The Internet connects people instantly everyday around the globe, feeding us news and activities, creating an intangible Cyber world that we are increasingly reliant on. Born from this cyber is an entire parallel cyber existence—complete with all of its trappings.
1. Cyber Flirting
(AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
Colin Powell recently joined the list of politicians whose reputations are in jeopardy due to “toying” with women. Earlier this month, a hacker known as “Guccifer” leaked photos and email exchanges revealing a “very personal” relationship between the married 76-year-old general-turned-politician, and Corina Cretu, a 46-year-old Romanian diplomat, who married last year.
2. Cyber Casino
(AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)
Because of the grey line surrounding the legality of certain kinds of online casino gambling, many sites have taken advantage of the loopholes, angering owners of brick-and-mortar casinos who have moved to lobby against them. Through video link-up players can play others from different parts of the globe on a live table on a computer screen.
3. Cyber Citizen
(AP Photo/Greg Baker)
It may be interesting to note that 32 percent of people age 18-24 use social media while in the bathroom, while 52 percent of people age 25-34 use social media while at the office, according to Nielson’s 2012 The Social Media Report. After using it, however, a whopping 76 percent report feeling “satisfied,” with the rest neutral or more unsettled than before.
As online shopping for clothes, food, and movies can be brought to you without so much as leaving your driveway, the outside suddenly seems unnecessary. Now, children ages 8-18 average almost 8 hours using entertainment media including the internet on a typical day. More than 1 in 2 American adults uses the Internet with 45 percent using email, and 40 percent using a search engine, on a daily basis.
4. Cyber Immortality
(AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
Some developers believe that by 2050, we will be able to download our brains onto supercomputers. Even sooner, as close as seven years away, there may be a fully conscious computer with superhuman intelligence. As we do more things in our virtual worlds, adding machines with emotion is coming ever closer.
5. Cyber Heist
(AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
Things get serious when banks are getting hacked and money is flowing out from cash machines. Earlier this year in February, hackers intercepted information of prepaid debit cards from the Bank of Muscat in Oman, and cashed out some $40 million in multiple countries in 10 hours.
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