Its cliché to say, but the pace of technology is advancing at a rapid rate. The computer that you buy today is outdated in a year's time. A large percentage of households own a computer, almost all of which have Internet access. The current legal furor over MP3 files will revolutionize the way we access media in the future. Technology is becoming more democratic with capability going up and prices coming down. Yet there are those who, in the midst of this wonderful revolution, are resisting this change.

I know of a few these people myself, and the reason that they give is this: everyone else is embracing this, therefore I'm not. I admire this "going against the flow" mentality. Unfortunately in this case, it's not going to get them far. A good friend of mine says that she will be get by as a teacher in the 21st century with only a word processor. Fat chance. More classes, all throughout the curriculum, are incorporating new technologies. My English Senior Seminar class this semester devoted a whole lecture to finding information on the Web. Assignments for geography classes are posted on the instructor's web site, and practically all media studies classes require their students have access to e-mail accounts. No matter how much people hate the Internet, it is not going away.

Another friend of mine believes the Internet to be what he calls a "boob tube." Sometimes it looks likes he has a point. Just look at the many sites riddled with errors and typos. Yet it seems like he's totally oblivious to the fact that there is a lot of great stuff available on the Web. Many newspapers publish online editions, and universities publish many scholarly articles online. Web publishing is rapidly becoming the norm, and may become the standard one day. While I honestly don't ever see books going completely out of style, I believe that a day will come when e-texts will be more popular. My friend also is wary of ordering merchandise online, as are many people. Why? Simple. They don't want to transmit their credit card number over the web. What they fail to realize is that true, someone could get a hold of that number, but which is more risky: transmitting your number over the Net to some machine, or giving your number over the phone to a person who could be writing that number down for his/her own uses?

He also apparently doesn't realize that many people keep track of their favorite bands online. The Internet provides a wonderful way for bands to get feedback about their music through chat sessions, bulletin boards and e-mail. All of these methods are twice as efficient as any other method. The Net provides ways to keep track of what's playing at your local theater, what's on TV that night, what the weather will be like tomorrow, directions to places and much more.

Then there are those who decry the Internet because it encourages piracy, such as in the recent Napster case. Many of these artists also don't realize that this is a form of free publicity. Rather than engaging in lengthy, costly legal battles, both sides should be looking for ways to utilize this wonderful technology and make it work for them. If MP3 technology is going to cut into record sales as many of its opponents say it will, then why have record sales increased over the past two years? Madonna's latest single, "Music," was widely available on Napster for months, and, yet, the album sold over 600,000 copies in its first week of release. How do you account for that?