(May 4, 2004) — Essay due tomorrow—what’s the first and only thing on every student’s mind? “I’ll find something online.” Have a crush on someone? Just find out their screenname, Instant Message them and you might even meet face-to-face some day! Sadly enough, teens have grown so accustomed to the once-advantageous World Wide Web that anything else seems simply unfeasible. When’s the last time a student went to the library to actually contrive research from a tangible source? Have we forgotten that encyclopedias actually exist? Are we afraid of in-the-flesh interaction? Just last year, the University of Northumbria concluded through the results of an analysis that most teens who use the Internet for research do so inefficiently and thus can experience a loss of confidence and high levels of frustration. Besides setting teens on a faux road to supposed “research,” the Internet is also rapidly turning us into dry androids. A 2001 study conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that among teens, the Internet has even replaced face-to-face communication as a primary form of interaction. According to statistics from the Boston Internet News, nine out of the top 15 online destinations for teens are sites that have Instant Messaging tools and services like downloadable IM icons and profiles. Programs such as Dead AIM and AIM+ even allow for multiple screennames to be online simultaneously—watch out, being secluded in front of a computer screen for hours at a time will probably even lead to multiple personality disorders! Let’s stop all the plagiarism, laziness and downloading and turn to reading tangible items, actually going to the library and halting the creeping cessation of traditional society. So as I sit here, putting together all the research I did online, one thought seems to reoccur through my mind: the future is at our fingertips—no pun intended.