"The Internet is mostly a good thing." Do you agree? Support your opinion.

- by Emily Lau, SMK Chung Hua

Many people depend on the Internet for their work and personal life. Though the Internet has shortcomings and drawbacks, it is mostly a good thing.

The Internet has brought us a lot of advantages. With the Internet, we can search for information easily and conveniently. For instance, we are able to get the information on health from the Internet easily. This can save us the troubles of visiting the library to get it. In fact, we can get information on any topic from the Internet. For example, if a person wishes to buy a car of a particular brand, he can visit the company's official website and learn more about the car. He can also get details such as the retail outlet address and telephone contact number in order to visit the showroom and to test drive the car.

Besides that, it is fast and convenient for us to send messages through email. There are usually no limits on the amount of texts that can be sent through a single email. Furthermore, we can also attach files and documents and even pictures to it. Nowadays, we can contact our friends and families easily through the use of special software such as 'Skype' and 'MSN'. The invention of the Internet has made communication much easier.

With the Internet, we can make use of the Internet banking service provided by our banks to pay bills online. We need not visit bill payment counters and queue up to pay our bills. This can save us parking fee, time and troubles.

We can also shop online using the Internet. We have a wide variety of goods to choose from as we access the Internet to visit online shopping websites such as 'Amazon' and 'Ebay'. When we purchase goods, we can pay using credit cards or online payment processors. Goods purchased are usually delivered to the home address of the buyers. Some websites even provide free return service if a buyer finds the goods in a bad condition or finds them to be unsuitable. Students find such websites useful when they want to buy reference books for their studies.

Other than that, we can also use the Internet to entertain ourselves. We can watch film shows and short videos on websites such as 'YouTube', 'Tudou', et cetera. We can also listen to the latest hit songs and music.

More and more people are using the Internet to earn money online. Some people works full-time while the others do so on a part-time basis. They have the convenience of doing so in the comfort of their own homes. People who have online businesses need not open shops or employ many workers. Therefore, they are able to reduce their expenses considerably.

In a nutshell, though the Internet has its disadvantages, its benefits far outweigh its disadvantages. Thus, I agree that the Internet is mostly a good thing.