In today’s society, technology and the internet are more impactful than ever and have a bigger influence on everything in our lives, especially how we learn. Over these past couple of years, technology has had a bigger and stronger influence on us. Now that we have all this technology where we can look up something and get an answer in less than two minutes, I feel like we’ve forgotten what all this information has originated from. 

Before technology we had libraries, we had books, encyclopedias, journals, newspapers, and much more. This is where we used to get all our information before technology was as advanced as it is now. I feel like over the years we’ve stopped seeing the relevance in libraries and paper copies of books because everything is so easy to access on the internet. I think there are many pros and cons on both sides of this argument.

Some pros of technology are how easy it is to access but that’s also a big con. Many things should be limited on the internet for younger kids/teens that aren’t. There’s more access to communication, shopping, finding information, anything like that, but there’s a lot of cons as well. Some like cyberbullying, fake news, false advertising, and much more. I did an interview with an old journalism student, Gavin Sanchez, and asked him what he thought about this argument and he made some pretty good points. The first opinion he had on it was,” Libraries can be useful but they aren’t used as much because of the internet.” I believe this is very true. If we didn’t have the internet, libraries would still be as relevant as they used to be. I also asked him what are some pros and cons of libraries and the internet. He said some pros are that libraries are usually community funded and welcoming for everybody but some cons are that some information can be outdated if it hasn’t been updated. When I asked about the pros and cons of the internet he said some pros are that there’s a lot of information, and you can use pretty much anything to look it up. He then said the cons are how easy it is to use, it’s good to have but it can be used wrongly in many different situations.

I agree with many of the pros and cons. I have some of my own though. I believe libraries are more useful because there’s a lot of false information out there on the internet and many risks because of the internet. The library is a safe space for everybody and provides free services like books, computers, and more. There are many reasons why libraries are still relevant now. An article I read, Ten Reasons Libraries Are Still Better Than the Internet, gives many examples of the pros of libraries and why it’s still better than the Internet. Another article I read about this argument is Library VS Internet, where the article talks about how libraries offer several advantages over the Internet. Firstly, libraries provide free access to a wide range of credible information sources, whereas the internet often asks for money just for reliable content. Secondly, libraries offer assistance from trained professionals, such as librarians, who can help you find relevant information effectively. Additionally, libraries offer a quiet and focused environment conducive to learning, unlike the distractions that can arise from the internet. Overall, the article suggests that libraries are better than the internet in terms of providing assistance in whatever you need help with, access to all kinds of information, and a good learning environment for everyone. Generally speaking, I believe libraries are a little older but they should still be used more than the Internet.