits of My Peers

Many of my classmates accessed social networking websites, such as Facebook and Myspace, as I did. Our reading habits are difficult to generalize, as the websites visited by my peers ranged across the spectrum. However, I found that, as in our class discussion, these websites could be narrowed down to a few broad categories, including sports/entertainment (including music), product research, general information research, email/messaging, and miscellaneous interests.
In addition, my classmates were online for less time than I had originally predicted. Perhaps this is the result of just having entered college, as the case has been for me. I find myself constantly trying just to get organized in the real world, leaving me less time for the internet than I had in my more carefree days of high school. Then, I might have spent four hours a day playing a first-person shooter online. Now, I use the computer mostly for instant messaging my friends, for keeping up with loved ones who have left town, and for the occasional flash video.
I found that a lot of people use Louisville.edu, which makes sense. It’s pretty much a requirement for academic success at our university. In that light, I would say school is affecting kids’ internet habits in many ways, as teachers update blackboard on a nearly-nightly basis. How convenient organizing life is becoming!
Though it may seem like a no-brainer, Facebook makes it so that most of my classmates do their online writing to the specific audience of their already-established friends and acquaintances rather than general interest articles or blogs that just anyone might stumble upon online. This means their writing medium is more akin to letters than to newspapers or magazines. I guess that was not profound, though.